All My Life

Here's my transcription of Fats' opening piano solo to a lovely though now rather forgotten song, All My Life, which was from an equally forgotten film "Laughing Irish Eyes" from 1936. As it's such a great tune, I couldn't resist including Fats' playing under the band solos to extend the video. Fats' left hand is barely audible at times here so a few guesses were necessary.

Fat's is in full glamour mode here with lots of frills and decorations in the melody and rich swinging backwards and forward left-hand tenths. Playing sweetly and delicately for most of the solo, I love the moment Fats goes hard and "low-down" at the start of the last A section. Dare I say, Fats "fluffs" some notes here so I included an alternate version that I feel is the essence of what he is playing. N.B. Notes throughout with parentheses are either "fluffed" or inaudible (therefore my suggestion) or minor "corrected" notes.

The great stride pianist/arranger Dick Hyman chose to feature the song in Woody Allen's "Everybody Says I Love You", for which he was the musical director. No doubt Mr Hyman's connection with stride and the music of Fats may have influenced bringing this lovely melody back from obscurity.

Here is another "hybrid" video where, for the band solos section, I "merged" Fats' original performance with my digital performance, to portray Fats' performance in context. It's a technique I'm still perfecting but hopefully, it's still helpful and provides a new insight into Fats' performance.

These are the "notes" as accurate as I can get them but here's the original unadulterated recording for the ultimate performance reference:

   • 1936 HITS ARCHIVE: All My Life - Fats...  

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