Music: Fats on Fire

The Dallas kids yelled as the fat man stumped onstage, flashed an 88-key grin and tore into the piano with both hands, like a starving man wolfing a platter of chicken. The kids shrilled an octave higher as the performer knocked out a couple of bars introduction, then quieted down to mere noise as he ducked his head shyly, leaned over to the mike and opened a satchel-sized mouth: "Ah'm walkin' "— each word a hard, booming beat—"Yes indeed, Ah'm talkin'." A diamond-heavy right hand jackhammered treble chords between beats; three saxes,...