Tuts Washington

A fixture in New Orleans blues and boogie-woogie circles for decades, pianist Isidore "Tuts" Washington shaped the approach of numerous later Crescent City keyboardists ranging from Professor Longhair and Allen Toussaint to Fats Domino. He entered the world on January 24, 1907, and at ten began instructing himself at the instrument; after encountering the traveling New Orleans performer Joseph Louis "Red" Cayou, Washington built an expansive songbook by committing local brass-band sets to memory and then racing home to fashion his own versions. Viewed early on as a prodigy also called "Papa Yellow," he had already surpassed most area barrelhouse players by his teens and frequently joined established Dixieland and society ensembles; his approach fused ragtime, jazz, and blues elements, and although he leaned heavily on instrumentals he occasionally delivered a risqué vocal.

His peak commercial period came alongside singer/guitarist Smiley Lewis, a partnership formed in the late 1940s; before their 1952 split they recorded several defining New Orleans R&B tracks for Imperial, including "Tee-Nah-Nah," "The Bells Are Ringing," and "Dirty People." Washington nevertheless placed scant value on studio work, preferring his unchallenged reputation as the French Quarter’s foremost pianist, so he routinely turned down invitations to record alone and in 1950 moved to St. Louis to work with the Tab Smith Orchestra. He returned to New Orleans before the decade closed, enlisted with the Clyde Kerr Orchestra, and broadened his style with pop inflections aimed at visitors. Only in 1983, at seventy-six, did he agree to his debut solo sessions, resulting in New Orleans Piano Professor for Rounder; he passed away on August 5, 1984, while performing at the New Orleans World’s Fair.