Fats Waller: Ain't Misbehavin'

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After the shocking discovery that many of you do not know this wonderful song and have not heard of Thomas "Fats" Waller, I thought I'd put up a video of the legend himself, performing it in 1943. The drummer is Zutty Singleton, trumpet Benny Carter and the bassist is Slam Stewart.

For those of you in the AS group, this falls into the period of jazz which you are studying, and you can make comparisons between this and your other extracts.

An interesting fact is that Ain't Misbehavin' is also the name of a 1970s musical revue by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr., using Fats Waller's music with lyrics by various writers. The revue is a tribute to black musicians of the 1920s and 1930s who were part of the Harlem Renaissance, an era of growing creativity, cultural awareness and ethnic pride.
Click here to find out more about the Harlem Renaissance and here to read about Ain't Misbehavin', the musical revue.

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