Fats Waller: The Joint is Jumpin'

The reason Fats Waller was so huge (6' tall, 300 lbs., shoe size 15) was because there were two of him in there. One was a dazzling pianist and prolific songwriter. "The Joint Is Jumpin'" gives us the other Fats, a Pagliacci-type buffoon hilariously re-creating the raucous ambience of a Harlem rent party. Of Waller's death at 39 from pneumonia, Frederick J. Spencer, M.D., observes: "His alcoholic clowning endeared him to his fellow musicians and the public. But if he had stayed sober the world might not have been deprived so soon of one of its great pianists and entertainers." Duh!  If James Dean had been a safe driver, we'd have more James Dean films to watch. The problem is, if James Dean had been a safe driver, he wouldn't have been James Dean. If Fats Waller had stayed sober, he might've made a swell shoe salesman, but he wouldn't have kept The Joint Jumpin'. We are who we are.