Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, December 19, 1996

A Creole Celebration

Seeds of Zydeco Give Rise to a Great Musical Tradition

Jonas Breaux, St. Landry Bureau Editor

PLAISANCE--Like Cajun music, the seeds of zydeco were planted on wooden porches, beneath shade trees, in small rural clubs or wherever Acadiana's Creole families gathered for weddings, anniversaries, holidays, or Saturday house parties.

Some of the first Creole musicians to touch the rest of the country and eventually the world with the early sounds of zydeco were accordionist Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin and fiddler Canray Fontenot.

Ardoin and Fontenot were the catalysts in the transformation of so-called "la la music," that is, Creole house party music, into what is now termed "traditional zydeco music." Ardoin and Fontenot carried the zydeco standard until after World War II when the electrified sounds of the original King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, began attracting crowds to clubs and festivals.

Chenier added a mix of blues and jazz to the la la gumbo pot and developed a sound that today's zydeco musicians refer to as "traditional." By the mid-1970s, Chenier and his Red Hot Louisiana Band had developed a cult following, on the West Coast, England and Europe.

Peers like Good Rockin' Dopsie, Boo Zoo Chavis, John Delafose, and Good Rockin' Sydney helped Chenier spread the spice of Acadiana's Creole life through their music. However, it wasn't until Good Rockin' Sydney's "Don't Mess With My Toot-Toot" that a zydeco selection actually made it onto America's pop music charts.

Melvin Caesar who along with co-host John Broussard, broadcasts a Saturday morning zydeco show on KRVS, USL's public radio station, said zydeco's driving "upbeat" sound is what makes this homespun music so attractive to the masses.

"Clifton (Chenier) had so much to do with making zydeco so popular, not only nationally but around the world," Caesar said. "Today, there are so many zydeco bands that there aren't enough people or clubs in Acadiana to support them.

"A lot of bands play regularly on the West Coast, Houston and I'm hearing of a lot more bands traveling to Europe for gigs." he said. "Competition for dates in Acadiana is fierce because there are so manly new bands which forces some of the new ends to find places to play outside the state."

Ceasar said probably the hottest zydeco acts going are Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band and Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers. But newcomers like Zydeco Joe, Creole Junction, Rosie Ledet, Jo Jo Reed, Geno Delafose, and others are attracting listeners young and old, from Beaumont to San Diego and Houston to Chicago.

"Zydeco music is like a rubber band. Some of the new bands try to stretch traditional Zydeco to different limits but when all is said and done the rubber band pulls back to original shape," Caesar said. "Basically zydeco is music that pulls listeners the dance floor for some good, clean fun dancing. It's not about showing off but just about having a good time."

Caesar said he was at a Keith Frank dance recently when a fight broke out, and Frank pulled the plug to the microphone and refused to continue playing because of the disturbance.

"The people who go to zydeco dances go there to have fun and dance," he said. "There's a certain mentality about the music that translates to the mood and mid-set of the audience.

"Zydeco still has the flavor of the cotton fields and conveys the good times and bad times associated with rural life," Caesar said. "People who enjoy zydeco are there to celebrate the music and share a dance or two.