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Thomas 'Fats' Waller (arr: Frank Booth): Honeysuckle Rose

554 views · Published 2 October 2017 · 2:24 · Indexed 28 October 2026

Channel: PSearPianist · 2017 · Music

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Phillip Sear plays a lively arrangement by Frank Booth of Fats Waller's 1929 hit written for Count Basie's "New Testament" band.
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The American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and entertainer Fats Waller (1904-43) needs no introduction from me - you can read about him here:  https://is.gd/mORrTb .  This song - with lyrics by Andy Razaf - was introduced in the 1929 off-Broadway revue "Load of Coal" at Connie's Inn as a soft-shoe dance number.  I'm not sure when this piano arrangement was made - but it was certainly some time before 1986, when the Frank Booth album I play from was published.  About Frank Booth, I can find little, except for this quotation from the Sunday Times of 22 March, 2015 in an  article about his daughter, who founded the British pet insurance company 'Animal Friends': "ELAINE FAIRFAX'S father was a pianist with a love of animals. "He always gave half his meal away to our cats," she recalled about her father Frank Booth, a leading arranger for music publishers in London's Tin Pan Alley and for several bands."  I have to say that I am indebted to Booth for arrangements like this.  As this type of light jazz is not my native genre, I find his arrangements invaluable for adding variety to sets that I play as background music for functions and wedding receptions.  The thumbnail shows an illustration from an early sheet music cover for the song.
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 Played by Phillip Sear
http://www.psear.co.uk (Email:  [email protected]  
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