[Dixielandjazz] Re: Organs in Jazz - Was Fats Waller first?

[butch]

Fats' playing in the Camden studio was miraculous.  Another great session,
one of my favorites, is the Louisiana Sugar Babes, March 27, 1928.  Fats
pulls off the miraculous here, managing to play swinging organ in an
ensemble that included James P. Johnson on piano, Jabbo Smith on trumpet,
and Garvin Bushell on various reeds.  Somehow Fats managed not only to match
his time with the others -- not an inconsiderable feat, because of the big
Estey organ's characteristically sluggish response. In fact, the band swings
like crazy, just like anything Fats was ever involved in. Just another
example of the Waller mastery.   Butch Thompson