Okey dokey, I know everyone will stand up and shout "Never Forget New Orleans!" and such, but this diary is not like that.
Creole music. When I'd go to New Orleans, I'd dig the brass bands the most, especially at a little place on Rampart Street called Donna's Bar & Grill. It was on the small side (tho not tiny) and the acoustics were excellent, so when you'd hear a brass band playing, tuba and all, you could feel the music, literally.
And then of course I'd also go to hear jazz, from outside restaurant gigs of the step above street musicians like Joe Gunn and the Bullets, to Snug Harbor, the Village Gate of New Orleans (or is it the other way around?).
So I never did catch the zydeco music, go to Tipitina's (yeah, I know, really stupid of me), although I did go on a swamp tour and it was wonderful, even got to pet a baby gator! Woo hoo!
But for some reason I've been studying creole/cajun music and through the magic of YouTube have been able to sample some and gain some appreciation of it. I think it was my indifference to the accordian that prejudiced me against it, making it take me this long to experience the sound.
From Wikipedia (which I'll link to later):
Zydeco is a form of American roots or folk music, that evolved from the jure during the late 1800s call and response vocal music of the black and multiracial French speaking Creoles of south and southwest Louisiana. During the early 20th century this soulful, heavily syncopated, indigenous roots music was discovered by ethnomusicologists and records labels alike. Usually fast-tempo, and dominated by the button or piano accordion and a form of a washboard known as a rub-board or frottoir zydeco music was originally created for house dances so the blacks and free people of color of south Louisiana could gather for socializing. As the Creoles further established their communities and worshiped separately as well, the music moved to the Catholic church community center and then later to the rural dance halls and nightclubs. As a result, the music integrated waltzes, shuffles, two-steps, blues, rock and roll, and most dance music forms of the era. Today, the tradition of change and evolution in the music continues always keeping relevant while integrating even more genres like reggae, urban hip-hop, R&B, soul, brass band, ska, rock, Afro Caribbean and other styles in addition to the traditional forms.
The first zydeco vest frottoir (rubboard) was designed by Clifton Chenier, the "King of zydeco," in 1946 while he and his brother, Cleveland, were working at an oil refinery in Port Arthur, TX. The first zydeco rubboard made to Chenier's design was made at Chenier's request by their fellow Louisianian, Willie Landry, a master welder - fabricator, who was also working at the refinery. The zydeco rubboard, designed specifically for the genre solely as a percussion instrument, is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
Other instruments common in zydeco include the old world accordion which is found in folk and roots music globally, guitar, bass guitar, drums, fiddle, horns and keyboards.
Ack, well that's a lot of information. Would rather hear some music. Let's try out Clifton Chenier, doing "I'm A Hog For You, Baby":
Nize. Vewwy vewwy nize.
And listen to this, Buckwheat Zydeco, all those musical influences rich like gumbo, can't even IMAGINE there being no accordian in this tune! Enlightenment! Well, maybe not enlightenment, but oh baby!
Please check out the comment by the YouTube contributor, letstalkaboutstuff, which is where I got the wiki link, among other cool information.
I am a poor educator on New Orleans music. I have heard it and loved it, have even sat in on a session here and there and sung. I wish I had better words to turn everyone on to the way music sounds in New Orleans. A CD or a video is a poor facsimile of the real thing. But it helps me get just a little piece of that heaven, even if only a reflected one. Mmmm.