Jazz pianist and composer, born in New Brunswick, NJ. He was given rudimentary piano instruction by his mother, and while still at school played ragtime with other performers. In 1912 he began a series of piano-playing jobs in cabarets, movie-houses, and dance-halls, eventually becoming the most accomplished player in the post-ragtime "stride' style. A prolific performer in the 1920s and during the traditional jazz revival of the 1940s, he wrote more than 200 songs (including "The Charleston') as well as several stage shows, and was a strong influence on such later pianists as Fats Waller and Art Tatum.