When Fats Waller Met Al Capone

Capital Thinking • Issue #142 • View online

Fats should have seen it coming.

But playing at the Sherman House Hotel, in the swinging heart of Chicago’s loop, he must have felt safe from the mob.

As the song goes, the joint was jumpin’. Fats was only 21 years old in ’26 but he was already a big draw. He’d been making records for four years and was about to enter his first peak period.

His solo stride piano and pipe organ playing may have found him fans amongst record buyers but what got them flocking to the Sherman was his live schtick.

He was polished, original, and wickedly satirical – and the crowds loved him for it. He generally had a bottle of Old Grand Dad Bourbon by his piano and he’d play all night if they’d let him.

The Sherman House hotel was reputedly the biggest hotel west of New York City. It boasted 1600 guest rooms, a banquet hall seating to seat 2500, and fabulous new marble lobby – a firm favorite of celebrities, tourists, and members of high society.

The Sherman was also one of the great jazz venues in the windy city. The hotel’s College Inn restaurant established itself as one of the city’s foremost jazz venues under the direction of bandleader Isham Jones.

Jones broke with the old tradition of violin-based hotel performance , replacing his orchestra’s waltz-oriented repertoire with new, jazz-inspired tunes. Duke Ellington would later record a live radio broadcast from the venue.