King of Razz 
Alfred Appel Jr
On the eve of World War Two, Fats Waller was, after Louis Armstrong, the jazz musician and jazz entertainer best known and most loved by the American and English populations at large. In recent years, however, Waller’s reputation has declined, possibly because the jazz canon has room for only one cut-up: Armstrong. The recent issuing on three compact discs of Waller’s alternative takes (1923-41)[*] means that all his recordings are available concurrently for the first time, which makes this an ideal moment for a reappraisal of the artist – a term Waller wouldn’t have used.
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From the LRB letters page: [ 6 June 2002 ] Graham Kemp.
Alfred Appel Jr’s Jazz Modernism: From Ellington and Armstrong to Matisse and Joyce is published by Knopf. He is a professor emeritus of English at Northwestern University and editor of The Annotated Lolita.
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