We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
About A Handful Of Keys
Product Description A Handful Of Keys by Fats Waller Amazon.com claimed that "Fats could eat up a piano"--one of the clearest expressions of the great Waller's talent ever uttered by another master. But what's frustrating for all pianists about Waller was said by Fats himself in the middle of a vast piano solo that sounded as if he had four hands and two pianos going at once: "It's so easy when you knows how!" To add credence, the great declared "Fats ... that's where we all came from." To add credence listeners can experience, it's difficult to find a musician who cut as many records as Waller did in his short life of 39 years. Handful of Keys boasts previously unrecorded selections like "Stop Beatin' 'Round The Mulberry Bush," "My Best Wishes," and "What's the Matter with You," all of them masterfully performed. The biggest surprise here is "St. Louis Blues" done as a solo, in contrast to the early duet in March 1930 with Bennie Payne, then a member of 's orchestra. The solo version can render you unconscious because of both its stride and its luminous optimism. Fats's stride piano invokes a stomp and howl at (or with) anyone who can play so much piano and transmit such happiness through the music alone. The clever asides and burlesques of the rather simple-minded numbers RCA Victor forced him to record, of course, add to the hilarity, but the stupefyingly glorious wonder of Waller's technique and imagination are joyous. Handful of Keys is a keeper for all fans, be they Traditional, Bop, R&B, Rock, or whatever the present state of Jazz connotes. Fats is the cat who gave us many of the foundation stones of all jazz. --Daniel Bartlett Jr.
