Fats Pichon

Walter G. "Fats" Pichon (* 3. April 1906 in New Orleans ; † 25. February 1967 in Chicago ) was an American jazz - pianist , singer, arranger and songwriter.

Fats Pichon in the Old Absinthe House, 1950s

Live and act

Walter Pichon grew up in New Orleans and learned to play the piano as a child. He also played the baritone horn as a teenager in the city's brass bands , and from 1920 as a professional musician. In 1922 he moved to the north of the USA, toured a. a. in New York City and New Jersey before settling in Boston and studying at the New England Conservatory of Music . After extensive tours through the USA and with the Eleven Aces through Mexico in the mid-20s, he returned to his hometown and performed there with his own bands in dance halls and on Mississippi river boats until 1928, as well as with Sidney Desvigne . During a guest performance in New York at the end of 1928, the first recordings were made under his own name, mostly as a vocalist with novelty numbers, accompanied by Luis Russell and other groups from New Orleans.

In the 1930s Fats Pichon had his own big band in New Orleans, with whom he also played on the river steamers; his musicians included the young Dave Bartholomew . However, no recordings were made with this band. In Texas he played with Dusky Stevedores (1929), then with Elmer Snowden and Fess Williams (1931) in New York, 1935 in Memphis and he went on tour with Mamie Smith .

In the 1940s he was the resident pianist at Old Absinthe House , a popular venue on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter , where he performed until 1960, interrupted by occasional tours of the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. From 1951 Pinchon took over the role of Eddie the Waiter , when he replaced the comedian Eddie Green, in a weekly radio comedy on NBC ( Duffy's Tavern ). Due to the deterioration in his eyesight, it was rarely seen in the 1960s. Under his own name, Pichon only occasionally recorded in the course of his career; In a session in 1929 he wrote two songs in a trio with Red Allen and Teddy Bunn , in 1946 he recorded two unaccompanied solos, four more pieces in 1947 with a trio (for DeLuxe) and most recently a trio album for Decca Records in 1956.

Web links

• Biography at Allmusic