Satch Plays Fats - A tribute to the immortal Fats Waller

Recorded in 1955 a year after his masterpiece "Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars Plays W.C.Handy","Satch Plays Fats" is another classic New Orleans flavoured album. Sure "Fats Waller" did not hail from there but came from "New York but "Pops" definately did and that was the way he played with that original form of Jazz that emanated from his trumpet in the 1920's. The "All-Stars" are exactly the same as for the W.C Handy album with "Thelma Middleton" providing vocals again and although sometimes criticised for her range she most likely did what Louis Armstrong always wanted and that is to accompany him and not make things unbalanced and I myself absolutely love to hear Louis sing but you would have to agree he was not "Frank Sinatra". "Trummy Young" is blasting on trombone with his usual approach and poor "Barney Bigard" on clarinet is still trying to be heard by blowing as hard as he can to keep up."Billy Kyle" is on piano,"Arvell Shaw", bass and "Barrett Deems" is on drums. Fats was a stride pianist who often used humour in his lyrics but he still passed along the message of being black in the first half of the ninetenth century with his composition "Black and Blue" and his songs that he composed in the 1920's and 30's are still played today and are considered Jazz Standards as "Fats Waller's" place in Jazz history is considered to be a cornerstone for the genre. His tunes were part of Louis Armstrong's standard repertoire with "Ain't Misbehavin" and "Keepin' Out of Mischief" being two of his regulars and as usual he breathes new life into them with a traditional approach that only he could do with only the best trumpet playing in Jazz. (Five Stars Jazz Music Archives)