Jazz Life and Times: Fats Waller

Fats Waller (1904-1943) was an outsize man in all respects: five feet eleven inches tall, he weighed 285 pounds. He was the greatest of the Harlem "stride" pianists, he composed hundreds of songs, he led a band which made over 400 recordings and he wrote several Broadway shows. Waller is seen by jazz historians as a man of immense musical talent which was never fulfilled, in the interests of his c...