RETROSPECTIVE : In Brief

***** Fats Waller “Turn on the Heat,” Novus/RCA. This magnificent collection amasses Waller’s entire solo piano output--from 1927’s “Black Bottom Stomp” through 1941’s “Honeysuckle Rose.” It reveals what the vocal and band tracks by the remarkably gifted Waller often obscured: that he was a phenomenal pianist. Many of these tunes are given uncharacteristically slow treatments, though “Georgia on My Mind” becomes a bubbly medium-tempo toe-tapper. “Viper’s Drag,” a bluesy, moody opus that goes from a crawl to a sprint and back, is Waller at his best.

Albums are rated on a scale of one asterisk (poor) to five (a classic).