Cajun & Zydeco News
Last Update: 5/8/2008
|
Cajun & Zydeco NewsLast Update:
|
|
| Subject: Solo Gumbo from Michael Doucet Date:Mon, 5 May 2008 11:31:00 -0400 From:"Shukla, Zorawar" <ShuklaZ@si.edu> Add Mobile Alert To:jjczmail@yahoo.com CC:"Horgan, David" <HorganD@si.edu> Dear Jeremy, I am writing on behalf of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to inform you about the debut solo album from Michael Doucet. CajunZydeco.net is a great destination for Cajun/Zydeco music fans and we want to make sure you have the opportunity to inform fans about this terrific new release. From Now On is a Cajun tour-de-force of distilled Michael Doucet, the much admired leader of the Grammy-winning group BeauSoleil. Nineteen tracks of wide-ranging repertoire and pared-down instrumentation of solo fiddle, fiddle-plus-one, and solo accordion showcase Doucet's stylistic mastery, eclectic musical grounding, and creative spirit. Cajun, Creole, blues, Buddhism, gospel, and much more inspire this "solo gumbo" of fun and fine artistry. If you would like to review From Now On or inform your viewers about it through ewsletters/emails, we can send you promotional copies of the CD. In addition, for certain sites we may be able to offer a non-promo CD or two as a contest prize for your viewers. If you are interested, please contact me at shuklaz@si.edu or David Horgan at horgand@si.edu and include your full contact information, including mailing address. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Regards, Zorawar Shukla |
| >end |
| >end |
| >end |
| Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:31:28 -0700 From:"Ken Leiner" Subject:[TWISTLIST] Blue Moon Saloon, one of the best bars in America http://www.esquire.com/bestbars/bb-BlueMoonSaloon |
| May 20, 2007 Bois Sec Ardoin, Musician and Nurturer of Creole Tradition, Dies at 91 By JON PARELES Alphonse Ardoin, a Louisiana Creole accordionist and singer nicknamed Bois Sec whose music stalwartly sustained South Louisiana tradition, died Wednesday of natural causes in Eunice, La., where he had been living in a nursing home, said his son Morris. He was 91 years old. For five decades, Alphonse Ardoin worked regularly with the fiddler Canray Fontenot, trading quick-fingered passages on some of the oldest known Creole tunes and infusing Cajun waltzes with the blues. English speakers sometimes called the style "la la music," but it was known by its players simply as ?la musique Creole.? Eventually, the Creole waltzes and two-steps would be punched up, plugged in and fused with rhythm and blues, creating the zydeco music that still fills South Louisiana dance halls. In 1986, Mr. Ardoin and Mr. Fontenot (who died in 1995) both received from the National Endowment for the Arts the National Heritage Fellowship, the highest American award for traditional arts. Alphonse Ardoin was born in 1915 in rural Duralde, La., the son of sharecroppers, and he worked on farms all his life. As a child, he was nicknamed Bois Sec ("dry wood"), because he had a reputation for being the first in the cotton fields to seek shelter during Louisiana?s sudden downpours. Mr. Ardoin took up the button accordion, an instrument that had a family tradition. His cousin Amédé Ardoin made pioneering recordings of French Creole music with the fiddler Dennis McGee. Alphonse Ardoin took up the accordion and learned his cousin?s style, in part by playing triangle in Amédé's band. According to Michael Tisserand?s book "The Kingdom of Zydeco," Alphonse told his cousin, ?It won?t be long until I catch up with you.? But music remained a sideline until the 1940s, when he started working regularly with Mr. Fontenot. As the Duralde Ramblers, they played at dances and parties and on a live radio show broadcast from Eunice. Their reputation spread so widely that they were booked at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival. On the way back south from the festival, they stopped in Virginia and recorded their first album, "Les Blues du Bayou," which was later reissued by Arhoolie as "La Musique Creole." As the old Creole style was replaced by zydeco on the dance-hall circuit, Mr. Ardoin and Mr. Fontenot took their music to folk festivals and concerts worldwide. In the 1970s, Mr. Ardoin added his sons Morris, Lawrence and Gustave to his group, which became the Ardoin Family Orchestra. He also recorded and performed with the Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa and later with a younger generation of Creole traditionalists, notably Balfa Toujours, led by Dewey's daughter Christine, with whom he made the 1998 album "Allons Danser." And through the years, Mr. Ardoin?s songs made their way into the repertory of zydeco bands and traditionalist groups like Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. He is survived by a brother, Delphin; his children, Morris, Florence, Mildred, Amelia, Dorothy, Juanita, Emily, Alberta, Matilda, Lawrence, Ronald and Russell; and "a whole bunch" of grandchildren, Morris Ardoin said. Three of those grandchildren Dexter, Sean and Chris lead their own bands, playing Creole music and zydeco. From http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/arts/music/20ardoin.html |
| Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 21:13:03 -0500 From:"Jerry Carrier" Subject:St Petersburg After-Festival Party To:jjczmail@yahoo.com PRESS RELEASE Mark your calendars for two great dancing events at FERG?S SPORTS BAR, 1320 Central Avenue , in St Petersburg , Florida . (727) 822-9243 The Third Annual ?After Hours? Dance Party at Ferg?s Sports Bar in St Petersburg will be hosted by ALLONS DANSER TAMPA BAY , Florida ?s newest Cajun and Zydeco dance and social club on Friday, March 9 and Saturday, March 10, 2007 from 10:30 PM to 1:30 AM . This year's event will feature a large wooden floor, two of Lousiana's finest bands, and food will be available until midnight . Admission will be $15 each night, $12 for ALLONS DANSER TAMPA BAY members. For more information call the ADTB Hotline at (813) 968-5486 Information is also available at the club's website at: www.allonsdansertampabay.com The event is sponsored by ALLONS DANSER TAMPA BAY to provide an opportunity for continuous dancing ?Louisiana Style? into the wee hours for the many out-of-town Cajun and Zydeco dancers who are expected to descend on St Petersburg that weekend. On Friday evening the music will be provided by THE PINE LEAF BOYS, one of the hottest up-and-coming new bands on the Louisiana horizon. This band has been tearing up the national Cajun and Zydeco circuit with their red-hot ?French music?. ALLONS DANSER Tampa Bay is indeed fortunate to have them make an appearance here before their scheduled six-week summer European tour. Each of the musicians in the band plays many instruments, and it is not uncommon to see them switch and trade off during their shows. The variety of music and the energy they release evolves?, bringing multi-faceted angles to Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco music, often depending on the feel of the people for whom they play. Saturday's band needs no introduction to anyone familiar with Cajun or Zydeco music. STEVE RILEY & THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS have become living legends of Cajun music. ALLONS DANSER TAMPA BAY is again fortunate and proud to present this band for your listening and dancing pleasure. STEVE RILEY & THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS are known to take a preservationist approach to their music, mixing in carefully written originals with tunes drawn from the rich musical tradition of southwest Louisiana, updating things just enough to keep them vital and fresh. Come on down to Ferg's for some great dancing or just to listen to some of the best of the best authentic Louisiana music you will ever hear.d |
| ==== KBON CLUB MEMBER NEWS JANUARY 2007 ==== A sincere "THANK YOU" to all of you who have signed up to the KBON CLUB! We cannot express enough our gratitude for your support of what we do here at KBON. As you know, independent locally owned radio stations such as ours have a lot of competition with big corporate radio, plus satellite radio. Many broadcasting trade publications point out the fact that the Internet will be needed as the "Savior" of such radio stations. They point to the fact that it will take "specialty radio programming" with the offering of such on the Internet either as a "voluntary donation" stream or a listener "membership" streaming. Well, I believe you all agree that the KBON music programming certainly qualifies as "specialty radio programming", and as most of you know, we tried the first option of streaming for several years, but due to the fact that KBON had SO MANY people listening, but not enough contributing to cover the cost, we had no choice but to switch to the latter option. Of course there are radio stations offering free Internet streaming, but keep in mind, so does KBON. Most, as we do, have limited streams on a first-come-first-listen basis. The difference between their free streams & ours is that there is little interruptions on theirs due to it rarely reaching capacity, whereas the KBON free streams reach capacity on an almost continuous basis. That is a huge compliment to what we do, but also a reason why we started the KBON CLUB membership. Please pass the word about the KBON CLUB to any & all friends & relatives whom you think would enjoy what we do. Together, we can keep the promotion of our local music, heritage & culture worldwide?. As it should be! NOTE: Please be sure and check out the Member Benefits Area for more offers and contests coming soon. Merci, Paul Marx KBON 101.1FM www.kbon.com |
| From:"Wayne" <rtonrhythm@boo.net> You may already know of this organization but I just learned of them. I am attempting to plug the community of people who will be traveling to SW LA for the Holidays into participating in their efforts and will be circulating this as much as possible Dancers for Hurricane Recovery I have come into contact with an organization called Southern Mutual Help Association, INC. (www.southernmutualhelp.org) headquartered in New Iberia. Their area of recovery work stretches from Texas back across to Mississippi including all 8 storm affected parishes of Louisiana. They are involved with and needing help with everything from construction (demolition & rebuild) to interviewing families, knocking on doors, office help, phone calling, etc... and any areas of knowledge that they can utilize (in my wife's case it is probably her expertise in Medicare/Medicaid info) They will take volunteers for 1 day or as many as offered (not like the structured Habitat and others that often have their programs filled up). Work goes on 7 days a week They have ability to house volunteers (albeit in large bunk bed filled halls) or people can still book themselves into a hotel room. Claudia and I bumped our trip forward to fly down on Xmas day and will drive to New Iberia to begin volunteer work the next day and work at least through Friday. A typical day will end around dark (approx. 5:00) which would leave time for people to still get their dancing in if they were of that mind. With as many people that descend on SW LA for the holidays this is a great opportunity to plug in the community to relief efforts and they would be throughout SW LA instead of New Orleans (though I am sure if there were people that wanted to do their work in St Bernard Parish it would not be a problem either). The volunteer coordinator is Judy Herring and I have told her of my idea to rouse the dance community to plug into the recovery efforts. She is all for it. People would state their referral as Dancers for Hurricane recovery which would let her gauge the response. www.southernmutualhelp.org volunteer faq http://www.southernmutualhelp.org/RuralRecoveryVolunteersFAQ.cfm |
| >end |