A 1989 documentary called J’ai été au Bal (I Went to the Dance) explores the histories and dynamics of Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana. Read more
Category: learn
Revisit World Cafe‘s day with Sid Williams
Rare Clifton Chenier film to screen at SXSW tonight
SXSW is well underway, with thousands of music and film fans converging in the streets of Austin, TX to make new musical discoveries. One of those discoveries could be Clifton Chenier, as the late Louisiana bandleader is showcased in a recently uncovered concert film that will be screened at C-Boy’s Heart & Soul tonight. Read more
Meet the Creole cowboys of Louisiana on American Routes
Dr. Gene Morris remembered as one of zydeco’s unsung heroes
On latest CD, Leon Chavis proclaims ‘The Champ is Here’
In 1999, Sports Illustrated crowned Muhammad Ali as Sportsman of the Century. Once vilified as a trash-talking troublemaker, Ali is now universally praised as an all-time great athlete with a principled punch that shook up boxing, religion, international politics, civil rights and more.
Ali retired the same year Leon Chavis was born. But that hasn’t stopped Chavis from being enthralled with “The Greatest.” Read more.
Michael Tisserand on zydeco’s history and culture
Soul Creole featured in The 78 Project film, currently screening across the country
Inspired by John and Alan Lomax’s field recordings of the 1930s, Alex Steyermark and Lavinia Jones Wright began The 78 Project in 2011 as a way of connecting a thread from those early archival recordings to contemporary musicians. Armed with a 1930s Presto direct-to-acetate recorder and many painstakingly-crafted acetate disks, the Philadelphia area filmmakers travel across the country to encounter musicians of all styles. Read more.
6 must read books about Zydeco
Richard’s Club and Boozoo Chavis: The Golden Age of Zydeco
Historians can look back to several junctures of time and place in American music when it was clear that something significant was happening. For Southern blues, it might have been Beale Street in Memphis in the early 1950s, when B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland pioneered a modern blues sound that continues to resonate today. For bebop, it might have been 52nd Street in New York City in the 1940s, when Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk deconstructed jazz. For zydeco, I would argue that it was Southwest Louisiana in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Boozoo Chavis came roaring back onto the scene at Richard’s Club in Lawtell. Read more.