One of the Zydeco Nation’s mainstay figures and unsung mentors, Joseph Wilfred Chavis died on Friday, May 7, 2010 at the age of 65 in Houston, Texas.
One of the Zydeco Nation’s mainstay figures and unsung mentors, Joseph Wilfred Chavis died on Friday, May 7, 2010 at the age of 65 in Houston, Texas. Wilfred Chevis was born in Church Point, Louisiana in 1945. He grew up immersed and grounded in the black Creole tradition of southwest Louisiana and became a student of the old Creole “La La” music at a early age, being introduced to “La La” music by and learning from his father the late creole musician Volmont Chevis (who passed away in 2001). At the age of 11, Mr. Chevis began to learn to play the button accordion, and played with his father until the age of 25. He never veered from the button accordion, an instrument he mastered under the tutelage and mentorship of the late King of Zydeco, Mr. Clifton Chenier. In 1969, Mr. Chevis relocated to Houston, Texas where he became the band leader of Wilfred Chevis and the Texas Zydeco Band. For over 41 years, Mr. Wilfred Chevis and the Texas Zydeco Band became a mainstay in the Texas Zydeco and Blues circuit, clubs,church halls, church bazaars, and festivals, becoming a critical link to traditional Creole and Zydeco Music and one of the key facilitators in the transition and development in the Texas style of Zydeco Music. Mr. Wilfred Chevis was an accomplished Zydeco musician with several Zydeco songs that have become classics in the Zydeco Nation; however, it was his humility and his willingness to embrace, teach, and mentor younger Zydeco musicians that was perhaps his greatest gift to the Zydeco Nation and the lesson he leaves with us. As he was mentored in the old black Creole musical tradition by his father, Volmont Chevis, Clifton Chenier, and other musicians, Mr. Chevis was an unsung teacher, at times overlooked by the trending and changing musical taste of the Zydeco Nation, but he helped pass on the Creole tradition to Zydeco Musicians like Step Rideau, J. Paul Jr. and the Zydeco Dots, and helping to ensure the survival and emergence of Zydeco and Creole music in Texas. Wilfred Chevis is buried at Paradise Cemetery (North location) on 10401 W Montgomery Rd, Houston, TX 77088.