Lenox Avenue Blues

This piece takes us back to Fats' early days at the age of 22. Originally performed on pipe organ, this is obviously not a literal transcription but more a faithful adaptation for piano solo.

Fats made numerous pipe organ/organ solos recordings and always held a huge fondness for the instrument. Its soft attack has a completely different feel to his stride piano playing and the sound is not to everybody's taste. Still, Fats manages to swing regardless.

This piece, Fats' homage to one of the famous avenues in Harlem at the time (these days referred to Malcolm X Avenue incidentally), has a gentle, wistful melody and a great minor blues section. Although originally played on pipe organ it lends itself surprisingly well to piano and the sparse texture leaves lots of room for embellishment if the player so chooses. [David Lynch uses the piece, as well as many other of Fats' pipe organ solos, in his score to Eraserhead.]

In it can be found a lot of Fats' trademarks: crushed blues notes, pentatonic triplet runs, and a strong lyrical and rich harmonic sense. I hope people can appreciate a slight deviation from my previous videos and still enjoy and learn from it and create their own interpretations. Feel free to take as many liberties with the score as you wish: roll the left-hand tenths, fill in the empty spaces, etc.

Here's the original:

   • Fats Waller - Lenox Avenue Blues  

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