Gone, But Not Forgotten Artist

Fats Waller was the son of a preacher and learned to play the organ in church with his mother. In 1918 he won a talent contest playing James P. Johnson's Carolina Shout which he learned from watching a pianola play the song. He would later take piano lessons from Johnson. Fats began his recording career in 1922 and made a living playing rent parties, as an organist at movie theatres and as an accompanist for various vaudeville acts. In 1927 he co-wrote a couple of tunes with his old piano teacher James P. Johnson for his show "Keep Shufflin'". Two years later Waller wrote the score for the Broadway hit "Hot Chocolates" with lyrics supplied by his friend Andy Razaf. Fats' most famous song, "Ain't Misbehavin" was introduced in this show which featured Louis Armstrong. Fats Waller's big break occurred at a party given by George Gershwin in 1934, where he delighted the crowd with his piano playing and singing. An executive of Victor Records, who was at the party was so impressed that he arranged for Fats to record with the company. This arrangement would continue until Waller's death in 1943. Most of the records he made were released under the name of Fats Waller and his Rhythm. The group consisted of around half a dozen musicians who worked with him regularly, including Zutty Singleton. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s Fats was a star of radio and nightclubs, and toured Europe. He unexpectedtly died on board a train near Kansas City, Missouri of pneumonia in 1943.
There is a wonderful website dedicated to "Fats" at the " Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University".
I probably have all of his music, but my favorite song is "I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter". Recorded in 1935.

In other news....
- I guess you heard that NASA has lost the original video footage of the 1969 Moon Landing. They have been looking for the footage for almost a year now. They have been following the paper trail(e-mail) back to where they last saw the footage. These are suppose to be our brightest, and most brilliant people that work at NASA. I will tell you what your Supervisor----- can not. "Turn your computer off, and take your fat ass down to archives, and start looking for it". Yes you will get dirty and have to sweat, yes you will be lifting boxes, and your back will be sore, if your lucky you will get a paper cut that doesn't go away easily. But don't report back to me until you-------------- FIND IT!!! All further launches have been cancelled until further notice!
- I heard from my sister Abigail today, she lives in New Orleans. With the current situation "Ernesto", it could be heading for NO, she has made her plans now. She sent a wonderful link for watching these hurricanes "CrownWeather". This is a great site, they have every image imaginable. Since when did we start giving hurricanes one of those hispanic names? I missed that!
- ChaCha.com will be launching Sept. 1. ChaCha is a revolutionary new search engine that is "up close and personel". You can search by yourself, or you can search with a guide. This is very unique, and will set ChaCha way ahead of all the other search engines. My sister Debby is "Director of Quailty Assurance". Bless her heart, she has worked hard to get this site up and running. We love you!! I will be a part time guide for ChaCha. I can assure you that there is not anything on the internet that I can not find!
Have a wonderful week!

P.S. I have been corrected by Bestbud. The hurricane names can be English, French, and Spanish. Because those are the major lanquages that border the Atlantic Ocean where the storms occur. I will go sit in my corner now!!