Once the king of the blues-derived "stride" school of jazz piano, Fats Waller earned his reputation as the most perfect of all jazz pianists with impeccable time keeping, instrumental mastery, the intensity of swing, and melodic gift. He arrived on the scene just as jazz was flowering nationwide, and he reaped a harvest of fame and fortune through his piano rolls, recordings, and much-lauded European tours. His death . . . in 1943, marked the end...
Langston Hughes described the experience of the Harlem Renaissance as "…to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame." It was a movement of the senses, steps quickened to the sound of Jazz and Blues, the air was redolent of food reminiscent of Carolina and the Caribbean, the mind was stimulated by new ideas, and the energy was like an electric current to a wire.