WALLER, THOMAS WRIGHT (FATS
). Jazz organist/Composer ( in New York, New York; near Kansas City, Missouri). He came from a musical family; his paternal grandfather played violin, and his family sang hymns on street corners in the Harlem community of New York. As a child he sang and played harmonium with the family group, taught himself to play piano at the age of six, and later studied piano briefly with a local teacher. He obtained...