Zydeco

A hefty serving of upbeat bayou boogie

La notte scende, gli strumenti iniziano a suonare, vengono gridate esortazioni in Creolo e in Inglese, le mani si aprono e iniziano a battere il ritmo, i ballerini sono pronti e una altro "party zydeco" è avviato.

La parola "zydeco" è entrata neldizionario solo da un paio di decenni. E' nella maggioraza dei casi definita cone la "dance music" dei creoli neri di Louisiana, ma come normalmente accade con ciò che coinvolge la musica e la gente, è molto più di questo. In primo luogo non è solo una musica della Louisiana: i creoli emigrarono numerosi in exas e in California e portarono con sé la loro musica e le loro tradizioni. In più, nel mondo e attraverso tutta la Louisiana, il significato della parola "Creolo" è fortemente contestata ed è connessa a questioni di razza e classe. Un'altra questione frequentemente dibattuta è la seguente: "zydeco" è uno stile che tutti, bene o male, possono suonare o c'è qualcosa di "profondamente zydeco" che è esclusivamente appannaggio del popolo della Louisiana? In alte parole, zydeco è qualcosa che tu se sei o qualcosa che tu fai?

Domande come questa non sono nuove, esse riflettono, gli annosi dibattiti su le scuole di blues e jazz, sulla natura della loro autenticità. Nei paesi "zydeco" comunque quando la gente si chiama Creola, normalmente significa che intende mantenere i più tradizionali elemente nella loro cultura, come tentare di conservare il linguaggio Creolo in un mondo che parla Inglese, favorendo la cucina atta in casa rispetto ai fast food, dedicando le domeniche estive a cavalcare e, più importante di tutti, ad ascoltare e ballare "zydeco".

La genete chiama sè stessa "Creolo" anche per distinguersi dai loro vicini Cajun. Niente è puro in Luoisiana, specialmente il sangue, ma i Creoli identificano principalmente i loro antenati negli schiavi Afro- Americani e negli Afro-Caribegni così come nelle persone di colore liber, mentre i Cajun sono i discendenti degli Acadians che furono espusi dagli Inglesi nel 1755 da quell che ora si chiama Nuova Scozia, in Canada.

Somiglianze e diversità caratterizzano le musiche Zydeco e Cajun: tutte due sono suonate accompagnate da danze mischiate con ritmi Afro-Caraibici e con elementi di blues. In entrambi gli stili le voci piangono di crepacuore e disperazione. Ma in anni recenti la musica Cajun è stata musicalizzata in stili country western o rock & roll; viceversa i musicisti zydeco si sono rivolti al blues e al R&B e più recentemente al rap e al reggae.

Zydeco music itself is played on two lead instruments. Usually, the bandleader/lead vocalist plays accordion, either the diatonic single- and triple-row models (Boozoo Chavis, Beau Jocque, Keith Frank) or the piano-key (Clifton Chenier, Buckwheat Zydeco, Nathan Williams). Side-by-side with the accordionist stands the rubboard, also called scrubboard or froittoir. This over-the-shoulders sheet of corrugated tin accomplishes the type of scraping sounds also heard from the iron ferrinho, in the fast-tempo funana dance music of Cape Verde, and the guiro or guira, widely used in Caribbean dance music, especially salsa, cumbia and merengue. The rubboard is one of the few instruments invented - literally - on American soil. Legend has it that zydeco great Clifton Chenier first drew its design in the sand outside a Texas metal shop.

The history of zydeco reveals three dominant figures who have set the pace for their respective eras. The first recording of a black Creole accordionist was made in 1929: He was a mysterious orphan named Amede Ardoin, a small man with great accordion skills and a high-pitched, anguished way of singing. He died under mysterious circumstances, but his recordings - 34 songs in all - live on, such as "Two Step de Eunice" and "Two Step De Prairie Soileau," which Keith Frank sings here as "ço Fa."

A generation later, quite a different figure towered over the postwar zydeco landscape: "King" Clifton Chenier, the son of a sharecropper who moved to Houston and merged zydeco with electric R&B, and sported a large crown. He called himself a "country boy" but there was more than a touch of the city in him, as well; he played traditional melodies along with "In the Mood" and the latest Ray Charles hits. He also started working with horns, such as sax and trumpet. Chenier died in 1987.

The man now recognized as the standing king of zydeco is Boozoo Chavis, an ex-racehorse trainer who plays in cowboy boots, a Stetson and a plastic apron, to keep the sweat off his accordion. A contemporary of Chenier, Chavis has a raw, earthy style that has been adapted by younger musicians who add a few touches of rap or contemporary R&B. Chavis' one-chord riffs are fairly easy to pick up (if much more difficult to master), leading to a new generation of young zydeco garage bands.

We should close with a couple words about the language of zydeco. The word "zydeco" itself is popularly traced back to Clifton Chenier's anthemic 1965 recording of "Zydeco Sont Pas Sale." It is understood to derive from les haricots or "snap beans." If your snap beans are pas sale or without salt, goes the saying, you lack the money to season them with meat. The real meaning only emerges when the song is performed on the Saturday night bandstand: despite such a bleak admission of poverty, the dance of life must go on.

Evidence suggests the cultural roots for this belief are deep. The word "zydeco," scholars have demonstrated, has linguistic kins in the traditions of west Africa - such as the Yula a zare, which means "I dance." A song and dance tradition called sega zarico has been recorded on Creole-speaking islands in the Indian Ocean, which includes a courtship dance that symbolically re-enacts the planting of beans.

Also, language scholar Albert Valdman, who specializes in Creole, has said that the word kofe, which translates to "why," "provides the best starting point for building a rich zydeco lineage." It is also the title of a John Delafose hit tune, and it is the word with which Keith Frank opens his interpretation of the Amede Ardoin classic. Language, like tradition, like music, is vital only when life is breathed into it. Across Louisiana and around the world, the accordiion shakes and the dancers hit the floor, and zydeco lives on for another night.

- Michael Tisserand

The Creole Zydeco Farmers "Creole Farmers Stomp"

Originally formed as Fernest Arceneaux's band the Thunders, the Creole Zydeco Farmers include two of Arceneaux's original members: guitarist Chester Chevalier and drummer and background vocalist Clarence "Jockey" Etienne. Accordion and lead vocal duties are traded off by zydeco veterans Warren Prejean, Sr., and Morris Francis.
All Lafayette residents, the Farmers chose a name that pays homage to the rural roots of today's modern Creoles. Among the tunes they perform: Clifton Chenier's "I'm a Farmer," a homage to "cane-cutters" and "potato diggers" everywhere. The band favors Chenier-styled zydeco, and also covers local hits by Rockin' Sidney, best known for his novelty tune "My Toot-Toot."
Here, in an easy-going, finger-popping soul shuffle, the band gives props to some of their peers, including the talented and energetic Zydeco Joe, and more established mainstays like Nathan Williams and Boozoo Chavis. The song comes from the album On the Road on Maison de Soul, a label based in the Southwest Louisiana town of Ville Platte. Started by entrepreneur Floyd Soileau, Maison de Soul has been the home to zydeco great Clifton Chenier as well as the first stop for young bands trying to make a name for themselves. When in Ville Platte, Soileau's record shop is a must-stop.

Keith Frank & the Soileau Zydeco Band "ço Fa"

Typically, Keith Frank shatters all expectations of his music, and this live performance, captured in Slim's Y-Ki-Ki on Labor Day weekend in 1998, is no exception. Still in his mid-20s, Frank is the son of musician Preston Frank, and grew up playing drums for his father.

He went on to graduate from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, but for the past several years he's kept a tireless schedule as the top draw in zydeco clubs from Lafayette to Houston, and every place in between. In fact, it's not unusual for nearby clubs just to shutter their doors when they hear that Frank is playing elsewhere. "If I have a trail ride dance at Richard's and Keith is playing at Slim's, I'm going to have to close the door, because we won't have enough dancers," one organizer confided.

With a band that includes his brother, Brad, and sister Jennifer, Frank has stayed ahead of the highly competitive zydeco pack by becoming a study of contrasts. He has mastered a unique blending of repetition and variety: his highly danceable "double-kick" beat is as steady as a metronome, but Frank constantly spices up the lyrics with everything from reggae-style vocal effects to riffs from television commercials. A former electronics student, Frank prefers a loud, low sound and weighs in with more amps and speakers than any band before him; Slim's actually has a special "Keith Frank" circuit it switches on whenever he plays.

"ço Fa" dates to Amede Ardoin's first recording session in 1929, where Ardoin performed it with Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee. It's likely neither Ardoin or McGee could have predicted the bass-heavy reggae treatment heard here. The lyrics, both in Creole and English, plaintively ask why someone would break a heart, but Frank's boisterous performance makes it clear he's doing just fine. Rosie Ledet "You're No Good For Me"

Born Mary Rosezla Bellard in the tiny town of Church Point, Louisiana, Rosie Ledet is one of those zydeco players who, like the ferocious Beau Jocque or the ever-cool Nathan Williams, seems to have created an alter ego for herself when she performs. Her career started when her husband, Morris Ledet, would leave his accordion at home when he went for work. Without telling him, she snuck it away and learned a song. Morris knew a good thing when he heard it, and stepped over to play bass and give the spotlight to Rosie. It's stayed there ever since.

When Sweet Brown Sugar appeared in 1994, it marked the debut of the new Rosie Ledet, a mighty vocalist known for direct lyrics often spiced with double entendres, such as on her biggest regional hit, "I'm Gonna Take Care of Your Dog."

Recalls Ledet with a quiet laugh: "When I was coming up, I was always holding on to mother's leg. I didn't even want to talk to some of my own family. So my mom was really surprised to see me get onstage."

Clearly onstage to stay, Ledet is captured in this performance at the dawn of her career. It's a minor-key scorcher augmented by former BeauSoleil member Pat Breaux on sax, sung in English with a quick French translation thrown in for emphasis.

Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi-Rollers "What You Gonna Do?"

When Andrus "Beau Jocque" Espre unexpectedly died of a heart attack in late 1999, the zydeco world lost one of its greatest talents and most original voices. His flame burned bright and fast: he only began playing accordion in 1987, following an industrial accident that left him partially paralyzed. He hit the dancehalls hard, scoring early with a tune from his first Rounder release called "Give Him Cornbread." Based on a traditional melody, the song was the biggest zydeco hit of the '90s, and revealed Beau Jocque as a master at concocting a unique whole from wildly variant parts: classic '70s rock (complete with Peter Frampton-style wah-wah effects), blues, R&B, rap, Cajun and Boozoo Chavis-style zydeco all went into what he called his "bits and pieces" style. He held it all together with dynamic accordion playing, ferocious vocals that lept from growls to howls, and the ability to attract and keep great musicians to his band, the Hi-Rollers.

Standing 6-foot-6 in dancehalls that sometimes barely measured 7 feet floor to ceiling, Beau Jocque cut an imposing figure. On stage, he could be both solemn and playful, especially when interacting with drummer Steve "Skeeta" Charlot. He attracted the attention of Rolling Stone magazine and appeared on David Letterman's and Conan O'Brien's TV shows, and by the time of his death, it seemed he had a shot at achieving an even wider audience for his style of zydeco. You can now see Beau Jocque performing with his father on the CD ROM Allons en Louisiane (Rounder) and in the documentary The Kingdom of Zydeco by acclaimed filmmaker Bob Mugge.

Beau Jocque's longtime producer, Scott Billington, recalls that he never knew what ideas the musician would bring into the studio. The minor key "What You Gonna Do" features the types of slow grooves and descending bass lines that in Louisiana are signals for zydeco couples to clear the floor and let a soulful line dance begin.

Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas "I'm in Love"

If you're in Lafayette, Louisiana, on a good night, you might encounter the fabulous Williams brothers. Sid Williams' signature club, El Sid O's, is a sleek place that features zydeco on weekends. Nathan started his career as part of El Sid O's house band, and continues to play there when not touring around the world. Featured in Nathan's band is another brother, Dennis Paul, who by day is an accomplished painter with regular gallery representation in several major cities.

Together, the Williams form a zydeco dynasty, anchored by Sid's business sense and Nathan's musical gifts, both as a performer and composer. A string of great Rounder albums has produced lasting songs such as "Everything on the Hog" and "Follow Me Chicken," which display Williams' knack of finding lyrical hooks in sayings from everyday life. It helps, of course, that Williams' everyday life is steeped in his culturally rich upbringing in the sugarcane town of St. Martinville, as well as in his current home in Lafayette.

If Nathan Williams had carried a zydeco accordion into the heyday of the Muscle Shoals soul hit factory, he might have come out with something akin to "I'm in Love," a Southern soul ballad that drips with Williams' bluesy vocal sentiment and "Cat Roy" Broussard's sax work. Williams knows well how style blends into Louisiana zydeco: whenever he plays it, he notices the dancers pressing a little closer at El Sid O's.

Jude Taylor & His Burning Flames "Burnin' Flames Special"

Following the example of Clifton Chenier, who he used to see perform in 1950s house dances, Jude Taylor takes a decidedly eclectic approach to his zydeco. On Zydeco Bayou!, Taylor applies his accordion to classics by Chenier and Fats Domino, to the Charlie Rich classic "Behind Closed Doors," and even "The Macarena" (someone had to do it).

"The real zydeco's got a mixture of a little jazz, a little blues, a little rock 'n' roll, Cajun, all mixed up," Taylor once told Lafayette writer Todd Mouton. "You put all that together and it turns into zydeco."

That's a good description for Taylor's own path through music, as well. As a child, he started singing in talent contests and the local Catholic church. He began shadowing musicians such as Chenier and Buckwheat Zydeco, working as a "roadie, personal valet and part-time vocalist," Taylor once recalled for Baltimore-based promoter and writer Larry Benicewicz.

In time, Taylor picked up a relative's old accordion and started his own band, occasionally working with old Chenier sidemen such as "Li'l Buck" Sinegal and sax great John Hart, as well as his own sons "Curly" and Errol. Taylor tours frequently, especially along the Northeast Corridor, a fertile zydeco circuit. "Burnin' Flames Special," is an appropriately burning zydeco-soul instrumental, which features Taylor's piano key accordion finding answers from bandmember Keith "Milkman" Clements on organ.

Boozoo Chavis & the Majic Sounds "Lula Lula Don't You Go to Bingo"

In 1954, Boozoo Chavis ventured not far from his home to a recording studio in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and played his song "Paper in my Shoe." By all accounts, he scored a hit. But Chavis, the son of sharecroppers, soon began to doubt that he was getting his fair share. While he watched Clifton Chenier take off on the road to early R&B success, Chavis went back to his regular job of training racehorses. One day, he once said, he saw Chenier heading for California, while he was hauling a horse to the track. "We criss-crossed," he recalled.

By the mid-1980s, each player again reached his musical crossroads. Chenier was ailing with diabetes and would die in 1987. Chavis was just deciding to return to playing music full-time. When he returned to the bandstand, he launched a new era in zydeco, one now defined by energetic, repetitive riffs and full-bodied cries of anguish and delight.

Chavis also follows the artist's dictum to write about what he knows. His comeback hit was "Dog Hill," the nickname for his neighborhood on the outskirts of Lake Charles. He honored his wife with "Leona Had a Party" and his daughter with "Hey Do-Right." On this slow-tempo shuffle, he playfully scolds his daughter-in-law by name for over-contributing to the local Catholic church's bingo nights.

Queen Ida and Her Zydeco Band "My Girl Josephine"

Queen Ida Guillory was forty-five years old and still raising her family when she picked up an accordion at a benefit dance in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was an instant hit. "One of the reasons they wanted me to sit in was that a woman accordion player was such a novelty," she writes in her wonderful cookbook Cookin' With Queen Ida (Prima Publishing). "Every time I played one or two songs...the area in front of the stage would fill up with men. It was, 'Whoa, there's a woman playing this stuff.'"

Guillory, a Louisiana native whose family joined a large migration of Creoles seeking out better jobs and race relations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, soon became a zydeco pioneer, taking her music overseas, to Carnegie Hall, and to television shows ranging from Saturday Night Live to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. With her brother, Al Rapone, she also was the first zydeco artist to win a Grammy Award (she was followed only by Rockin' Sidney and Clifton Chenier). One night, she performed a dual concert with Chenier; she admits that she was worried about what he might say about a woman playing accordion. Then the King made his edict: "Lady, you're tough."

Here, Queen Ida follows Chenier's lead by recording the Fats Domino/Dave Bartholomew classic "My Girl Josephine," a 1960 pop and R&B hit for The Fat Man. Domino's great influence stretched across the Louisiana/Texas "crawfish circuit," and his material frequently was covered and re-worked by Cajun, swamp pop and zydeco players. Guillory follows this tradition by adding French lyrics (rough translations of the original English) and a light tropical embellishment on the original's New Orleans parade beat.

Clifton Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band "Calinda"

His reign as King of Zydeco was so secure that upon his death, several fights broke out among musicians to claim the throne, resulting only in lingering bitterness and damaged reputations. For a generation of Creoles trying to adapt to changing times, Clifton Chenier embodied the best of their culture. He was a country boy who made it big in the city, and his piano key accordion could adapt to the newest jukebox hit.

Legend has it Chenier was playing for workers outside an oil refinery when a visiting record producer spotted him and brought him to a local radio station to make his first singles. In the mid '50s, Chenier recorded for Specialty and joined the likes of Chuck Berry and Fats Domino for R&B package shows; he even brought his accordion to the Harlem landmark Apollo Theater. He experimented successfully with playing hot zydeco-laced R&B, but through the 1960s and '70s, he returned to his roots with numerous wonderful recordings for the preservation-minded Arhoolie label (his must-have album Bogalusa Boogie earned five stars from Rolling Stone). He died in 1987, after a tearful performance of his song "I'm Coming Home," in which he musically bid farewell to his people. To see the King at the peak of his reign, seek out the wonderful Les Blank documentary Hot Pepper.

For this 1973 recording session in San Francisco, blues guitarist Elvin Bishop and pianist Steve Miller sat in with Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana Band. Perhaps seeking some tunes everyone could play along on, Chenier based "Calinda" on a familiar melody, most strongly reminiscent of Buster Brown's 1960 soul hit "Fannie Mae." The name suggests one of the oldest songs in the Creole/Cajun tradition, "Allons danser, Colinda," recorded by Doc Guidry and Happy Fats in 1946 and a popular song for the Lawtell Playboys. In his book Swamp Pop, Shane Bernard convincingly traces this song to the ritual calenda dance, performed by slaves throughout South Louisiana, including Congo Square in New Orleans.

Buckwheat Zydeco "I'm on the Wonder"

The watershed years for zydeco popularity came in the 1980s, the era of the Cajun cooking craze, Rockin' Sidney's "Toot-Toot," the movie The Big Easy and Rockin' Dopsie's zydeco contributions to Paul Simon's album Graceland. Then Buckwheat Zydeco took things one step further by becoming the first zydeco artist to sign to a major label (Island).

Born Stanley Dural, Jr., Buckwheat Zydeco made an early name regionally by fronting a popular soul/R&B revue band, the Hitchhikers. He had turned away from his father's beloved Creole music until he had an offer to join Clifton Chenier's band as an organist. Since forming his own group Ils Sont Partis (it means "they're off"; Buckwheat lives next door to a horse track) he has scaled career heights like no other zydeco artist before him, including his old boss Chenier. He makes frequent national television appearances, has performed in the closing ceremonies at the Olympics, and even played his accordion with the Boston Pops. He was also the first zydeco artist to hit the Internet (www.buckwheatzydeco.com) and now records on the Tomorrow label.

"I'm on the Wonder" comes from Buckwheat Zydeco's early-recorded work, for the Blues Unlimited label in the small Louisiana town of Crowley. These sessions produced Buckwheat's first regional hit, the self-penned "I Bought a Raccoon," a tribute to a favorite pet. Here, he shows what he can do on a Clifton Chenier classic with a clever twist on the words "wonder" and "wander."

Geno Delafose "Bye Bye Mon N`eg"

Most young zydeco players grew up in musical households. Geno Delafose (on left in photo) sets himself apart by continuing to regularly play his father's music alongside his own. "If I tell you something, it's because I know it," the late bandleader, John Delafose (on right in photo), used to tell his son, and Geno listened. After paying his dues on rubboard and moving to drums, he followed his father by picking up the full triple-threat of accordions: single- and triple-row and piano key. Plus, he's recently been trying his hand on fiddle, an instrument John Delafose was working on at the time of his death in the mid-90s.

If zydeco music has a neo-traditionalist, it is Geno Delafose. He consciously opts for Creole lyrics, and even composes new songs in the language. With his friends, Cajun bandleaders Steve Riley, Dirk Powell and Christine Balfa, he explores the vital meeting points between zydeco and Cajun music, sometimes testing local segregation customs in the process. He moved into his family's old farmhouse, where he keeps a full stable of horses and livestock. (His mother refers to him as "an old man in a young man's body.") Meanwhile, he also keeps a full touring schedule, both in the United States and overseas.

"Bye Bye Mon N`eg" is a tune that comes from John Delafose's first Arhoolie album, which also produced his regional smash hit "Joe Pitre A Deux Femmes." Geno smoothes out the original's rough edges a bit and adds a smoother finish, but otherwise plays it straight, bidding his farewell with the timeless question: "Bye, bye my friend/Bye, bye my darling./Why do you do/all you do?"

Joe K K and Zydeco Force "Hoochie Coochie"

Accordionist Jeffery Broussard and his brother Herbert "Broom Stix" come from a long-established zydeco family. Their father, Delton Broussard, fronted the Lawtell Playboys, regarded by many as one of the great - though criminally underrecorded - bands of all time. Plus, their young nephew Li'l Pookie leads his own band, the Heartbreakers.

Zydeco Force is credited with launching an athletic kind of zydeco dancing sometimes called nouveau zydeco. It started when the large Broussard family began following the band, making up new dances that eventually caught on throughout the community. Zydeco Force became the hit of the all-ages trail rides, where an afternoon of horseback riding culminates in an outdoor dance. "It was hot, a lot of dust, dirt in the accordion, my mouth, and everything." Jeffery Broussard recalls. "But it was fun seeing a lot of kids enjoy themselves."

The lyrics of "Hoochie Coochie" come from the same Southern black narrative traditions that emerge in the blues of Muddy Waters and other blues players. In zydeco, however, the "Coochie Man" seems to be a zydeco dancer who is careful not to "move too slow." The melody derives from a traditional Mardi Gras chant considered to be the oldest melody in the Cajun/Creole repertoire. It's been recorded by everyone from the Cajun greats the Balfa Brothers to Beau Jocque, and was undoubtedly well known to the Lawtell Playboys.

Chris Ardoin & Double Clutchin' "Stay In or Stay Out - Pass the Dutchie"

The Ardoin family has been a touchstone for Creole and zydeco music since its inception. The legacy starts with the early years of Amede Ardoin and continues through the decades-long musical partnership of fiddler Canray Fontenot and accordionist Bois-Sec Ardoin. Among Bois-Sec's musical sons is accordionist Lawrence Ardoin, father of Chris and Sean, the co-founders of Double Clutchin'. Today, Sean leads his own band, Zydekool, while Chris keeps the reigns of Double Clutchin'.

Young Chris was only four when he picked up an accordion at a gumbo cook-off. Within a few years he was joining his extended family on stage at Carnegie Hall. To look at him, you would think he's just a normal high school student - he graces the cover of Ben Sandmel and Rick Olivier's book Zydeco! in a sporty V-neck and Tommy Hilfiger pants. But he sings and plays like an Ardoin, and true to the family tradition, he's an innovator.

This trait is most evident on the band's version of the 1982 bubblegum reggae hit "Pass the Dutchie," a song first made popular by a quintet of young Jamaican-Brits that called themselves Musical Youth. That Double Clutchin' so effortlessly moves from a bouncy zydeco rhythm to this take on old-style reggae is a pretty good testament to Southwest Louisiana's reputation as a land south of the South - or, depending on your perspective, the northernmost region of the Caribbean.

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Copyright © 2000 Cose dell'Altro Mondo
Aggiornato il: 25 June 2000