Customer Reviews

Fats Waller - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When buying reissues of the great recording artists of the past, you know that you are getting some of the greatest music of all time. So the only question is, how well did the engineers do in getting the sound off the vulnerable old 78 record format into today's digital format? On this matter, the RCA Victor label, and engineer Paul Brizzi in particular, have a poor record. On this Fast Waller CD (as well as the RCA "Swingin' Uptown" collection), Brizzi shows his taste is to eliminate all surface noise as well as all the higher music frequencies the sound. The result is a tired, dead, and old quality in the music on these CDs. That's a shame indeed. For the exact opposite, get any CD with the name Steven Lasker on it. On the Cd "The Best of the Duke Ellington Centennial Edition", you can hear Lasker and Brizzi square off --- Lasker engineers the first half, Brizzi the second half. You'll hear how vibrant the sound is that is stored away on those old 78s in Lasker's tracks, how dull they can be if poorly engineered on Brizzi's tracks. I don't know which Fats Waller CD to recommend for good sound. Too bad you can't search Amazon for other album credits besides titles.

This Fats Waller overview is the cheapest and yet at the same time best Fats Waller Overview available. This is a great place to start if you are new to the legendary music of Fats Waller.

If you want all the Waller classics in one very small, cheap package, you've found them! Ain't Misbehavin', Handful Of Keys, Smashing Thirds, etc. are all here. There isn't really a missing track on here, which is very unusual. And like so many other CDs in RCA Victor's Greatest Hits series, you get the state of the art sound that every greatest hits record deserves.

If Fats Waller would've stayed alive a lot longer, then his music would get much more respect, which would be nice. But during his very brief career, he recorded on RCA and RCA only, meaning that this collection features ALL the hits instead of just a couple.

Excellent sound quality, excellent music. And if you like piano jazz, then Fats Waller is somebody not to ignore. *Highly recommended!* ENJOY!

There is one common thread with this series from BMG/RCA Victor - they take considerable liberty when using the term "greatest hits." Thomas "Fats" Waller, born in New York City on May 21, 1904, crammed 63 legitimate hit singles into a life cut short at age 39 on December 15, 1943, and in this 14-track release they give you all of four. As near as I can figure.

That's not to say that the other 10 tracks are somehow lacking - of course they're not. Not when the artist is one of the legends of Jazz with his distinctive stride piano style and exuberant vocals, often backed by artists such as trumpeter Bill Coleman, clarinetist Rudy Powell, and tenor saxophonist Gene Sedric (who also played clarinet on some cuts).

But as another reviewer points out, the method of digitalizing the old 78 rpm sound, and the removal of hiss and pop, has improved drastically since this first came out 12 years ago. If improvements to that end were made, and they called it something other than his "greatest hits," at the same time adding to the single page of background notes written by the author of the 1995 book Jazz Legends, Chick Crumpacker, and with the inclusion of a discography of the contents (it currently shows only writers/composers and recording dates for each track), it would jump to 5 stars.

As for the four legitimate hits here, I assume they're the original single renditions as the recording dates in the insert seem to match the chart performances, which were: The Joint Is Jumpin' - recorded October 7, 1937 and a # 17 that November on Victor 25681; Your Feet's Too Big - recorded November 3, 1939 and making it to # 15 that December and January 1940 on Bluebird 10500; S'posin' - recorded September 9, 1936 and reaching # 5 late that fall on Victor 25415; and Lulu's Back In Town - recorded on May 8, 1935 and getting to # 8 that July on Victor 25063.

Both Ain't Misbehavin' and Honeysuckle Rose were, of course, among his greatest hits, but the hit versions were recorded in 1929 and 1937 respectively, not January 23, 1943 and May 13, 1941 as is the case with the versions presented here. Ain't Misbehavin', from the Broadway musical Hot Chocolate, is in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Hall Of Fame, and I can only assume the equipment in 1996 wasn't up to the challenge of reproducing a good clean copy. The original of Honeysuckle Rose came from "A Jam Session At Victor" and included Tommy Dorsey on trombone, trumpeter Bunny Berigan and guitarist Dick McDonough.

The recording history for rest of the tracks, none of which became national hits, is: Handful Of Keys - recorded March 1, 1929 and not released until the early 1940s on Victor 27768 as part of a 78 rpm "album."; I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby - recorded August 1, 1936 and released shortly after on Victor 25374; Keepin' Out Of Mischief and Tea For Two - recorded June 11, 1937 and released that same summer as the A- and B-side of Victor 25618; Smashing Thirds - recorded September 11, 1929 but only appearing in a single in late summer 1936 as the B-side to Bye Bye Baby (a # 4 hit); and Ring Dem Bells and Carolina Shout - recorded May 13, 1941 and released as the A- and B-side of Victor 27563.

I Ain't Got Nobody is a bit murkier. According to the insert, the version heard here was recorded on June 11, 1937, but the first single release on Victor 24888 came in early 1935, and again later that year on Victor 25026 and Victor 25031. So, either the recording date as shown in the insert is wrong, or this is a later recording never previously released. Informative liner notes would have helped in that regard.

I bought this recording as a gift to twin 12 year old girls with big feet. They loved "Your Feets Too Big" and I loved "The Joint is Jumping". They don't make them like this anymore. Refresh your memory cells or plant new ones.

rjp

Fats Waller is by far the best jazz musician of all time. This collection is a great synopsis of his better performances. I, personally, love every song.