Hey Blake,
New Orleans pianist Isidore "Tuts" Washington died on Aug. 5, 1984, during a performance at the New Orleans World's Fair. I understand during an encore and standing ovation, he stood on the piano bench, collapsed, fell forward on the piano and died. I tried searching for more information on that particular night. Any help?
Tim Geg

Legendary piano player Tuts Washington cut his first solo recording, New Orleans Piano Professor, in 1983 at the age of 76. He died the next year.

Dear Tim,
Most of your information is correct. Tuts Washington was performing at the World's Fair. It was late Sunday afternoon during his second set of the day on the Louisiana Folklife Stage when he was stricken with a heart attack. But your information about the events preceding his death is not quite accurate. According to Jane Grosby-Bergey, the Folklife Stage manager, "He played a tune we had never heard before. He finished it; then he just fell over. A doctor and a nurse were in the audience. They gave emergency aid. Then emergency medics arrived and took him away." He was still at the fair's medical center when he died about 45 minutes later.

Washington was born on Jan. 22, 1907, and this year he would have been 100. He was of Creole parentage and got his nickname from his mother. His mother died when he was 6, and her sister raised him. His aunt had an upright piano that caught his attention when he was about 10 years old. He recalled, "I learned to play myself; nobody showed me. I really believe it was a gift from God. I used to sit at the piano all day until my aunt run me off it. See, I'd be playing when I was supposed to be doing my chores."

He started off as a blues player but knew that he needed to be more versatile. His father sent him for lessons when he was about 18, but the teacher said he was too good and that she had nothing to teach him. When he got a little older, he found someone who could teach and inspire him: Joseph Louis "Red" Cayou, who Washington thought was a great piano player.

Washington's reputation grew during the 1920s and '30s, and many gigs came his way with dance and Dixieland bands. He also played alone in the beer and gambling joints on South Rampart Street. One of the places he played was the New York Inn, and one of the customers was Henry Roeland Byrd, who had to sneak into the joint because he was too young to get in legally. Byrd wanted to learn from Washington, but he couldn't imitate his style. Byrd eventually developed his own style and changed his name to Professor Longhair.

When business got bad during World War II, Washington got a job playing with a group in Bunkie for a couple of years. This was a stroke of luck because he would later begin his most famous partnership with the group's guitarist/vocalist Smiley Lewis and drummer Herman Seale in 1947.

"We had the best group in town," Washington claimed. "No one could touch us. We played everywhere. ... We were the hottest thing in town." The group continued until 1952.

Then Washington began playing with "Papa" Celestine and in many French Quarter clubs and restaurants. In the 1960s, he played nightly at The Court of Two Sisters, and occasionally we could hear him at Preservation Hall and on the Delta Queen riverboat.

He temporarily slowed down in 1965 when his aunt became ill and he took care of her. But in the late 1970s, he played in the Pontchartrain Hotel's Bayou bar and later the Fairmont Hotel's piano bar.

In 1983, Washington finally agreed to make his first solo recording -- New Orleans Piano Professor -- a mix of blues, boogie woogie, waltzes and standards.

In his seventies, he was no longer performing quite as often -- he admitted that his advancing years did slow up his playing -- but he could still be heard at Tipitina's, Snug Harbor and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. And he continued to practice because, as he said, "I practice and learn new songs every day. That's what a good musician does."