James Baquet

    Antoine “Fats” Domino (1928- ) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the home of jazz and Creole cooking. It is a city nearly as much in love with food as it is with music. His first language was a local dialect of French, and he was from a musical family.

    This is familiar territory: My own great-grandmother was born in New Orleans, and never learned to speak English; my Creole grandfather was an early jazz musician, as was his brother, and their father was conductor of a brass band.

    Young Antoine was discovered early, around 19, by a local bandleader, who nicknamed him “Fats” — partly because of his physique, and partly because his piano style was reminiscent of the great Thomas “Fats” Waller.

    Two years later, in 1949, he cut a record called “The Fat Man.” As rock and roll developed out of R&B (rhythm and blues), jazz, and other musical idioms, no one knows which was the first rock and roll record — but “The Fat Man” is a candidate.

    Rock and roll originated among Afro-American musicians, as did most New Orleans music, and jazz and R&B in general. However, white people being the majority, in the early days white rockers like Elvis Presley got most of the attention, although they often copied the songs of Black performers, with greater commercial success. Nevertheless, Domino has been declared the best-selling Black rock-and-roller of the 1950s. He had a steadily successful career, with 35 songs reaching the “Top 40” list of American pop music.

    After a successful career of recording and touring, Domino declared in the 1980s that he would never leave New Orleans again — saying nowhere else had food that he liked. So, when he was invited to perform at the White House, he turned it down. However, he did accept a National Medal of Arts from President Clinton.

    Domino lost everything in the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. President Bush replaced his National Medal; the recording industry replaced 20 of the gold records that were lost.

    With the flood damage repaired, Fats Domino still lives in the New Orleans neighborhood where he was born.

    Vocabulary

    Which word above means:

    1. structure of the body

    2. water brought by a flood

    3. make a recording

    4. reminding one (of), similar to

    5. particular styles or groups of characteristics

    6. local form of a language

    7. of mixed French and Black heritage

    8. was started

    9. big, wet storm, like a typhoon

    10. possible choice