Fats Waller (1904-1943) was an outsize man in all respects: five feet, eleven inches tall, he weighed 285 pounds. The greatest of the Harlem "stride" pianists, he composed hundreds of songs, he led a band that made over 400 recordings, and he wrote several Broadway shows. Waller's gargantuan appetites have been celebrated in anecdotes and earlier biographies. He is seen by jazz historians as a man of immense musical talent that was never fulfilled. In this fully revised and updated biography of Waller, Alyn Shipton re-examines his career, arguing that his talents as a songwriter, show composer, and brilliant recording and broadcasting artist have not been fully appreciated. In a newly written final chapter, there is a comprehensive survey of Waller's recordings as they have been reissued for the CD era.
Alyn Shipton is the author of several award winning books on music including A New History of Jazz, I Feel a Song Coming On (a biography of songwriter Jimmy McHugh) and Groovin' High: the Life of Dizzy Gillespie. He is jazz critic for The Times in London and has presented jazz programs on BBC radio since 1989. In 2010 he was voted Jazz Broadcaster of the Year in the UK Parliamentary Jazz Awards. He is also an accomplished double bassist, having played with many traditional and mainstream jazz bands, and he lectures in jazz history at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
