Fats Waller: Complete Recorded Works 1940-42, Vol. 6

Highly recommend this boxset comprised of 6 Volumes. It is high quality, great and has informative liner notes in every CD case, and is definitely the best way to obtain all of Fats’ commercial recordings in high quality.For the hardcore Fats fans out there, though, do note that as amazing as this box set in 6 volumes is, it is for the most part only the commercial recordings; it doesn’t include the bulk of the radio broadcasts/private acetate home recordings/soundies/movie excerpt recordings, so in addition to purchasing the six volume box set, if you want the truly COMPLETE set of Fats’ recordings, you need these albums too (to the best of my knowledge):1. “Fats Waller on the Air: 1938 Broadcasts” or “On Air Sessions - 1938”2. “Handful of Keys” (released 1999) [may have some overlap with 1938 broadcast, but definitely also has unique tracks that are only on this album]3. “Fats waller 1939/1940 private acetates and film soundtracks” (originally a record, has been digitized and available out there)4. “‎Legendary Radio Broadcasts by Fats Waller & Cab Calloway”5. “The Home Recordings Of Fats Waller”, aka “Private Recordings” (released 2020) I highly recommend buying a physical copy/finding online (however you go about obtaining your music) each of these albums if you want as close to a complete collection of Fats Waller as possible.But for sure, definitely I recommend to buy all 6 volumes of this box-set if you want to majorly expedite your journey to have all of Fats Waller in high quality! Also, if you’re on a budget, I personally prefer Volumes 3-6 to Volume 2, and prefer Volume 2 to Volume 1 (but still buy all if you can, these are only my relative rankings!).

You can sense the exhaustion - it's a little chilling. Even though the bonhomie is still as relentless as ever, you can feel Waller relying more and more on pet phrases, and occasionally even letting his drinking get the better of him (Bouncin' On A V-Disc on disc D). His playing is generally impeccable,though, and this set also includes one of his two greatest solo sets (May 13, 1941). It is nothing less than a crime that more of such playing was not preserved. 4 of the 5 tracks are masterpieces (Honeysuckle Rose is a little too cute to be called a masterpiece). Here he shows that he unquestionably belongs at the top rank of Jazz Pianists. Georgia On My Mind is fabulous - virtuosity which never calls attention to itself as such; pure musicality and invention and swing. On this session we hear the classic Harlem Stride of the '20's confronting advanced Jazz Piano of the late '30's (Wilson, Tatum). What more Waller could have contributed along these lines! The set also includes his only real "Dixieland" session, with the Condonites. He plays with admirable restraint, adding more "cool" than is usually heard on such sessions - although nothing can keep those guys from their over-exuberant rideouts. Many of the Fats Waller and his Rhythm cuts are pretty cookie cutter-ish, though. Nothing wrong with any of them, but few revelations. However, Ted Kendall really captures the piano sound here, and this alone makes this an essential purchase. Nobody's really ever made enough of the line "Two Senegambians lying in bed" during Shortnin' Bread - a fine moment. One of my favorite cuts is the Big Band version of Chant of the Groove where you hear the Waller band confronting 1941 Jazz style. There is a piquant contrast between the up-to-date riffs and the square two-beat rhythm through most of the track - Waller's popularity meant that he didn't have to keep quite as abreast as some others might have had to. Compare Coleman Hawkins' contemporaneous live version to hear what I mean. By the way, the cover of the box lists 1940 to 1942, but have no fear:Waller's performances in the studio up to his death in 1943 are all included. The "Rhythm" ceased operation in 1942 - did Waller plan on semi-retirement? After that time there are a handful of solo V-discs and the session for the film Stormy Weather.OK,summation: I think in some ways, this is the least of the 6 sets (minus the 1941 solo tracks, of course). But watching Waller slowly fade away before our eyes is very moving. If you love his music, you will have to own it.

In the late 1970s, I used to frequent a specialty record store in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that carried several volumes of an imported French RCA LP set of the complete Fats Waller which started in the early to mid-1920's (my earliest LP is volume 2: 1927) and included many of his hard-to-find organ solos, as well as alternate takes of piano solos and band numbers. I bought as many as I felt my budget would allow, but have always wished since then that I had bought more. In the thirty-five years since, there have been a few attempts to issue a complete Fats, but the word "complete" inevitably carried invisible quotation marks. JSP's six volume, 25-CD set, of which this is the final installment, has come the closest by far to earning the erasure of the quotation marks. I'm not the most scholarly Fats fan, but I'd bet that even the best experts are quite pleased with this attempt. I read years ago that Fats recorded some classical (as in "Brahms-Bach-Beethoven") sides in England that I didn't detect here, and I have some electrical transcription and air-check recording re-issues on LP & CD that were apparently overlooked (to be fair, the set is entitled the "Complete Recorded Works," which might imply "recording studio"). But JSP has given us such a wealth of rare material here that I'm all over regretting the French RCA LP's, and I wouldn't think of uttering a harsh word for the apparent omissions. Heck, they even corrected the digital flaw that marred earlier CD reissues of the end of the piano solo of "Clothesline Ballet."

If you are a FW fan this is a must. He was so great it is too bad there wasn't better recording technology at the time but this set I think has very good "clean up" about the sound. I hear no scratches or Hissing as one does hear on old copies. The remastering of this is very good I think. I recommend seller and product. I love it.

great music ,but last cd had 5 songs that were not very good at allwould buy anyway

great set!