Hello,  I was really looking for some Fats Waller rolls during the
1980s, and then I bought some of the Waller rolls in the 1980s from
QRS.  I also have 'The St. Louis Blues'.

I am still amazed that Waller allowed Cook to do this [impersonate
him].  Then again, I read his book (biography) and I suppose Waller
was just like in the book, a happy-go-lucky nice kinda guy.

Personally, I find the Cook rolls of Waller tunes bad, to say the
least.  They all sound like Cook rolls with those razzmatazz chords in
between, and the rolls 'played by Fats Waller' are just the same, too.

By accident, at the time, I also ordered QRS Q108, 'Snake Hips' and
Q138, 'Clearing House Blues'.  I have always liked those and, thanks to
Robbie's rollography link, I just discovered that those were actually
played by Thomas Waller.  What a difference!

 [ Ref.  http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/MMMedia/fatswaller1.html 
 [ and http://www.pianola.com/fatsw.htm 
 [ See also the articles about J. Lawrence Cook at
 [ http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/page11.html   -- Robbie

Best regards,
Bernt Damm

 [ In The Billings Rollography, Vol. 5, page 49, J. Lawrence Cook
 [ tells interviewer Mike Montgomery about Fats Waller at the QRS
 [ recording piano:
 [
 [ COOK: Yes.  He had to dig that stuff right up.  He didn't just go
 [ there and do it naturally.  But the point about him that makes me
 [ flip was this: one time my wife was there at the office and Waller
 [ came in and he didn't have anything worked up.  I said, "I don't
 [ give a damn; just run the scales!"  You'd just drool if the guy
 [ just ran the scales.  That's how much I admired him.  The touch of
 [ this guy: there was just had something there.  His natural, simple
 [ tricks, you know.  They would slay me; some of them sounded like
 [ hell after they got on the roll, especially when he'd hit some of
 [ those bloopers.  But they'd sound good while he was playing it.
 [
 [ MONTGOMERY: [But] You could still take the master and fix it ...
 [
 [ COOK: Yeah.  You had to.  And you also hated to in some cases,
 [ because you know how good it sounded when he played it that way.
 [ But it didn't come out so good on the rolls.
 [
 [ -- Robbie