The Complete Published Sides, Vol. 3

• Track Listing

This third volume of our complete Waller edition charts our hero's progress from November 1934 to August 1936. Here we see the emergence of Fats, the larger-than-life entertainer, he of the relentless swing, utter mastery of his craft and unfailing good humour. And, my word, did he need that humour, given some of the less than first rate material he had to record. Funny thing is, it doesn't seem to make that much difference. The master takes us into his confidence, playing unpromising material and masterpiece alike for all they are worth, but with a knowing wink which says Hey, let's have a party! As ever, we have sought out the best originals and applied our customary care in remastering - we also have a hitherto unissued second take of Lulu's Back In Town, which surfaced recently. The two years covered here are among the most productive of Fats' (or any other contemporary musician) career. This is when he made his historic recordings of My Very Good Friend The Milkman, I'm Going To Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter and I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby among many others. The remastering on these sides is to JSP's usual exacting standards who, again have entrusted the project to Ted Kendall. Great care has been taken to locate the cleanest originals which makes this latest addition to the Waller collection as close to definitive as it is possible to be.