Waller, Fats

“Fats” Waller Composer, singer, and pianist Thomas Wright Waller, New York City, May 21, 1904; Kansas City, Kansas, December 15, 1943. At age ten, Waller was already playing organ at his father’s church, and piano at local parties. In 1918, he got his first paying job as a theater organist, playing to accompany silent films . A year later, after winning a Harlem piano contest performing James P. Johnson’s “Carolina Shout,” he became a protege of the composer and the best-known exponent of…