3.

Fats Waller – Your Feet’s Too Big

Swing daddy, my father would scream, "Fats! Fats! Let’s go! Let’s go!" when I played ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ on piano as a little girl and he lurked over me like Boris Karloff on the bass. Then he would scream for my solo, "Tatum! Tatum!" Really this is a memory of my father, my first teacher, who played bass, trombone, cello, flute, and bouzouki.

I have wanted to talk to the other Greek, Johnny Otis, about him, but he is very ill right now and I respect this. My father used to open for Jack Teagarden and many others and was a great trombone player.

"No time, no nothing; no tone, no nothing", he would also say. "Those two are the definition of the trombone."

And that is the person most qualified to discuss Fats Waller’s stomp and power.