The World of Louisiana Zydeco

From Amédé and the Carriere Brothers, to Clifton and "Buckwheat", and on to the Grammy nominated zydeco stars of today

January 29, 2024 3:15 PM

Bryant Benoit

Artwork by Bryant Benoit, titled "Goin' to da Zydeco". See more of Benoit's work at benoitgallery.com.

This article documents the history of zydeco, beginning with the early antecedents of the genre heard in the music of Black Creole players at the beginning of the 20th century. Learn about the earlier origins and "Classical Period" of Louisiana French music—which set the standard for Cajun, zydeco, and Swamp Pop genres as we recognize them today—here : The Origins of Louisiana French Music.

You can also read about how Cajun music evolved from those origins in The History of Cajun Music, 1930s to Today, as well as swamp pop—which emerged in the 1950s—in Swamp Pop Should Go On Forever.

Learn more about the history of the instrumentation in Louisiana French genres, as well as the historical venues the music was played in, here:

The Instruments of Cajun, Zydeco, and Swamp Pop Music

Let's Go Dancin': The Evolution of Louisiana French Music Venues

You can also find a Spotify Playlist to accompany your reading, featuring the artists and songs included in this article, here:

The Louisiana French music performed by Cajuns and Black Creoles at the start of the twentieth century was, for the most part, a shared tradition between the two overlapping cultures—each borrowing freely from the other’s influences. Still, if the boundaries of segregation and racial inequality were more fluid in rural Southwest Louisiana than other places—they weren’t absent. This separation preserved, in the styles of playing, deep-rooted idiosyncrasies that might define, to the attuned ear, important distinctions between the music of Black Creoles and Cajuns that would, over the course of the twentieth century, develop into separate genres. A 1970s record of field recordings by folklorist Nick Spitzer captures examples of the Afro-Caribbean polyrhythms present in the old Black Creole music of Eraste and Joseph “Bébé” Carriere, whose careers date to the 1920s.

Ron Stanford, from his book "Big French Dance".

[Learn more about the stories behind this iconic historic photo in this story from our September 2019 issue: Two New Books on Louisiana French Music.]

The social disruptions of the 1930s and 1940s re-enforced racial lines that had previously been blurred within the working-class rural communities of Southwest Louisiana. Black Creole musicians began to lean into the subtleties that distinguished their musical culture from their Cajun neighbors’, while at the same time incorporating elements from other Black musical traditions around them, including the Delta blues and the emerging R&B styles coming out of the country’s urban centers.

The Term “Zydeco”

The term “zydeco” has been associated with Black Creole music, and how it evolved, at least since the early twentieth century, though originally by way of the Louisiana French word for snap beans, “les haricots”—usually used in the context of the phrase “les haricots sont pas sale,” or “the snap beans aren’t salted,” an idiom for “the times are hard”. The phrase was a common responsive greeting within Black Creole communities, as well as a frequently-used lyric within the musical repertoire—even appearing on several of Lomax’s recordings of Creole French singers from 1934. Some ethnomusicologists, such as Barry Ancelet and Nick Spitzer, have posed the theory that cultural connections between beans and music and dance may extend through the Caribbean all the way back to West Africa. The current spelling of “zydeco” was penned by record producer Mack McCormack in the early 1950s when he was transcribing the word used to describe the style of music and dances of in the Frenchtown neighborhood of Houston—which was populated largely by Black Creoles from Louisiana who had come to work in the city.

Clifton Chenier

By 1955, when Specialty Records—on the hunt for the hottest new thing coming out of the thriving Black music industry headed by artists like Muddy Waters, Professor Longhair, and Little Richard—discovered the lively Louisiana French accordionist Clifton Chenier, “zydeco” was already common parlance for the blend of Creole French music and contemporary R&B of the moment. Chenier legitimized the style as a genre though, when he released the hit “Ay-Tete-Fee” and the anthem “Zydeco Sont Pas Salé,” both adaptations of the old juré tradition to suit the sentiments of the electric piano accordion and R&B styles. Chenier, to this day, is credited as the most important proponent of the zydeco genre, the self-proclaimed “King of Zydeco”. Atop the foundation of French lyrics (though he did often incorporate English lyrics, as well) and the Creole French rhythmic style, he layered on the blues, rock ‘n’ roll, and faster, more danceable tempos. His career lasted through the 1980s, refining the genre as a synthesis of the old and new that has sustained itself into the modern age.

[Read this story about Todd Mouton's biography of the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, in this story from our February 2016 issue: "Way Down in Louisiana: Todd Mouton celebrates zydeco king Clifton Chenier and the musicians he influenced"]

Zydeco in the 1980s–90s

Major performers stepping into Chenier’s footsteps include accordionist Wilson Anthony “Boozoo” Chavis—who recorded the Louisiana classic “Paper in My Shoe”. Later in his career, he would return to the old-style diatonic accordion, bringing a refreshed sense of antiquity to the highly stylized world of contemporary zydeco. This departure from the R&B-inflected Chenier style would result in two schools of performance within the genre. Following Chenier’s tradition are icons such as the nationally-acclaimed and Grammy-winning Stanley “Buckwheat Zydeco" Dural and his band Ils Sont Partis, as well as Nathan Williams and his Zydeco Cha-Chas. The more old-school accordion route has been represented by performers the likes of John Delafose (who would even, on occasion, bring the fiddle back into the band) and Andrus “Beau Jocque” Espre, who launched the “nouveau zydeco” movement by drawing in elements of classic rock and hip-hop into his performances. Other major figures of the early zydeco scene include Rockin’ Sidney Simien, whose 1985 single “My Toot-Toot” hit the Billboard charts, and was the first zydeco song to receive significant airplay on major national radio stations, later garnering a Grammy. In Europe, Rockin’ Dopsie came to represent the genre with his band The Twisters, and famously played accordion on a song in Paul Simon’s Graceland album. The 1990s brought bands like Terrence Simien & The Zydeco Experience, who served as cultural ambassadors for the United States Department, bringing a version of zydeco that incorporates reggae and New Orleans funk into the intricate layers of the genre.

[Get the story of Rockin' Sidney's trip to the Grammys from record producer Floyd Soileau, in this story from our April 2017 issue "Wax & Wane: Two Louisiana record shops, two pivotal eras"]

Legacies of Zydeco

Legacies continue to play an enormous role in the deeply heritage-based zydeco scene, and a large percentage of today’s most popular performers are carrying on family traditions. These include Sean and Chris Ardoin, sons of zydeco musician Lawrence “Black” Ardoin, who is the son of Bois Sec Ardoin, and a relative of Amédé Ardoin. Child prodigies, Sean and Chris have each gone on to start their own zydeco bands, Sean specializing in zydeco Gospel and Chris in nouveau zydeco.

John Delafose’s son Geno, leader of the French Rockin’ Boogie, is one of the most-demanded performers on Louisiana’s festival circuit; and Lil’ Nate & the Zydeco Big Timers is led by Nathan Williams’ son, an accordion master who has performed alongside R&B greats the likes of Juvenile, Kevin Gates, and Cupid. The Frank Family Band, led by patriarch Preston Frank, age seventy-five, is still performing traditional pre-zydeco Creole music. Their 2023 album, Seventy-Five, features Preston’s son, the zydeco star Keith Frank, along with siblings Jennifer and Brad—and revitalizes Preston’s best-loved songs from his repertoire alongside old Creole songs originally recorded by Canray Fontenot.

And then, there’s CJ Chenier, “the Crown Prince of Zydeco,” Stanley “Buckwheat Zydeco,” Dural Jr., and the Alton Jay Rubin (Rockin' Dopsie) sons—all talented artists carrying on their fathers’ legacies by leading the same iconic bands into the next generation. Rubin's youngest son Dwayne, of Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers, and Dural’s Ils Sont Partis each received a Grammy nomination this year.

Old Language, New Sounds

Two of the biggest names in Lafayette’s world of Louisiana French performers are Cedric Watson and Corey Ledet—two Black Creole musicians who have exhibited a creative interest in revisiting the earliest eras of Louisiana French music history, and especially Black Creole history. Watson, a fiddler and accordionist who formed his Creole/zydeco band Bijou Creole in 2006 after playing with Wilson Savoy’s Pine Leaf Boys, draws out the influences of the original cultures that inspired the Louisiana French music —from Spanish contra dance and jurés, to forgotten Creole melodies and popular modern zydeco. Along with his own band Bijou Creole, Watson also performs accordion in the band Les Rôdailleurs with rising Cajun star Jourdan Thibodeaux. A 2006 collaboration between Watson and Ledet culminated in Valcour Records’ first album, Goin’ Down to Louisiana—instantly becoming a classic and establishing the two young artists as leaders of Louisiana French music in the twenty-first century. Both artists are also at the forefront of the recent renaissance of the endangered Kouri-Vini language, an offshoot of Louisiana French derived from the languages of the first enslaved Africans in Louisiana, melding with the French spoken in the region. Both have recorded and performed songs sung in the language for years, and in 2023, Ledet released Médikamen, which is comprised entirely of songs sung in Kouri-Vini.

[Read more:

The Term “Zydeco”

Clifton Chenier

Zydeco in the 1980s–90s

Legacies of Zydeco

Old Language, New Sounds

Recommended Reading/Resource List:

Related

La Musique Francaise de Louisiane

The History of Cajun Music, 1930s to Today

Swamp Pop Should Go On Forever

A New Stage for Roots Music