GRIOTS REPUBLIC - AN URBAN BLACK TRAVEL MAG - JULY 2016

Chenier. His genius for combining older
black Creole French traditions with
rock and rhythm & blues is at the very
heart of contemporary zydeco. He also
pioneered the use of the piano accordion,
giving the tradition access to the
full range of the chromatic scale.
Other musicians
(Sidney Babineaux,
Herbert
Sam, and Boozoo
Chavis) also
contributed significantly
to the
development of
the form. Black
Creole duos like
Delton Broussard
and Calvin Carriere
or Alphonse
“Bois-sec” Ardoin
and Canray Fontenot preserve an early
pre-zydeco rural black Creole sound.
But there is an unmistakable tendency
toward soul and rhythm & blues among
Louisiana Creole musicians as zydeco
drifts toward the English-speaking
American market.
Over the last few years, second and third
generation performers (Alton “Rocking
Dopsie” Rubin, Lawrence Ardoin, John
In at least a dozen
languages from this
culture-area of Africa,
the phonemes “za,”
“re,” and “go” are
frequently associated
with dancing and/or
playing music.
Delafosse, Leo Thomas, the Sam Brothers,
Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural, Sidney
Semien, Lynn August, and Terrance
Semien) have pushed zydeco into bold
new directions. Yet the same band leaders
who insist on singing English lyrics
and adding saxophones, trumpets, and
electric guitars to
their groups will
demonstrate their
deep understanding
of the essential
tradition when they
play what they call
“du vrai zydeco.”
The “real stuff”
is usually characterized
by French
vocals. The rest
of the band drops
out while the accordionist
and the percussionists beat
out a jumping rhythm. The accordion
is transformed into a melodic drum,
sounding music like an African thumb
piano. These irreplaceable elements
reveal the style’s origins in the cultural
creolization of Afro-Caribbean and
Franco-American traditions.
B . B I R D W A T C H E R
Barry Ancelet is a folklorist and Chair of the
Modern Languages Department at the University
of Louisiana at Lafayette. This article was first
published in 1991 in the booklet, Musical Roots
of the South, which accompanied a series
of regional music tours featuring traditional
musicians sponsored by Southern Arts
Federation’s Regional Folk Arts Program, now
known as South Arts.