Goin’ About
Here's my transcription of Fats' Goin' About from 1929. This performance is take 1 of two takes.
This is an example of one of Fats' novelty piano display pieces similar in vein to Gladyse (see previous video) or Smashing Thirds, etc.
One wonders if Fats composed the piece on the spot or whether there was any sort of planning involved. Apart from these two takes, Fats never recorded the piece again, unlike other novelty pieces such as Alligator Crawl, Handful of Keys or VIpers Drag. So, it was perhaps just another fleeting gesture of Fats' genius stride.
As Mike Lipskin points out in the liner notes from the Turn On The Heat 2CD set, Fats was possibly quite inebriated during this session, which explains the odd misplaced note, tempo discrepancies and rather odd, vague ending (which I didn't include in this transcription). It's nevertheless quintessential stride and great fun.
Here's the original recording for accurate performance reference:
Youtube.com noteman
