Fats Waller News

As Fats Waller would say, the joint is jumpin'! I'll start with David Margolick's two-page review of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong in Sunday's New York Times Book Review , which is not yet available on line but which I've just seen on paper.

Five out of five Jazz nuts are always on the make for the next coolest thing. But sometimes it's worth putting your money on a good old thing.

Clockwise from left, Darryl G. Ivey , Rebecca Covington, Ken Robinson and Christopher L. Morgan are part of the cast of Arizona Theatre Company's "Ain't Misbehavin'," featuring the music of jazz legend Fats Waller.

Paul Asaro is known as one of the finest among a select group of pianists who perform the demanding, two-handed piano styles – including the stride piano of Fats Waller, the New Orleans styles of Jelly Roll Morton, the ragtime of Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake, plus stomps, boogie-woogie and swing.

I tend to avoid tribute albums. Barring a handful of gems, among them Louis Armstrong's salutes to Fats Waller and W.C. Handy, most miss the mark because they try too hard to one-up or mimic the subject of their adulation.

In late October, clarinetist Evan Christopher came to the Dakota and played tunes by Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet and Fats Waller.

In its sophomore year, EJJ has quickly garnered attention throughout Europe, and now the States, too, is taking notice.

'I often take my children on tour. I order them room service, wash their clothes in the sink - then do my show' 'I get inspired by young artists' a Diana Krall What got you started? My family.

Above, the headline of Terry Teachout's appreciation in today's Wall Street Journal of the master.

The audience will be as tickled as the ivories when the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra presents its third annual Duo-Piano Gala, with eight of the area's finest pianists performing on Tuckerman Hall's two Steinway grand pianos - one a restored 1902 original - on Nov.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers made it big, briefly, in the 90's by accidentally riding the wave of the swing dance revival - but to lump them in with those retro zoot suiters would be selling them short.

I found this at the boot sale recently and attracted immediatley by the cover. I love Fats Waller anyway so wondered what Neville had done to these great old tunes.

Saxophonist Michael Lingtona s jazz roots run deep. His grandfather, composer and director Otto Lington, helped bring jazz to Scandinavia in the 1930s and led bands behind Fats Waller and Josephine Baker.

I wish I could play like Art Tatum's right hand. Charlie Parker On Art Tatum's 100th birthday last Tuesday, October 13, Rene, an elephant at the Toledo, Ohio Zoo, painted a piano in honor of the city's native son.

A great-grandson of the first Union Bay postmaster returns to Baynes Sound for a concert Oct.

Pianist Marcus Roberts, who performed Tuesday night at the Dakota jazz club, hasn't achieved household-name status among jazz fans - yet, anyway.

Music hasn't really mattered much in American fiction. There are exceptions, of course.

Jazzman Ed Polcer and his Swingtet will recreate the magic of New Yorka s 52nd Street in a Xavier Masters of Swing concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct.

Nearly the entire history of jazz piano was on display Friday night as the 30th anniversary edition of the Detroit International Jazz Festival kicked off under gorgeous skies downtown at Cadillac Square with a double bill featuring trios led by Hank Jones and Chick Corea.

ONE winternightin1926, halfway through his set, a terrified Fats Waller found himself being bundled into a car at gunpoint and driven off at high speed.