Breakin' the Ice: The Early Years, Part 1

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The Great Depression had been grinding away for at least five years; the days of the big swing bands had yet to reveal themselves. While "Fats" Waller had been recording for Victor 12 years, very little of his piano (and pipe organ) had reached a wide audience. Well, these recordings on The Early Years, Part 1 did precisely that by initiating a new, small ensemble that hit audiences way beyond what the industry characterized as the "race" record market. This little band and these records were the first flowering of what became a bonanza for the starved record market and music fans. Many of the selections were chosen by Eli Oberstein, the pop Victor "A&R" man. Fats intensely disliked some of them, and simply burlesqued the selections in the recording to Victor's horror--and still they turned out to be some of his paramount performances and huge sellers. "Breakin' the Ice" has some of the richest two-fisted stride piano to be found, and "Serenade for a Wealthy Widow" presented Fats a melody that could only be arranged in the same manner as a concerto. No problem. He simply recorded a most harmonically intricate solo chorus, as sophisticated as Gershwin and hot as a college bonfire. A perusal of the rest is so arresting that even the grandest superlatives are inadequate in describing the music. These records, then, were the dawn of an entirely new era that a "pop" music aficionado or jazz fan must not pass up. --Daniel Bartlett Jr.

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