Walter Gabriel Pichon (April 3, 1906 – February 25, 1967) professionally known as Fats Pichon, was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pianist, singer, bandleader, and songwriter.

Biography

Pichon was born and raised in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana, and began playing piano in his childhood. He also played

baritone horn The baritone horn, sometimes called baritone, is 3 or 4 valved tenor-voiced brass instrument in the saxhorn family.Robert Donington, "The Instruments of Music", (pp. 113ff ''The Family of Bugles'') 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1962 It is a pist ...

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

s in his youth, already a professional musician by 1920. He first went north about 1922, playing at various venues in New York City and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

before settling in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

for a few years where he studied at the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

. After touring the United States and Mexico with various bands in the mid-1920s, he settled again in his home town of New Orleans for the later part of the decade, leading bands under his own name at dance halls and on river boats on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. On visits back to New York he made some recordings, mostly as a vocalist on novelty numbers, with Luis Russell and other New Orleans groups. In the 1930s, Fats Pichon led what some considered the best

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

in New Orleans; it also made Mississippi Riverboat excursions. Musicians included young

Dave Bartholomew David Louis Bartholomew (December 24, 1918 – June 23, 2019) was an American musician, bandleader, composer, arrangement, arranger, and record producer. He was prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century ...

. This band never recorded. In the 1940s he began a long gig as the house pianist at ''The Old Absinthe House'', a popular venue on Bourbon Street in the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...

, where he remained until about 1960, with occasional tours of other parts of the U.S., Latin America, and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. Pichon moved into the role of Eddie the Waiter, replacing comedian Eddie Green on the NBC weekly radio comedy ''Duffy's Tavern'' during the show's last season, 1950–1951. After several episodes the waiter's name was changed from 'Eddie' to 'Fats'. He died in Chicago in 1967, aged 60.

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Answers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pichon, Fats 1967 deaths Jazz musicians from New Orleans African-American pianists American jazz bandleaders American jazz pianists American male jazz pianists American jazz singers Louisiana Creole people 1906 births 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American pianists Singers from Louisiana

Biography

See also

References

External links