Walter “Fats” Pichon

When Walter “Extra fat” Pichon sang away he could quickly be recognised incorrectly as Frankie “About half Pint” Jaxon. His method of the piano was properly appropriate for the tradition recognized to critics and historians as “stride,” which is usually another method of stating that he could possess held his personal together with Fat Waller and Wayne P. Johnson. Although he discovered to try out piano in New Orleans, Pichon didn’t begin making music in public areas until after shifting to NY in 1922. His earliest recognised gig included a summer-long engagement as an associate of the quartet serenading the customers in the Atlantic Resort in Belmar, NJ. Sequestering himself at the brand new Britain Conservatory in Boston, Pichon analyzed music for four years before resuming his profession like a performer. Not just one to linger in familiar environment, he installed with a music group from Dallas, TX, known as the Eleven Aces and toured through Mexico before getting himself back New Orleans. Through the summer time of 1926 he kept down a posture with trumpeter Sidney Desvigne. The next 12 months he was noticed leading his personal music group in the Pelican Cafe, before becoming a member of Desvigne in overall performance around the Mississippi riverboats. It had been in 1928 that Walter Pichon came back to NEW YORK. During 1929 and 1930 he produced the recordings that could serve as his great phonographic legacy. On January 15, 1929, he sang “It’s Tight LIKE THIS” with Luis Russell & His Orchestra. The following day, Pichon was back the Victor documenting studio with Ruler Oliver’s Orchestra, performing “I’ve Got That Thing.” Sometime during Feb of 1929, Pichon materialized as the piano-plunking person in a unique trio contacting themselves the Q.R.S. Guys. They trim four edges for the Q.R.S. label: “Father Blame Blues,” “Dark Boy Blues,” “Wiggle Yo’ Toes,” and “I’ve Seen My Baby (And IT WILL NOT Be Long Today).” The various other two musicians upon this time, tenor saxophonist Robert Cloud and metal guitarist Ruler Ben Nawahi, arrive on various scorching Hawaiian-flavored information dating out of this same time frame. On Sept 16, 1929, Walter Pichon produced two sides of 1 record under his very own name, bolstered with the camaraderie of trumpeter Henry “Crimson” Allen and guitarist Teddy Bunn. The game titles, released in the Victor label, had been “Doggin’ That Thing” and “Yo Yo.” Through the month of July 1930, Pichon proved helpful the piano in Fess Williams & His Royal Flush Orchestra. His supportive support from the leader’s vaudevillian sax on “Playin’ My Saxophone” is certainly noteworthy, as the piano single on “Everything’s Okay beside me” areas Pichon squarely inside the pantheon of solid Eastern Seaboard piano. Pichon was active during this time period composing arrangements for just about any number of rings. He became popular for the tour using the Dusky Stevedores close to the end of 1929, came back to NY, caused Elmer Snowden, and strike the street with Fess Williams in 1931. By 1932, Pichon was back New Orleans, leading his very own music group around the riverboats, seated along with Armand Piron and Sidney Desvigne. He performed the Memphis picture leading his personal music group in 1935, and led an ensemble associated famous vocalist Mamie Smith. The entire year 1941 discovered Pichon initiating an extended series of prolonged engagements in the Absinthe Home in New Orleans. He worked well there like a single act through the entire 1940s and ’50s, arrived at Cafe Culture in NY in 1944 and 1948, and embarked on the tour from the Western Indies in 1952. His last professional actions included single looks in Milwaukee, Chicago, and New Orleans through the early ’60s, yet his capability to perform was curtailed by therapeutic efforts to hold off the gradual lack of his eyesight. Until somebody unearths and produces latter-day recordings of the amazing musician, listeners should be quite happy with the couple of warm three-minute edges he left out for everybody to marvel at.