Savannah Music Festival | March 22-April 7, 2012

Original air date: week of August 8, 2010

Born in New York City in 1904, Fats Waller played the organ and sang in the choir of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where his father was the minister. By the time he was a teenager, the lure of playing in the theatre and accompanying silent films transformed his passion for playing music. Over the next ten years he emerged as one of the finest stride pianists while developing his skills as an arranger and composer, making him one of the most popular performers of his era. In this episode, we listen to a 2010 SMF performance of Fats Waller's music by pianist/scholar Dick Hyman.

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