[ I get the impression that Waller was quite melancholy at many solo
 [ organ recording sessions, probably aided by the bottle of gin in his
 [ pocket, and with no friends at his side.  Maybe he imagined himself
 [ alone in his father's church.  -- Robbie

Perhaps this is true.  However, Waller's music recorded circa 1927-28
on the 3-manual 21-rank Estey organ in the Victor Recording Studios
in Camden, New Jersey, shows an entirely different side of Waller.
The music is jazzy, happy, fun, and any other positive remarks that can
be dug up.

This is in direct contrast to the recordings he made on the EMI Compton
organ in London.  While well played, the stuff is dull and boring.  He
recorded far too many dreary church hymns and spirituals.  All of these
recordings had that huge Compton metal Tibia gulping and hooting away
in the left hand accompaniment and is not a good sound.  If the London
recordings were all I had to go on, I would say Waller was very dull
and melancholy at the organ.  The Camden recordings show otherwise.

Curiously, Estey was never known for producing much of a theatrical
style organ.  The Camden organ was no exception.  However, it is
interesting to hear this instrument evolve via Waller's recordings.
In the earliest recordings, the organ sounds like little more than
a shaky church organ (which it was).  Gradually, through later and
later recordings, the sound of the organ improves greatly toward a
theatrical standard.  By the last recordings, the sound of the organ
was not all that bad -- much more theatrical.

> Thomas Waller was the first true jazz organist, and to think of him
> only as a pianist is a sadly narrow view.  I have heard it said that
> the organ had a special place in his heart, while the piano laid claim
> only to his stomach.

This statement is attributed to Waller in more than one account.
Waller was also an organist for WLW radio in Cincinnati.  Supposedly
-- and this is very hard to believe, knowing how jammed with action
boxes Wurlitzer consoles are -- he was fired for hiding booze bottles
in the console.  Well, _that_ makes an interesting, if likely untrue,
story.

Tom DeLay
Salinas, Calif.