In the history of American music, there is only one Fats. His full name was Thomas 'Fats' Waller, and he played stride piano like a robust, ribald angel.
Then there was Antoine Domino, who also took unto himself the name Fats. But there, apart from sheer girth, ends the resemblance.
While Fats Waller took early jazz by the scruff of its neck and produced cameo miracles, Fats Domino took the great American rhythm 'n' blues tradition, dumbed it down to 'pop' level and wedded it to early rock 'n' roll. Domino had more than a score of number one hits in the States; there is no accounting for taste.
His cause is not helped by this DVD. On it, pianist and friend Allen Toussaint claims Fats Domino to have been a greater musical figure than either Louis Armstrong or The Beatles. Puhlease! Faint praise is to be eschewed, but this is ridiculous!
The Legends of New Orleans: The Music of Fats Domino is not an historical survey, but rather a concert, less than an hour in length, recorded at the 2001 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The running time is in fact pretty generous since we're given 20 full performances - better than a lot of CDs.
His music sounded simple in the 1950s; now it sounds just as simple, but pretty corny as well. That's how I hear it, but there are plenty of Fats Domino fans out there who will disagree, and they will probably love this DVD. And though Domino is more than 70 at the time of this concert, he can still belt it out in a reasonable facsimile of his original versions. This is trad-rock - something old, nothing new. As with trad-jazz, look elsewhere for real excitement.
The concert is recorded well, in full-frame video mode, at broadcast-quality standard. The sound is strong and with good ambience.
There are four interviews as DVD extras; these are with Fats Domino, writer Mikal Gilmore, pianist Allen Toussaint and record producer Cosimo Matassa. These are all fairly short, but pretty interesting. The menu promises us a piano duet between Fats and Toussaint. This two-minute feature starts with Toussaint arriving, sitting at the piano with Fats, hitting the keyboard just once, then it cuts off mid-sentence.
