May Wright Johnson in New York City - 1921

from Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, page 253:

Right after James P. heard Fats Waller playing the pipe organ, he came home and told me, "I know I can teach that boy." Well, from then on it was one big headache for me. Fats was seventeen, and we lived on 140th Street and Fats would bang on our piano till all hours of the night--sometimes to two, three, four o'clock in the morning. I would say to him, "Now go on home--or haven't you got a home?" But he'd come every day and my husband would teach. Of course, you know the organ doesn't give you a left hand and that's what James P. had to teach him. Then finally Fats got his first …   more >>
cite as

Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It (London, 1992), p. 253. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1435414940033 accessed: 29 March, 2024

location of experience: New York City

Listeners

May Wright Johnson
blues singer, dancer

Listening to

hide composers
organ and piano music performed by Fats Waller

Experience Information

Date/Time 1921
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, in private, indoors

Originally submitted by 5011Henning on Sat, 27 Jun 2015 15:22:20 +0100
Approved on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 09:00:57 +0100