Center for Louisiana Studies Archival Catalog
This searchable database provides information on images, documents, and audio and video recordings, made between 1934 and the present.
Interview by Michel Tisserand with Lynn August
Lynn August was in Lafayette, he was coming back from a tour on the East Coast.
2:15-Lynn talks about cooking and food he eats on tour.
4:53-Lynn always carries hot sauce with him
5:15-Lynn August talks about his diabete and cholesterol, his wife has to cut on fats and sugar when she cooks
10:15-Lynn talks about the origins of zydeco (snao beans)
16:30-Lynn says gumbo tastes bad elsewhere in the US because they do not season as much as in Louisiana
Interview by Michel Tisserand with Christine Balfa
0:53-At that time Christine Balfa was planning to do a record with Bois Sec (the album "Allons Danser" Released in 98), the interview is mostly about this project.
3:30-Her father (Dewey Balfa of the Bafla Brothers) already played with the Ardoin Family.
9:42-The Balfa and the Ardoin have always been close to each other, they often played together. Christine danced to Bois Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot songs when she was little. The families often played together at festivals.
19:05-Michael Tisserand and Christine talks about how Cajun and Creole music compare to mainstream genres such as country music and RnB
27:10-Christine explains the song "fond d'culotte" two step to Michael TIsserand. It's an instrumental song that Christine plans to record with Bois Sec.
Interview with Beau Jocque by Michael Tisserand #1
Former Accession # TI1-001
0:00 Happy with how new album turned out. Hoping it goes a long way with Rounders capability to push nationally and internationally. Hopes people get to know him through his music.
1:45 Guys in the group call him a perfectionist. Doesn't read or write music, writes songs. Took music since sixth grade but used ear.
3:22 Reflection of blues/spiritual in music, wishes was a better singer. Ray Johnson- guitarist, Chuck Bush- bass, Stevie (18 years old) drummer.
9:17 What you gonna give me for a porkchop
10:20 Hopes to make another album every 6-8 months. People steal songs, record gig from back of club.They can steal the songs but they can't recreate something that's not their style.
13:13 Porkchop added 'What you gonna give me for that porkchop' gives extra rhythm. When band goes from Porkchop into Cornbread, he laughs that people think he wants to sell everything he's got. Gets crowd in good humor, mood to have fun.
15:15 Played Zydeco Festival for the first time ever. Everyone said to Tisserand 'you have to hear Beau Jocque'.
16:14 How music career began. Started playing around 7 years ago and got into accident about 10 months after started playing, just when things were starting to happen. Started playing on accordion. Dad said 'You might as well put that down. Not something like a horn you can pick up and play.It's very hard to learn. Don't fool with it.' Dad wouldn't play much. He tied the accordion to drinking and having fun and it would tend to get out of hand so he left it alone. Dad lives near Mamou. Joque bought his own accordion then about 10 months later got some guys together and started playing. That was around '87, accident was in '86. The accident was an explosion at work at Texas Gas where he was an electrician and welder. Fell sitting down on concrete, broke back and left legs partially paralyzed. Had three surgeries on lower back. Couldn't get around for 9-10 months, can't lift anything.
19:30 Dad conned him into playing accordion by telling him he couldn't do it. Dad laughed afterwards and said 'works every time'. There's a lot that dad can do on accordion he'd like to do. Would like to play with him every once in a while. Marc Savoy told him he'd like for him and his dad to go on tour to Rhode Island where somone is looking for a father and son group that could represent Zydeco and Cajun--dad plays Cajun.
21:13 He played for a while and then the insurance company and attorney said to let it go or they would regard it as an occupation. He couldn't afford that, wasn't making a living from playing. It was just something to keep him from depression. It's hard being laid up doing nothing. He had to shut it down and leave it alone for about 5 years. But during that time, he and his wife would got to shows. Would see Boozoo Chavis and listen and pay attention to what the crowd reacted to most. They would go out and listen to different groups: Zydeco Force, Nathan Williams, Terence Simien. That experience gave him the chance to get out within a year's time. He says he's been out a year this past Christmas. Staying very busy drawing people of all groups. Playing around Opelousas, Lafayette. It paid off studying other musicians and analyzing things. Got a lot done that way.
23:50 Does some of Boozoo's music. People love Boozoo's music. That particular style people love to dance to. Clear beat, good dancing beat. Boozoo's timing is real bad. But his son plays drums in the band and knows his dad so well that he can cover him so fast audience doesn't realize. The whole band can. Boozoo's timing is not good but his style is, so Jocque developed a style like his. Beau Joque's original name is Andros Espre. Dad is Sandrus Espre.
26:24 Beau Joque is a nickname he always had meaning Big Jocque. Grandfather and brothers would tease him because he was so much bigger than he was supposed to be for his age. He would play with high school boys when in elementary school. The nickname was just a family thing for a long time. Then wife said 'why don't you use that name when you start playing again?' Wife thought people would like it. It's unusual. A name is more important than people realize--especially in music. Has to have flair, be catchy, draw a picture. Beau Jocue means big guy. He's 6'6".
29:28 Used to try to sit down with father and learn some of his songs but he's hell to learn from. Very, very strict. Nothing ever right with him. Dad came to Kermon's place for wife's birthday and Kermon asked dad 'what do you think of your boy now?' Dad replied 'he's coming along.' Kermon said 'Coming along?! The place is packed!' Dad replied 'Yeah, but maybe they didn't have no where else to go.'
30:48 Dad and friends used to jam out in the piney woods where parents are from out near Oakdale. They would start around 2pm and play until 1 in the morning. Beau Jocque would go listen. They played music he'd never heard before that had never been recorded.
32:45 We speak Cajun French dialect. Around Lafayette they speak a Creole French. Totally different. The first time he heard Creole French was when he enlisted in the service and met guys from Lafayette. They spoke French but he couldn't understand it. He grew up speaking French and English. 37 years old right now.
33:44He grew up around Mamou and Oakdale area. He sings Cajun French. Cajun French is regarded as the formal French in Louisiana. Creole French is a broken dialect of French. They can understand Cajun French, but he can't understand Creole French. Creole French not broken down from Parisian or Canadian French. Just a dialect from that area, a regional thing.
35:30 Style dad plays is Cajun French but lots of the old stuff he plays is not Cajun. Don't know what it's called but it's not Zydeco either. Soulful bluesy style that's hardly known. Similar to what Canray Fontenot plays on the fiddle. Heard Canray's very sick. But he's still playing. Came to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago. Still doing shows, has cancer. He speaks Cajun French but his music style is often called Creole. Plays Cajun music but gets into bluesy style like Amede Ardoin.--bluesy style of French music. Marc Savoy probably knows more about that history.
38:40 Beau Jocque never listened to Cajun or French music growing up as a kid. Listened to stuff on t.v. Would go to Mardi Gras with other kids and listen but it was never something he considered doing. Maybe the injury made it all possible. Stuff comes to him so easily, like he inherited it. Dad would make up songs on stage. He does too. Unless his wife has a tape recorder, he'll never know that song again. The guys in the group will say he pulled another rabbit out of the hat. Feels like he's done it before in a former life. Didn't start playing at a young age. Would have ruined life. He was a very excitable person with few limits. Had to mature before God let him go on to do his thing. He lives for his wife and kids now. He's more responsible and predictible than he was in his teens and twenties. Parents wouldn't allow them to have any instruments in the home. He was raised to think that musicians were bums and drunks and womanizers. But he says it's not the music that makes you do those things. It's the person. Dad and friends would get together and drink too much and mom didn't like it. When his oldest brother was born, his dad put away the accordion. The first time he really heard him play was the day he got married. It made him cry. He played that well. And he could see his dad loved it so much.
43:58 Drove to Memphis about two weeks ago. Don't like driving, loading and unloading. Had to stop outside of Jackson. Too tired. Always try to make it back to catch Sunday gig in Mamou. Hoping to get a bus and a driver. It's too dangerous being on the road tired.
46:38 He writes a lot of songs. Kermon asked him to make a song up about Richard's. No one has and it's the oldest Zydeco club around. He made up about 4 different Richard songs. One came together and they played it one night. Kermon loved it. He was dancing behind the bar. Kermon said 'If that's not a hit I'll eat my hat.' Beau Joque said 'but you don't ever wear a hat.' Kermon said 'Well, it's gonna be a hit anyway.'
49:22 Cornbread--old, old song. Willis Prudhomme put out a version of it. That's wear Beau Jocque heard it. Don't know who did the original. Scott said it could be regarded as traditional. People would ask for Cornbread. Beau Jocque changed it around, polished it up. No one plays it that way. They break it down and put a spotlight on each band member. Chuck didn't want a spot--afraid he'd miss a note. Wilfred Pierre is the scrub board player. Everybody calls him 'Caveman'. Vocal style on song comes from John Lee Hooker. He likes his style. Nobody can duplicate his style. It's a laid back style. Very effective.
54:00 Tisserand asks if he describes his music as Zydeco. He says 'Yeah. It's Beau Jocque Zydeco". He tries to put as much heart into it as he can. Strong kick, a lot of drive. At the end of the night you've had a good workout. He wants to create a lot of excitement. Beau Jocque asks if it would damage his image if he went up there and recorded a few x-rated songs. Scott says yes. They are funny and make people laugh. He uses a rap style. He says it's more effective when people aren't talking so fast you can't understand them.
58:37 People who have never been to Louisiana will hear the new album. He thinks they will appreciate it.
59:34 He wanted to use a piano accordion on Brown Skin Woman because it has more notes to playbut he got rid of his piano accordion and couldn't get one for the recording.
1:00:09 He switches accordions on Damballah, Beau's Mardi Gras, Beau's Boogie. Damballah is just some words. Stevie and Chuck watched the movie Chucky. In the movie, a guy is practicing voodoo saying 'damballah'. Beau told them he didn't believe in it and thinks it's evil and told them to cut it out. Stevie and Chuck told Beau they thought he was scared of it. Beau said he wasn't scared. He'd make a song out of it. One night while playing in Vile Platte, he came out with the song and the people covered the floor. The band just looked at each other and laughed. He said he doesn't know if it's some kind of evil and they acted a fool and recorded it. It comes from that dumb Chucky movie.
1:04:26 A couple of the songs are basic, stripped down Zydeco one-chord songs. Some are in minor keys. You can get more bluesy in minor chords. He decided he wants to get into the blues with a blues harmonica when he gets good enough. When he was 8 or 9 years old, he played the blues harmonica very well. People would come listen to him play during recess. He would play some low-down blues that he had heard his brothers play on old records they had at home. He is thinking about bringing the blues harmonica into the material.
1:06:24 One song, Creole Queen, that he wrote has a lot of words to it. Tells a story and starts out serious. In the end the guy falls out of bed and realizes he was dreaming. He gets pissed off because the dream was just getting to the good part. John Lee Hooker is Beau Jocque's favorite blues singer. He's a natural, has a style nobody can copy.
1:07:29 Beau's Mardi Gras. They have been playing it over and over this week. It's been a while since he played a trail ride. Problem with trail rides is that they always cost him money. Dust gets into power amps and they have to be repaired. He's going to do two this year for some old friends that pay very well. Sort of a family reunion. Serious money. He will go by Vincent's and rent some power equipment and save his.
1:09:04 For Mardi Gras he played an old-fashioned Mardi Gras run at an old-fashioned place in Eunice that used to be a warehouse for feed storage. A guy made a club out of it and opens it for special events. He's been down to play there for Mardi Gras for 6-8 months. They had a good time, played an hour over. Just about all older musicians have a version of Mardi Gras song. Each region, different areas have their own story. Usually a similar melody. Sing for charity, a duck or a chicken or anything you care to give, a piece of fat meat or something that would help the feast tonight. We mean no harm we just come once a year to have a good time. If you would like us to dance we'll dance a while for you. And then captain says it's time to move on. Let's go to the next neighbor down the road. That's basically what all the songs say but melody is different.
1:11:10 The melody for Beau's Cajun Two-step came from the theme song for Jambalaya. They play a similar song. He changed the tempo and added a double kick. Gives more time to dance, a more kicked up beat. Dancers like it. If you can't create a groove, something's not right.
1:13:18 Tisserand tells Beau he has a real strong deep voice he hasn't heard on other Zydeco records. Asks him what's the secret? He doesn't know. For a long time was convinced he'd never be able to sing. He was always told--don't even try. Just play the instrument. He was told that by his rude brothers. He has one sister that has always been really good to him. They wouldn't dare put him down in front of her. She told him that he could do anything he wanted and better than them. That's why they are always on you. He has two brothers. He is the youngest.Neither can play. They like to dance. Wouldn't give themselves enough time to learn to play. When he would sing they would tell him to please just put the harmonica back in his mouth or just hum.
1:14:59 He prays a lot. Asks God to bless him to become as good a singer as he'd like to be. There are lots of things singers do that fascinate him. One guy that no one knows or has heard of from Palmetto has an unbelievable tone in his voice but has no ambition. He also plays blues guitar well and sings B.B. King music--makes his guitar sound like Lucille. He had recorded a demo with a con artist who took him for a ride and that finished him off right there. He's Chuck Bush's father-in-law. I told him I'd like him to do 2-3 songs in my show.Told him I couldn't give him much money but I draw 500-600 people to the show that would give him lots of exposure and let the audience find out who he was. One night in Breaux Bridge He sang with Beau. Sang Rainy Night in Georgia. Beau considered adding him to his show, adding that B.B. King sound. But older club owners told him not to add him. Said don't ever do that and that people pay to see Beau Jocque and hear Zydeco music, not this other stuff. Clifton Chenier never added anyone and that's why he stayed number one as long as he lived. People don't like an added feature. They feel like they are being cheated. Beau can't remember the guy's name.
1:19:30 He says he'd like to sing well enough to make somebody cry. One old man said if you can't make 'em cry and you can't make 'em laugh, you ain't done nothin'. If you can make them go from one extreme to the other extreme, you're doing something.
1:20:07 Beau says his wife is always in his corner. She encouraged him all along. She's always been a very good friend to him. He wrote the song "Shelly Shelly" for her. She didn't like the idea of him singing "Brown Skin Woman". She'd say 'Who you talkin' about?! You should say something about Shelly'. He decided not to put Clifton's song "I'm Coming Home" on the album.
1:22:05 Nonc Adam is a part of a song his dad would play when mom wasn't around. It's a dirty joke about an old couple. The old man bought himself a long banana. When he peeled it, it just fell down. Madam was excited but in the end let down. Mom would catch them on the porch playing that song and get mad.
Interview with Beau Jocque by Michael Tisserand #1 (part 2)
Former Accession Number TI1-002
00:00 Talks about Ardoin kids. Wants them to open for him at Richard's but Kerman says no. Mentions Club Lexus in Grand Coteau. October 1991 was his first time to play there.
2:14 During the 5 years he and his wife were analyzing and studying groups performing he would sometimes sit in on accordion. One night, Retell Chavis (bass player) called Beau and asked him to fill in on accordion in his band, The Night Rockers. Beau said he was looking for a band but wanted them to change their name to The Hi-Rollers. The Night Rockers thought about it and said no, but when Beau told them he would find a different band, the agreed and became the Hi-Rollers. He said he named the band Hi-Rollers because he wanted to accomplish great things.
5:07 Over time, Beau lost the original members. Retell (one of Boozoo's nephews) developed a bad drinking problem and fell on stage with his bass during a show. Beau fired him the next morning but they remained friends. Chuck (who had been playing guitar) became the bass player. Beau found Ray Johnson (who had been playing with Morris Ledet) and put him on guitar. The drummer got on crack, robbed and stabbed a man and was now in prison. Beau was able to get Steve Charlot who had played off and on with Roy Carrier.
10:07 Whenever you have a band with each member giving 100 percent, it's easy to get right.
11:04 Bought a Fender 6-string bass for Chuck at Vincent's Backstage Equipment
12:12 Beau talks about the clubs where he performs regularly. He plays once a month at Vincent's, Mon Ami in Grand Marais and The Big Hat in Grand Coteau. Alternates the other Saturday and sometimes goes to Houston or New Orleans. He also plays at Raymond's in Port Arthur, The Harvest Club in Beaumont, JB Entertainment in Houston and Mid City Lanes in New Orleans. He will be playing at Jimmy's and the House of Blues in New Orleans and has some tours this year in London and D.C. He says he supposed to be playing in Germany, Belgium, Canada, Africa. Concerted Efforts out of Atlanta sets up the band's international tours.
18:46 Beau had been stationed in Mildenhall aabout 60 miles outside of London when he was Andres Espre. No one calls him that anymore. He didn't listen to Zydeco music then. He started listening to Zydeco when a couple of friends told him about Boozoo Chavis and he became fascinated by the sound of the accordion and the effect it had on the crowd.
20:53 Beau's injury was September 4, 1987. He says talking about it leads to depressing things.Things looked dim to him. The person he was with at the time was not compassionate.Things went from bad to worse. He had fallen around 20 feet onto concrete while at work. He was tightening a level monitor onto a vessel when the pipe wrench slipped and he fell backwards.He was brought to a hospital in Eunice where they put him in a tub and he couldn't see a doctor. He got fed up and had his family doctor call up someone he knew in Lake Charles, Carl Gunnerson. Beau talks about his surgeries and their complications. He's not able to do heavy lifting. He says the French and triple row accordion are not heavy like the piano accordion.
28:27 Wife from first marriage did not want kids but Beau did. She became pregnant after 10 years and had an abortion.
28:50 The phone rings and Beau steps away to talk to Caveman for a bit to discuss meeting times for their gigs that weekend.
Interview with Beau Jocque by Michael Tisserand #2
Former Accession # TI1-003
0:00 Talks about his children. Oldest boy, 3, pick up accordion. Youngest will probably be drummer and singer, beats on everything.
0:54 Tisserand talks of new raw, horse Zydeco singing style. Joque noticed a lot of folks doing that. Thinks it's because they don't train their voices. Big scream/ no tone. Would like to become better singer and have a teacher or video. Loves to sing
2:50 Richard's Club--sounds like a place you want to go.
3:13 Family background cross German/Coushatta Indian/Black. Mom's mom full blood Coushatta . Mullato, dad's family has some Coushatta too, multi-racial family. Wife's family Cajun and Coushatta. Want everyone to learn to like each other. Too much hate in the world. Teach kids love, not hate/predjudice.
6:13 Hate/predjudice is a sickness in the South. Bad seems to overpower good. Heard old man say "empty buckets bring the most noise"
6:40 Chere d'Allien is an old traditional song. People love to dance to it. At the gigs, sometimes songs last 4 or 5 minutes because dancers like longer songs.
9:13 Beau talks about the Saturday dances. Some people have gone to Zydeco dances their whole life. No matter how bad things are, they go to the Saturday dance and it makes all the hardships of the week alright. A good dance and church on Sunday morning and everything's alright. He loves the older people coming up to him and complimenting him. They are bigger critics than the young folks.
13:27 Wants to do Brownskin Woman with a B3 sound and add keyboard sound to some of the other slow songs. He plays octaves on the accordion, get a fat sound. Dad always told him if you're gonna play accordion, learn to play in octaves or don't say you play accordion.Talks about difference between single row, triple row and and piano accordion.
16:20 Talks about Richard's Club being their regular stop. They mostly play there twice a month. Says it was Kerman and his wife who encouraged him most. Kerman said he learned from his father and being in the business over 40 years how to spot a sure thing. Kerman told Beau that he'd be number one by Christmas and was right. By Christmas, he was outdrawing Boozoo and Zydeco Force. Kerman said there's a certain electricity in the air when a band is right.
20:00 Tisserand asks Beau what he wants people to know about him and his music. Beau says his music is a mixture of things he hears and things he wants to hear in Zydeco music. It's a cultural and traditional thing. He inherited a lot of talent from his father. He says nothing is more effective than playing and singing from the heart. Wants people to listen to the music and expect something to happen. They will feel part of his heart--compassion, happiness, excitement, peace of mind--things he cherishes most and tries to reflect in music.Wishes he knew more about spiritual/gospel music. He wants to write songs with more meaning and feels Zydeco music is missing out on a lot of that.
24:00 He talks about the song Brownskin Woman and how it came from him goofing around at home with his wife. Tells a story of his parents showing up at his house after church while he was in the middle of playing it.
Musical Performance of Give Him Cornbread by Beau Jocque
Musical performance of Give Him Cornbread
Interview on the road with Beau Jocque by Michael Tisserand #2
0:00 Michael Tisserand and Beau Jocque are traveling in the car on the way back from his performance at the House of Blues in New Orleans
1:50 To stay awke on long rides Jocque says he keeps thinking and planning. Down the oad he'd like to own his own club.
8:18 Talk about the show at House of Blues earlier that night.
10:35 Jocque watches B.E.T. to get ideas and study what makes people popular.
17:15 They talk about imitators and people sampling Jocque's music without permission. Rounders had attorney write letter to Fred Charlie in Eunice who produced Keith Frank, Preston Frank's son who recorded the song "Yesterday". They toldhim to pay royalities or pull from shelves.
23:36 Todd Mouton, writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote a negative article about Zydeco and Cjun music where he called Beau Jocque the Michael Bolton of Zydeco.
26:10 Willis Prodhomme plays the song Cornbread. He and Jocque are friends and Jocque says he is going to teach him how to play the triple node accordion.
33:24 Jocque has another nickname "Juke Jack" given to him by Warren Ceaser back in high school at W. W. Stuart High School in Basille. He and Warren had a band back then that would play pop music around DeRidder. Jocque played tuba this was long before Warren played with Clifton Chenier. When Jocque enlisted, Warren went on to play with several big names including Isaac Hayes. Jocque says Warren was arrogant. But that he and all the guys in the band were like family.
38:12 Jocque met Clifton Chenier once at Chenier's house with some friends in 1979. He has played Margaret Chenier's club once. He wanted to buy one of Clifton's accordions from Margaret. Someone offered her $40k for the one that he wanted. It was a Petosa. Jocque spent $10k on a Gabbanelli he felt was just as good.
43:38 Jocque says there's only one King of Zydeco--Clifton Chenier.
47:18 Jocque says he was exposed to neurotoxic gas while in the military. He had top secret security clearance.
52:00 They talk about an incident at Hamilton's when Jocque threw Hamilyon against a wall when he was reaching for a knife in his pocket.
55:00 They talk about the new album coming out. He says he records what feels right to him. Says he wants to record and release the song "Yellow Moon" soon as a single. Michelle Espre wakes up and speaks occasionally throughout the rest of the interview. Jocque says his favorite Zydeco musicians are Buckwheat and C.J. Chenier.
1:06:30 Wolfman Jack
1:09:50 Jocque was asked to call if he ever wants to play Mulate's in New Orleans. Steve Riley plays there every Friday night.
Hackberry Ramblers in New York City
0:00 Tisserand is traveling with the Hackberry Ramblers and their crew and guests and have arrived in New York City for the Grammy Awards ceremony for which they have been nominated. Luderin Darbone talks about using an amplifier with the violin. The violin couldn't compete with the volume of the accordion, but the accordion has only so many notes and the violin gives you the half notes that some tunes need. Tisserand points out Radio City Music Hall, where the Grammy ceremony will be held. Darbone says the band has gone through 30-40 musicians over the years but has only had one violin player. He says his influences are Hank Williams and Bob Wills and mentions an old late-night Bob Wills radio program out of Tulsa that he used to listen to in the car.
5:15 He talks about how he found out he was nominated for a Grammy and how he responded. The Hackberry Ramblers recorded their first record, a 78, on RCA's Bluebird label in 1935. He tells the story of the first time he visited New York with his wife in 1970 while taking a trip to visit friends and Nova Scotia.
14:08 They have arrived at the Grammy ceremony and are being interviewed. Darbone tells the interviewer that the band started in 1933. When asked if he ever thought the band would be playing this long (65 years), he tells the interviewer that he didn't expect they'd play 2 or 3 years. They started at a time when jobs weren't available and piut the band together to make money playing dances and parties. He talks about how music has changed since then and how, in SW Louisiana at the time they begin playing, people were tired of hearing Cajun music and enjoyed their hillbilly music. He talks about the bands influences, how audiences respond to the group, and what it feels like to be up for a Grammy.
21:25 When asked about retirement, he says it's too late to retire. He's asked about how it feels to be playing that night with Jim Lauderdale, Ralph Stanley, Guy Clark, and the other nominees. He tells the story of the first amplifier they used in 1934. He was living in Crowley and a lot of country dancehalls had no electricity. He found a guy in Rayne that had a generator that converted AC to DC.
Interview with Carl Brasseaux by Michael Tisserand sides 1 and 2
Former Accession # TI1-017
1:09 Brasseaux begins by telling the history of the populations of South Louisiana as a whole and says it's regarded by anthropologists and cultural geographers as the most complex rural society in rural U.S. Most outsiders believe that the French speaking culture is monolithic but it is anything but. The French speaking population arrived from a multitude of regions. The second largest free black community was in this region of south central Louisiana, the first being in New Orleans. He talks about the manumission of the mistresses of white planters and their children. Many of the free black were prosperous and some even owned their own slaves. During the Civil War, their sympathies would often lie with the Confederacy.
8:20 Land among the Mississippi was a premium during the 18th century and the free blacks migrated to New Orleans or this region where there was more available land. Transportation was waterborn. A long-lot system was adopted from Normandy and Canada. This gave the land owner access to the stream, which was their means of communication, and the more fertile land. In the 19th century, a large black community emerged from the surplus slaves from the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee being brought in from slave merchants. The French speaking black population was tied to the French speaking white population by culture and religion.
13:00 Students did a research paper on Allons Danser Colinda. The Calinda dance originated in Africa and brought in by slaves from the West Indies.
15:00 There are differences in areas where there were nodules of settlements along Bayou Teche and Bayou Vermillion. The geographical area where Zydeco originated forms a triangle from Ville Platte to Crowley to Cankton. That's the region where three cultures came together--the free black community, white creoles and prairie Cajuns. The crossing of the cultures is represented in the music and in the cuisine.
20:00 The musical distinctions came in the 40s and 50s when Cajun became more country and Zydeco became more Rhythm & Blues, and with the introduction of Swamp Pop.
22:00 Going back to the 19th century, it wasn't usual for black musicians to play white parties. Amede Ardoin and Clifton Chenier were successful at melding styles. The country dances early on were a form of entertainment and a way to renew community ties. They were mostly free from violence prior to the Civil War, but became increasingly violent post-Civil War. Dance Halls also faced issues of violence--especially when people from other communities would gather. The people in the area were self-isolated socially and culturally due to negative stereotypes.
25:15 There was a multitiered society in the beginning of the 19th century with white Creoles being the top aristocratic tier, followed by the Acadians, the free people of color, and then the slaves. After the Civil War, the region was seemingly third world with small elite and middle-classes and a large number of dispossessed. There was a large migration to E. Texas by economic refugees at the beginning of the 20th century. under the tenantry system, people of all backgrounds worked side-by-side in the fields which was a source for cross-cultural exchanges.
38:57 There were staggering acts of violence in the Cajun prairie areas in the early part of the 20th century. There was an attempt to establish a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Lafayette until the newspaper published a member list which led the group to disband.
43:00 Cookie and the Cupcakes played at the Southern Club in Opelousas but were not allowed in the club itself, only the bandstand. This was common up through the 1950s. Mrs. Hebert, a war widow in New Iberia, transformed her house into a dancehall in the wake of the Civil War. He says Tisserand should contact Shane Bernard about stories at the Southern Club when black musicians crossed the line.
47:30 They talk about violence in the black community at the turn of the century in the region.
53:20 There are some myths dispelled such as one that Mallet refers to mulatto. The talk about influx of migration from Santo Domingo.
57:00 Only in the last Census is there a category for Cajun. But there is none for Creole. Brasseaux grew up in southern St. Landry Parish. There was little Creole and Cajun music performed when he was growing up because it was a time when those communities were under extreme stress. Cajun culture was publicly denigrated in the Opelousas newspaper as late as 1964. Most of Clifton's shows were on the road, particularly East Texas. It wasn't until the first Cajun Music Festival in 1974 that young Cajun activists insisted that Creole musicians be included. The members of the Cajun elite (including Barry Ancelet and Jimmy Dimaggio) who were part of the CODOFIL establishment were adamantly opposed to their inclusion. The festival provides a forum for these people who had been shoved aside during the 40s and 50s. Had it gone another decade. Brasseaux believes both musical forms may well have disappeared. It attracted a new following of younger generations.
1:05:55 They talk about efforts to stamp out the local cultures in the mid 20th century by educators. This trend was reversed in the 70s for the Cajun clulture, followed by the Creoles in the 1980s.
1:09:40 Tisserand asks about social functions and institutions in the late 19 and early 20th centuries. The Cajuns had a social function that enforced a sense of community called la ramasserie, which was a communal harvest of people gathering to help out those who were shorthanded. They was another institution called a boucherie, which was a weekly butchery for people in the community. The dances were for community ties as well but also included courting rituals. It was discovered only recently that many Jewish families of German and Eastern European consciously changed their identities and converted to Catholicism to integrate into the community. There were instances of a need to look for outer marriages in some Creole communities like Natchitoches due to the small population. There were high instances of genetic problems in areas where there was horizontal marriage. This was more common in bayou areas than in the prairie areas where people could move around more freely.
1:15:57 The talk about the genetic presence of Native American blood in the Cajun and Creole cultures. Brasseaux believes it is exaggerated. He said the natives in the region were sparce to begin with and that the Attakapas Indians were cannibalistic. The last full-blood Attakapas died before 1910. There was a western influx of Coushatta Indians in the 1790s but their co-mingling was limited. The Chitimacha intermarried but is was largely confined to the Charenton area. Within a decade of their arrival, the Acadians formed commercial ties with the Attakapas with a smuggling ring that extended into central Texas.
1:22:60 The term 'bright' is often used by the darker-skinned black community to describe the lighter-skinned community. The tension between the two communities and lingering hostility is discussed.
Interview with Don Cravins by Michael Tisserand
0:50 Don got involved in Zydeco around 1987-88 when his brother, Charles, told him about an opening at Z106 in Maurice for a Zydeco radio show. Don and Charles did the show together and it became very popular. They involved people in the community in the show by telling stories and having regular call-ins like Floyd. They had some bands play live in the studio including Zydeco Force who they had discovered in the parking lot of Richard's. They took the show on the road to the trail rides and nursing homes.
4:10 The show played a big role in Don's decision to run for public office. He grew up in Mallet, La. and says he remembers hearing Marcel Dugas play La la music, but that his first memories of Zydeco were of John Delafose.
7:50 About a year after the radio show started, they began to produce a television show where they went to the local clubs, like Richard's, to film. The shows were produced throughout Southwest Louisiana, primarily in St. Landry Parish. They worked with a lot of bands. Boozoo Chavis was probably the first broadcast. Charles worked with Nathan Williams and gave him lots of radio time making Nathan popular locally. Don says that Nathan just played the Democratic Convention last week. He talks about how band rise in popularity in Zydeco and how there never seems room for more than two or three bands to do well locally at the same time. He says the mindset of the fans usually allow them to only support one band at a time and it causes great competition in the Zydeco music scene. The rivalries do not serve the musicians and he feels that if Zydeco is reach it's potential, the musicians should work together.
16:50 Don talks about Boozoo Chavis as a master musician and how he set the stage for the new generation of Zydeco musicians.
20:10 The return to taking about the rivalries between Zydeco musicians. He's had bands refuse to play on the same stage as other bands at festivals and finds it foolish. He says sometimes the audience gets involved in the rivalries too. He talks about some of the musicians who are the nicest to work with too, including John Delafose and Willis Prudhomme.
27:24 He says he misses producing the show and looks forward to doing it again. The show had regular dancers that would come out. Mona Wilson won a dance contest they put on and Don shows a picture of her with her trophy. She teaches dance now. There were rivalries between the dancers too. The dance moves have evolved quite a lot.
32:00 He tells the story of discovering Zydeco Force in the parking lot at Richard's during a trail ride. The played for beer in the gravel parking lot.
33:30 They held contest on the radio for people to suggest the name for their television program, Zydeco Extravaganza. He remembers that it was Zydeco Force that played the first broadcast. They also recorded the theme song for the program. Places like Richard's and El Sido's host political benefits and are centers of the communities. He says Sid Williams is very involved in his community. He talks about how Sid runs his businesses.
37:00 He talks about how being known through the television and radio show created his political position to a large extent. When elected to public office in 1991, he was the first man of color to represent his area. He says he certainly feels his Creole lineage gives him a sense of difference in his position. They talk about the different definitions of Creole and lack of central understanding of the term Creole. Don understands it as African-Americans of French heritage who are bilingual. Mayor Marc Morial in New Orleans fought to have the word Creole removed from 'A Creole Christmas' whereas the people from Acadiana assert to have the name recognized. They talk about the blanket attempt to market all of the regional music as Cajun and the musicians, like Buckwheat, who have been asserting the distinction of Zydeco. He's aware of historical divisions within the Creole community but has not experienced that in his lifetime.
48:00 Wilbert Guillary who produces the Zydeco Festival in Plaisance is Don's cousin. The work together to promote Zydeco music so that both festivals are successful. Don feels like Zydeco music is the best expression of his culture and is glad to see younger musicians carrying on the traditions--especially the children of older Zydeco musicians.
53:30 Trail Rides evolved as a family event. Broadcasting the show from the trail rides injected a festival experience into the events. Showing the horses at the trail ride was an expression of pride.
58:35 The contest was started for a way for the young kids to express themselves and get interested in the music.
1:01:07 Don has so many videos of events to sort through. He says he has ideas for using the materials on the tapes and would like to donate some to a USL cultural center. He wants them to be well-preserved.
1:03:45 He talks about what Zydeco means to him and how it reminds him of family and times gone by and the days he cherished so much. He identifies it with kinship and family values.
Interview with Carl Brasseaux by Michael Tisseand side 3
0:00 After the Civil War, there was no longer a legal distinction between free people of color and slaves. The free people of color were a de facto elite due to their land holdings. Below them was a large population of former slaves, which within, also contained a small minority of descendants of while planters and their slave mistresses who were not manumitted. It is this minority population, for the most part, who are responsible for the Creole revival movement and are the musicians playing Creole and Zydeco music.
5:00 The majority of these descendants would have been from the original wave of slaves brought in from West Africa, the Bambara, from what is now present day Mali. Brasseaux sees the inference that there was a large population from Haiti as an exaggeration. He says it would be nice if the Saint-Domingue connection was true as it would solve some riddles, like the population of Creole speakers, both white and black, stretching from Parks to Cecilia. There's an all-white Creole speaking population on the fringe of LaFourche/ Terrebonne Parish. But he believes it's the case of parallel developments. Because the slave trade was a monopoly handled by one French company, you see a population of Creole speaking people in the French islands in the Indian Ocean that were colonized at the same time as Louisiana. The community of Creole speaking people in the West Indies even has a variety of music they call Zydeco, a term believed to be a French corruption of the Wolof infinitive for "let's dance".
10:34 In 1964, the Opelousas newspaper wrote derogatory remarks about Dewey Balfa and others who were playing at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. Tisserand brings up the Opelousas newspaper covering a 1929 accordion contest that was pro-Cajun music. Brasseaux says there were many things happening simultaneously at that time. The release of the film 'Evangeline' in 1929 was followed by a movement by the elite to establish the Evangeline Longfellow National Park. Dudley Leblanc was the spokesperson for the community. At the same time, The Bayou Pom Pom radio program was the Cajun answer to Amos and Andy and French language was being suppressed in the schools.
14:55 LSU was at one time a hotbed of Cajun and Creole research when James Broussard was there. They pride themselves on being a center for Old South Studies. But there's not much of this information there or at Tulane. Most you will find here in the folklore and folklife collection here that Barry Ancelet administers(at UL). He says it's a wonderful resource that's going to waste and is not staffed. Brasseaux suggests Tisserand try to contact Alan Lomax.
17:52 The free people of color adopted some of the elite's attitudes towards poor whites during the Antebellum period. The term Cajun became associated with white trash by the civil war and was used by blacks themselves as an insult in their own community. Queen Ida muddied the water by using the name Cajun for herself. Tisserand says that in California there seems to be a resentment to be told you play Creole music, as if it infers that you can't play Cajun music. Joe Simien. Brasseaux agrees that that dynamic doesn't exist here. The Creole Newsletter is published in Simi Valley. They talk about resentments by parts of the community towards the infusion of other genres into Cajun music.
Interview with Mack McCormick by Michael Tisserand
0:00 McCormick compiled two LPs "A Treasury of Field Recordings" put out by 77 Records in England around 1959 to let other people know about musical traditions in Houston. He said he wouldn't do it again. It's too much of a mish mash and nobody likes all of it, but that that's the nature of documentary recordings. He says when he talks about Zydeco, he means the music of Frenchtown in Houston. He doesn't accept the second layer of the use of the word Zydeco and believes in was usurped by Louisiana tourists and that the lines were blurred in the 1960s.
7:50 McCormick says that zydeco came before Clifton Chenier. Clifton brought it back with his heated performance, but his period of fame and influence came later than what he's talking about. By the 1940s when he started recording it wasn't common in Frenchtown. He says he remembers seeing all of these different spellings of the word on posters including zordico and Lightnin' Hopkins put out a record called Zologo. He talks about deciding on the spelling of the word and settling on 'zydeco'. His spelling ended up being the one most used. He talks about doing the same thing with the word 'songster' from his record note writing. He talks about a lack of black scholars.
16:40 He worked for the Smithsonian for 10 years. He was interested in and worked in jazz earlier. When he heard a man playing guitar on the street he became interested in that kind of music and began recording people around Houston and branched out to E. Texas. It was then that he realized his real interest was in what makes cultures expressive and when and why the cultural expressions happen. He doesn't have the answers but, in his research, found things that suggest answers. He gives the example of the 4th ward section of Houston which had a population of 10,000 people in the 1920s that produced 200 professional musician. There was a grocer in the neighborhood who had put a piano in front of the store and the kids would fight to play it and an older man would teach them. He recorded Buster Pickens and did a movie about him and then went to Austin to find Robert Shaw and found that he knew the distinctive 4th ward sound.
25:10 He talks about the German influences that are overlooked and gives some examples of how they could have influenced early jazz and blues and the use of brass instruments and the accordion. He found the influences all along the gulf coast. He says that there was more investigation into guitar players than piano players in blues. He says there was a begrudging acknowledgement of piano and women singers and jug bands.
35:00 He talks about doing a grid search around Texas and Louisiana and finding there were pockets of interest in different instruments and styles. In 1965 he was invited to bring some convicts to Newport to sing Texas work songs.
40:30 McCormick mentions Carl Seashore, a psychologist who studied musicianship in the 1920s. He looked at the abilities of the families of musicians.
47:35 He talks about what Frenchtown and the adjacent sections were like at the time he was doing his fieldwork and Frenchtown's Catholic distinction and the perception of the Frenchtown community by blacks outside of the community.
52:52 They talk about the folk etymology of La la, Zydeco. McCormick talks about including mediocre artists on his Treasury of Field Recordings to document what was happening and the roots of later, more-famous artists like Clifton Chenier. He talks about star-power's ability to corrupt what's commonplace in the musical genres.
59:00 He believes Anderson Moss to be the most accomplished musician in Zydeco who did not deviate in the way Clifton Chenier did. Clifton asked McCormick to help him get some recognition and he said it reminded him of Jimmy Ford "The Great White Bird". But he never recorded him. It's not what he was interested in. He doesn't recommend show business. He thinks Anderson Moss made better decisions than Clifton in that regard. He talks about Clifton and Lightnin' Hopkins fighting on stage. Irene's was a small stage in Houston where the prima donna attitudes where not tolerated.
1:14:55 They talk about the last years of Clifton's life and about what Tisserand's book will be about. McCormick talks about Lightnin's association with Zydeco musicians and Spider Kilpatrick's presence in the band and cultural overlaps in the music in Houston back when he was working in field recording. They discuss the geography of Frenchtown and the surrounding area. McCormick believes that Kashmere Gardens was designed to attract the Louisiana migrants and about Houston's growth. Frenchtown was a sort of tourist destination for other Houston residents. McCormick talks about the string bean breaking dance. He says Zydeco was the dance first.
Interview with Bebe Carrier by Michael Tisserand
Former Accession # TI1-011
2:12 Bebe talks about having a fiddle with rattlesnake rattles in it. He would put two or three rattles in the violin to improve the tone. One day he realized someone had taken the rattles out. They had been in the violin for years and he never figured out who took them out. He got the idea about putting the rattles in by some old friends.
5:20 There weren't many musicians around where he lived when he was young so he heard music from records. There were house dances with accordion players. He heard a record by Amede Ardoin. Eunice Two-Step. Bebe played bass with Amede at a Creole house dance around Lawtell. Bebe was asked to play a house dance in Ville Platte but didn't want to go. He said Ville Platte was too rough. He went anyway and it went alright. He said he'd played a party once in that area when someone was shot and he had been in the line of fire.
12:03 Bebe played his first club with his brother at Richard's in 1940. He played when Eddie Richard ran the club. He played other clubs around Louisiana around Welsh and Iowa. Bebe talks about one night he played in Iowa at a time it was forbidden to have whiskey. The club owner picked Bebe up from his dad's house in Welsh where he'd been working in the rice fields. They went to get a load of whiskey and were stopped by Lake Charles law enforcement and got arrested and had to stay in jail for 4-5 days. He says it was the first time he'd ever been to Lake Charles.
17:28 White Mule was the bootleg apple punch Bebe had on him when he was arrested. He talks about making white mule in the 1920s in Lawtell.
22:25 They talk about the old house dances. Bebe said that the young girls would ask the older people if they could use their house and they'd take all the belongings out of the house and put them back after the dance. Sometimes Bebe would play solo for the dances.
25:30 Bebe talks about drinking lemon juice and taking his medicine. He says he was diabetic but a doctor in Beaumont took him off the meds and he doesn't have it anymore. He mostly just has pain now.
27:20 They talk about dancers back then that danced swing and waltz dances. The men would extend a white handkerchief to ask a woman to dance. Bebe talks about playing with Douglas Bellard. They didn't call the music Zydeco back then. They called it Lala. He first heard music called Zydeco a few years ago with Clifton Chenier. Bebe played the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. Kentucky Waltz. Bill Monroe. Jimmy Rogers. Bob Thibodeaux wanted him to play dancing songs in church.
34:18 Bebe wrote the song Blue Runner. It was Bebe's biggest song. It's a fast snake that whips you with its tail. Bebe likes hillbilly music. Jimmy Rogers. Bill Monroe died about a month ago. When clubs like Richard's opened, the house dances discontinued. The clubs drew people from all over whereas the house dances were just people from the neighborhoods.
38:50 Bebe started playing the blues on the violin and would listen and learn from records.
41:19 Bebe says he was brought up on a farm planting cotton, corn, sweet potato, etc. Then his first wife left him when he didn't want to go to Lake Charles. He was raised in Lawtell. Bebe's dad played the accordion. He says he learned violin playing one made from a cigar box. His dad bought him a real violin in Church Point when he was about 12. Bebe talks about tuning his violin in different ways for different music.
46:38 Blues of Bebe. Baby Please Don't Go Back to New Orleans.
48:20 They talk about alcohol and musicians drinking. He says even the doctors would recommend alcohol.
50:38 Beb didn't make his first record until about 1978. Amede was the first to record in the area after he was discovered at an accordion contest in Opelousas. Bebe and his brother started playing together around 1965 and played clubs. Madame Faielle was written about a woman who lived outside Lawtell.
56:03 John Delafose passed away at Richard's. Geno is taking over the band. Willis Prudhomme. Leo Thomas.
59:09 Nathan Abshire.
Interview with Canray Fontenot by Michael Tisserand #1
Former Accession # TI1-006
0:33 A lot of people come by to see Canray for articles and t.v. and radio interviews.
3:05 Plays at Marc and Ann Savoy's Liberty Theater between bands often. He talks about traveling abroad for shows and says he had to do about 25 interviews in 20 days for one trip. They didn't want to interview anyone but him. He thinks it's because there aren't many black fiddle players. They talk about Clarence Gatemouth Brown.
6:55 He talks about why he doesn't like to play for kings and queens.
8:18 He's been fighting cancer for two years but is doing better.
11:57 He says he's no the kind of musician who plays a lot unlike his uncle or Dennis McGee. McGee told him he'd rather play than eat. Canray says he's different. He says he could have made a living playing the fiddle but didn't like it enough. He always had a hard job doing hard work.
13:50 One time he quit playing for three years and sold all of his fiddles and equipment. That was around 1963. Canray tells a story of a friend of his who drove a garbage truck in Jennings and found a fiddle in the trash that he gave to him. Canray lived in Oberlin at that time.
17:02 He told Clifton Chenier he was no longer playing and sold all of his gear. Clifton told him not to stop and that things were just beginning to get good. In the last part of 1963, a car pulls up to Canray's house in the country. It was Bois Sec Ardoin and a man from New York who wanted them to play the Newport Rhode Island Jazz Festival.
22:00 Milton Vanicor stops by with peaches for Canray. Milton tells them he just recorded a tape two months ago in Lafayette with his nephew Terry Huval who plays with Jambalaya.
25:10 Milton plays the tape for them.
36:00 Canray talks about the first time went to a festival. He played the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966 and they gave him a fiddle workshop with a bunch of big-name fiddle players. He was embarrassed with his little old fiddle. But it went well. He asked what the heck were they (he and Bois Sec) doing there at a jazz festival when he doesn't play jazz. He was told all the Dixieland music went back to the slaves. They talk about the song "Home Sweet Home". He had not yet made a record at that time, but he was recording on his way back home from the festival in Washington D.C.
44:40 Columbus Stockade Blues came from a French tune. Moon Mullican.
43:40 Canray talks about him and Bois Sec growing up with musicians like his father and Amede Ardoin. He remembers his grandfather and a bunch of old men getting together on Christmas Eve to sing songs all night. They would take the coal from the Christmas fire to make their calendar. They would take onion, salt and garlic and put it on the calendar and see how it reacted to predict how the year would turn out. He talks about songs moving from one generation to another. He talks about going to France in 1990 and recognizing songs.
51:20 Amede Ardoin was the first black man to make a French record. Amede and his dad would fix their own accordions. Sometimes they were competitive. Amede didn't like to work and never married. He always had his accordion with him and wanted to play for money, Canray's dad was a foreman and had a wife and played dances for the black people in the area. Sometime he'd be paid with firewood. But Amede didn't want that. He would play for the white people.
58:27 Canray's dad didn't speak a word of English. His mother played the accordion too but just for the children. Women didn't play dances. Women who played music were considered bad women.
1:01:10 Canray talks about how a lot of musicians he knows don't read music or know keys or what an octave is.
1:07:00 Canray has been playing with younger musicians. Beausoleil, File. They are learning a lot from him. He says Michael Doucet has recorded nearly his and Bois Sec's entire album. Canray doesn't think Doucet has recorded any original music. Zydeco Gris Gris. Canray doesn't like him playing only other people's music.
1:11:12 Canray had a string band called the Basille Boys. They never recorded. Canray talks about trouble Amede would get into for some of the songs he wrote. Amede was living in Pineville when he died.
1:23:23 Douglas Bellard. Canray made cigar box fiddle with screen door wire.
Interview with Canray Fontenot by Michael Tisserand #2
Former Accession # TI1-007
0:00 Barres de la Prison, Bonsoir Moreau. Canray talks about funny rules that the older folks had.
5:23 Creole music. Canray says he didn't know the term Zydeco coming up. He says Zydeco is nothing but a snap beat. If you were white, you played Cajun. If you were black you played Creole. Back then, it was an insult for a black person to call a white man Cajun. The music was different, but not much. Black people played more from the soul. With Dewey Balfa in D.C., the saw a man from Mississippi, Johnny Shine, and asked him how he likes the white guys playing the blues.
10:02 Talks about difference between Creole and Zydeco. He said Clifton changed the speed.
13:59 Talks about racial tension in 1950s. Talks about white musicians singing in French but not speaking French.
15:53 Nonc Adam
20:20 Canray says that Dewey Balfa went to Philadelphia and had some people make him feel bad because they called him prejudice when they asked him to play one of Canray's songs and Balfa said he could not. But Canray told him he should play it his way and so Balfa did play and record the Prison Bars. Michael Doucet recorded it too. Douglas Bellard wrote Prison Bars, but Canray is often credited with it. It's one of the first songs Canray learned to play.
28:00 In D.C. and Pennsylvania, some older folks asked the band to play a Mazurka. Only Canray knew how to play one that an old man, Olivier Edward, had taught him on fiddle. There's a distinct dance done to a Mazurka that they did that Canray saw for the first time.
29:50 Canray has been playing all kinds of music with File. He says the best way to learn music is to relax and not strain.
35:11 Talks about working at the Feed Store for 14 years. He has six children. Some went to college. They all finished high school. One of his daughters is a lawyer. When Canray went to school, they only went for three months a year. He started school sometime in 1938 or 1939. He only went as far as the 5th grade.
41:28 He went to Belfast, Ireland and was impressed by the fiddlers. Canray tells the story of playing in Ireland and how an Irish musician responded to his music. Canray celebrated his 71st birthday in Belgium, Ireland and London during that trip.
45:30 Canray said he likes to play with Bois Sec but that Bois Sec can't play like he used to since he had his stroke.
51:15 Edward Poullard
56:45 Canray says it's funny that the song that everyone likes best is the one you hate to play.
58:12 Canray wrote 'Joe Pitre'. It's an old song but he put the words to it.
1:00:53 La Jog Au Plombeau (Jug On The Saddle Horn)-- Canray recorded it but doesn't play it anymore. His wife and another woman got into a brawl one night while he played it. They talk about songs having sad or happy memories attached to them.
1:05:13 Canray talks about his father. He says his dad never wanted to record and didn't like the idea of his music still going after he was dead. He says he has recorded all of his father's songs. There was one he couldn't remember but was reminded of it one day by Shelton Manual, an accordion player from Eunice.
1:12:20 They tlak about Canray's father's religious beliefs and superstition and about Canray's sickness and recovery.
1:25:20 They recall more stories about Amede Ardoin getting into trouble.
Interview with Dickie Landry by Michael Tisserand
Former Accession # TI1-015
0:00 Dickie talks about recording at Master Tracks with Paul Simon (Graceland) and problems with the band members in the studio. He told John Hart that the studio was ready to call the project quits but they could record one more song. Buckwheat and Terrance Simeon and Dopsie were in the studio. Paul ended up taking choosing Dopsie for the record.
5:26 The project started when Dickie was in New York working on a Loni Anderson film. They went to see Beausoleil who was performing at Carnegie Recital Hall. He introduces himself to Paul Simon. Paul was looking for a Zydeco band and Dickie told him Buckwheat was playing that night at Tramp's. Paul liked what he heard and called Dickie the next morning and told him to find him two more bands and a studio and he'd come down and record. Paul invited Dickie to his studio that night to hear what he was working on with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They became friends and working on the project together.
11:30 Dickie talks about Paul Simon's philanthropy and contributing to health care for the underprivileged. Paul came to town to do a benefit at the Cajundome for a children's organization.
12:30 Dickie says that Dopsie played a show for $3k and only paid his band members $50 each but signed away his rights to points on the album. When the album hit, Dickie was accused of taking all the money from the band but he says he didn't make any money at all. He talks about confronting Dopsie about the accusation and Dopsie's later lawsuit against Paul for copyright infringement which he and Ann Savoy believed to be bogus. Ann Savoy ended up finding the first recording of the song from around 1917. Ahmet Ertegun signed Dopsie to Atlantic. Bob Dylan asked Dopsie to play but he couldn't do it.
17:50 Dopsie didn't have a manager at that time. Dickie says Dopsie had a bad reputation especially after crowning himself king after Clifton died.
19:40 Dickie's first involvement with Zydeco was when he first played with Clifton in 1972 in Breaux Bridge at a club called the Dixie Doodle just after Clifton had filmed 'Hot Pepper'. In 1978, a wealthy family in New York with whom Dickie was acquainted, decided to fund a tribute to the blues at Carnegie Hall and they contacted Dickie to advise. He recommended and insisted that Clifton Chenier be part of the show. The show sold out. Dickie tells the story about Ertegin pressuring the producer to add Chicago blues musicians and the problems that ensued. Clifton's performance saved the show at the end.
27:57 Dickie was having a drink with the bass player Jumpin Joe in a bar before the show. Joe told him he couldn't read or write but ever since he was a kid he dreamt of playing Carnegie Hall.
29:38 Danny Kimble, a local rubboard player, can imitate Cleveland Chenier's playing. Cleveland would use four bottle openers on each finger to get his sound. Dickie tells a story about smoking marijuana with Cleveland.
32:25 Dickie tells the story of Dopsie turning down Saturday Night Live. Dickie tells the story of his 40th birthday in L.A. playing a concert with Phillip Glass. Some people threw him a surprise party and Mick Jagger was there. Mick Jagger went with Dickie to hear Clifton Chenier play at a high school in Watts.
39:00 Dickie says he's the one who brought Zydeco music to New Orleans and gave the idea for the name The Big Easy for the film starring Ellen Barkin and Dennis Quaid which Dickie consulted on. Dickie managed Terrance Simien for five years until Terrance married his wife Cynthia who took control of Terrance's career. He talks about he and Paul Simon going to see Terrance at the Lone Star. David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and Penny Marshall were there to see another act. Dickie got Terrance a record deal with a label in L.A. but the label went bankrupt.
Interview of Rosie and Morris Ledet by Michael Tisserand
Former Accession # TI1-016
1:00 They talk about Rosie being in heavy rotation on the radio, especially from Lafayette to Lake Charles. Rosie says she wasn't a big fan of Zydeco growing up. She started liking it after hearing Boozoo play at Richard's one night when she was a teenager with her uncle. Her parents listened to Zydeco but no one in her family plays music. Rosie listened to a lot of rock and roll and talks about the musicians she likes listening to. She talks about the night she saw Boozoo at Richard's. Morris sat in that night on accordion playing songs by Amede Ardoin and that's how he got his start. Jealous Man Two-Step. That night was the first night Rosie and Morris met. They got married the next year. He had a band for four years before she ever picked up the accordion.
8:40 They tell a story about Morris telling Rosie not to mess with his accordion while he was gone. Rosie played 'Morning Train' for him after she had been practicing on her own. They went on tour (Morris Ledet & the Zydeco Playboys) in the summer of 1993 and Rosie would play with the band some of the time. By 1994, Rosie was in the band full-time and Morris moved to the bass. Rosie recorded her first album that year.
11:49 They talk about Queen Ida and Ann Goodly being the other women accordion players in Zydeco. Rosie says some of the older people feel like women shouldn't play.
16:30 Rosie says she has a reputation for being shy, but she's not like that on stage. Morris says her change on stage is like night and day.
20:40 Rosie's given name is Mary Rosezla Bellard. She was born in Church Point and brought up in Eunice. Morris was born and raised in Iota, La where he works at the high school as a janitor. They say Beau Jocque is their biggest influence. She says basically Zydeco is revved up blues. Morris started playing his second year in high school when he found one in the band room. The first song he learned to play was Terrence Simien's 'Hee Haw Breakdown'. He learned to play by ear. His dad had an accordion but was a blues harmonica player. He plays rubboard with the band. Morris manages the band. They talk about how the band makes business decisions.
27:10 They just moved to their new home and talk about how they've been taking care of Morris' parents for the past several years. Rosie's family is very supportive. She says her mom is her number one fan. They talk about Rosie's first songs that she wrote.
33:30 Rosie talks about her parents speaking French but Rosie doesn't speak it well because her parents discouraged her from speaking it but now she's trying to learn from her parents.
36:30 There are younger people in the crowds now. She feels like Zydeco is popular with the younger crowd because of people like Beau Jocque and Boozoo putting rock into the music. Zydeco has brought the community together. Morris wishes they were on the road more and they are playing a venue in Los Angeles called the Alligator Lounge and the Foothill Club in Long Beach.
39:28 They talk about how local people don't like musicians to change Zydeco and add outside influences. She likes to write about everyday stuff. She mentions her favorite songs that she wrote and songs that other Zydeco musicians have written.
45:00 Rosie used to be terrified of Mardi Gras. She talks about what it was like for her during Mardi Gras as a kid.
48:30 They are working on songs for the next album. Rosie plays at home for her daughter, Cassandra, and at her daughter's school. Rosie talks about being a fan of Koko Taylor. They talk about rivalries in the Zydeco scene.
55:20 They talk about working with Rockin Sidney and how much he has taught them. Lake Charles and Lafayette want to hear the piano accordion, but the Opelousas/Lawtell area is more French accordion. Rosie loves New Orleans and all the different music.
59:00 Their band is almost all family members. Ray Johnson is starting to play guitar with them.
1:02:00 Women's roles in music and the lack of credit they get in the country.
Interview with Anderson Moss by Michael Tisserand parts 1 and 2
Former Accession # TI1-019
0:00 Anderson Moss is from Maurice, LA. Earnest Henry is from Church Point and has been taking lessons from Moss every week for about two months. Moss attends church at Mother Mercy and has played church dances there. He moved to Texas in 1928 when his father went there for work. Moss says they would hire anyone from Louisiana because they were known to be hard workers.
10:30 Moss's father played harp. Moss would play washboard with him.
11:26 (He plays a song Hippy Ti Yo on the accordion) Moss is playing a Titano accordion he bought about 7 years ago.
14:21 He talks about the old house parties. People would pay about $2 or $3 to get into the house dance. Louisiana food would be served. The music ended at about 1am. News of the dances was circulated by word of mouth.
17:49 Moss says everyone in Texas misses Louisiana. There's a ward in Houston called French Town that was settled by Louisiana people.
21:07 Where he was born, there was a big hall as you cross Maurice that would have dances every two weeks. His parents would go and he'd stay home and watch his brother and sister. But after they went to sleep, he's sneak out and sit in the cotton field outside of the dance hall and listen. When it was over, he'd run back home and get under the covers so his parents didn't know. That's how he learned to play. He would hear Amede Ardoin and Bidon (Eustis Hopkins) on accordion. Sou-Pop and Belizaire Johnson were also accordion players that played at that time. He says Lonnie Mitchell was his best friend and would always pick him up to play.
29:10 Moss started playing accordion on the triple node. He learned 'Stormy Weather', 'Driftin Blues' and 'Black Gal', then people started asking him to play parties. When he couldn't play a party, he'd ask L.C. Donatto to play. He played all over Houston. Then started playing for white people in River Oaks. The white people called it swamp music or Cajun music. He talks about the River Oaks Country Club. They didn't call it Zydeco until Clifton Chenier. He said Clifton drank too much. They say Clifton drank a cheap wine called Sweet Lucy. He tells a story about Clifton trying to take a club gig out from under him.
36:14 He says he doesn't play anymore. There's a young crew playing now. Ronnie Broussard, Paul Richard. The word zydeco is from the old days. It's the word for a snap bean. The old saying was 'zydeco sont pas sale'. They talk about people dancing to zydeco. There's a dance where they act like they're snapping the beans. He talks about a dance that was so crowded with dancers the ceiling broke. He and Lonnie Mitchell were the first zydeco players out here. Clifton came after, then Danatto and a man named Willie Green that played out in the 6th ward. Willie Green was from Abbeville. Joe Jesse was another player.
44:10 Moss switched from the triple node to the big piano accordion to change things up. He says the Creole people like the button node accordion.
45:39 His doctor told him that cigarettes were good for your nerves. Moss tells stories about some rich people in town back in his day.
53:00 He talks about going to the casino in Coushatta to gamble. He said he made money playing music. He made a record a long time ago. But they threw him out and he never got his record. He talks about never getting paid for recording.
56:50 Moss talks about his time overseas in the army during WW2. He played accordion at parties in England and France.
1:10:54 His little 4-year-old nephew comes in and plays on a little accordion. Moss used to play the Continental Club when it was called Johnson's.
1:16:17 He first met Clifton in Houston. He'd go see Clifton when he was in the hospital. They talk about Lent in the old days. Musicians didn't play during Lent. Moss played with Lightnin' Hopkins.
Interview with Anderson Moss by Michael Tisserand part 3
0:00 It's unclear who they are speaking about. But it's someone who has died. Tisserand says he saw Moss Music Store and Moss Barber Shop. They belonged to some of Moss's nephews. Moss says he was good dancer. He remembers when the Charleston came out. He talks about some of the old shows he would do with all kinds of acts.
4:50 Moss says things have changed and he feels the devil is here on earth. He gets a kick out of teaching music. When he was younger and playing music, he still worked during the day doing all kinds of different jobs.
9:23 He met his wife at a Zydeco at the Junction. She was from Louisiana.
10:05 Tisserand dictates some notes to himself saying Moss was singing "Tell Me What's the Matter Now" as he was leaving. He got up to watch every car pass by. He was wearing nice shoes and shirt and red suspenders and a hat.
Interview with Rockin Sidney by Michael Tisserand Part 1
Former Accession # TI1-012
0:00 Rockin Sidney is from LeBeau, LA in St. Landry Parish. His parents were farmers. Grew up listening to hillbilly, Cajun, Rhythm and Blues, classical and jazz music on the radio. At the dancehalls they played La la/ Creole music. In every other house, someone played the accordion.
3:12 He talks about how people would play together at their houses after work. In Sidney's family, his uncle Frank Simien and his first cousins played. Johnny Henry played alto and tenor sax and the white people would pick him up to play their parties. He says all the Simeons are related going back to Paris. Sidney wrote a song about the Simeons. Both of Sidney's grandfathers played the accordion. Step grandfather related to Clifton Chenier. Guitar Gable, Gable King.
8:30 Sidney moved to Lake Charles in his 20s when he had a hit record he recorded in 1961 called 'No Good Woman'. The term Swamp Pop; was tagged onto the style of music later. Matilda. Sidney first recorded 'Tell Me' in Lake Charles. He talks about the recording business back then and playing clubs around Alexandria, Morganza and New Roads. Sidney never sang in French. He started playing because he wanted to be in movies. He'd see movies at the Palmetto Theater. He wanted to be like Roy Rogers when he was a kid. But he was disappointed when he was told he couldn't be like that because he was black. He talks about all the careers he dreamed of being growing up in Catholic school.
23:40 The white priest at Sidney's school had a talk with him about why Sidney was discouraged by his career desires and pointed out to him that he could be in the movies as an entertainer. Sidney said the priest changed his life by encouraging him and paying for his piano lessons when he was 10 or 11 years old. Father Mulkeen.
26:27 Sidney wrote 'No Good Woman' and recorded at Floyd Soileau's studio. The first record that gave Sidney some notoriety was 'She's My Morning Coffee" recorded at Goldband. J.D. Miller. His biggest hits were recorded at Floyd's. 'Toot Toot' was in 1984.
30:00 Sidney signs with Eddie Shuler. 'Lache pas la patate'. 'Action Speaks Louder Than Words'. He talks about trying to sing in French. Sidney stayed five years with Eddie.
35:05 Sidney decided to start playing the accordion. First asked Clifton Chenier if he could try his accordion at a show at Sacred Heart Church. Sidney first bought an accordion around 1976. 'Good Time Woman'. Sidney made his first Zydeco record in 1982 'Joy to the South'. Sidney had opened up a music store, Lake City Music Store, and made 'Zydeco Fever' as an 8-track. He moved to Lake Charles in 1962. His band played all over Texas and Louisiana. Lakeshore Club. Sidney talks about this time when everyone was moving to Texas and California but he didn't want to move far from LeBeau unless he had a hit record. Big Mama Thornton.
43:30 Sidney got away from the band after having troubles with the band and did a one-man show for about 12 years at places like the Candlelight Inn and different hotels.
45:40 He was writing and producing for other artists. Superior Elevation. He talks about how writing Toot Toot came about. Nobody was playing Zydeco records on the radio. He talks about Cajun phrases said from the stage. Sidney didn't understand the French words and just came up with Toot Toot from what little he gathered the musicians and crowd said at shows.
54:35 Sidney does all the parts when he records in his home studio. He talks about recording a final song for his record that ended up being Toot Toot and how he came up with the lyrics for his songs by remembering phrases he's heard.
1:02:24 Tisserand mentions C.C. Adcock looking for radio stations that were playing Toot Toot when he was a kid. This album came out on the Maison de Soul label before being released by Epic. The single for Toot Toot sold around 80k copies before being released. He talks about a lot of artists making Toot Toot popular before anyone ever heard Sidney's original version. People Magazine interviewed Sidney. Sidney recorded with John Fogerty on Fogerty's version of the song at Master Tracks in Crowley. Toot Toot was in two movies-- 'Pure Luck' starring Danny Glover and 'One Tough Cop'.
1:09:45 Sidney doesn't feel he's been done justice in books about the music scene. He says he's disappointed he wasn't in the book about Cajun music by Ann Savoy. He talks about his song and album in the billboard charts. Toot Toot paid for his radio stations. There was a beer commercial in Germany that used Toot Toot. Floyd leased the single to Epic. He talks about the song and album on the billboard charts and his royalties and publishing he split with Floyd. Toot Toot paid for the radio stations and his studio. He says he has about 6-7 songs on which he's still collecting royalties. He talks about all the different versions in different languages.
1:17:20 Sidney talks about Germany.
1:21:24 He talks about his spiritual beliefs and God's hand in his success.
1:28:00 Toot Toot lyrics
Interview with Rockin Sidney by Michael Tisserand Part 2
Former Accession # TI1-013
0:00 Sidney tells the story of him recording Toot Toot at his home studio and asking his wife's opinion after recording all night.
5:30 They talk about Sidney's recording studio setup. He hasn't had any other players record in his studio but he has produced and worked with other players in other studios like Ann Goodly and Rosie Ledet. Sidney says he believes there are powerful ways to approach a bandstand. He said he got advice and education like this from older players.
9:23 He says he was making $500-$600/ week in high school and graduated with a brand new '58 Plymouth station wagon painted green and pink. He talks about the ways he would promote himself with his behavioral style. He said there were a lot of things he had to compete, especially because he didn't speak French. He wrote 'Joy to the South'. It was hard for him to get into Zydeco. He decided he wanted to be in Zydeco like Mohammed Ali was in boxing. He said people started to pay attention to him after he challenged the bigger acts like Clifton Chenier and Buckwheat, often at The Summit in Houston, TX.
19:00 Sidney had a white band play behind him. He talks about planning a performance for a month to get people to notice him on the Zydeco scene. Tyronne Davis, Buckwheat, Z.Z. Hill, and Clifton Chenier were all performing the night Sidney pulled his planned act out in Houston. Sidney would dress up like Clifton and also had ventriloquist act he did with a dummy of Buckwheat. He talks about his publicity stunts he learned from the older musician in New Orleans.
32:30 Sidney liked comedy and would dress up like his dad and make his twelve brothers and sisters laugh.
34:17 He would go to The Dream Room on Toulouse St. in New Orleans in the 1950s and show the musicians his pick to let them know he played guitar. The New Orleans musicians would tease him about being from the country.
37:15 Sidney's company is called Toot Toot Communications. He says his station that they are in has a lot of history, including the first black disc jockey, Bubba Lutcher. Nelly Lutcher. The show at The Summit was the Zydeco Blues Fest in 1982 or 1983. Sidney had a character he played called Josh the Pimp and he would sing the song 'Welfare Cadillac'. He had goose that he would dress up for an act in his shows. He did a 'Purple Rain' act. All those acts were before Toot Toot. He talks more about his impersonations of Clifton and Buckwheat and how hard it was to get noticed with great players like them on the scene.
49:18 Luke Collins at the radio station in Eunice said John Delafose would show up at the station within 10 minutes when he heard Sidney there. Sidney said he and John Delafose had a little competition but things were easier for Delafose and Boozoo. They talk about the money the clubs paid and the cover charges at the door and musicians competing for crowds if they played on the same night.
59:29 Sidney talks about how the shows and musicians have changed since his day. He wishes Rosie Ledet would learn some things from him about how to better her stage presence.
1:06:50 He thinks the musicians like Keith Frank and Beau Jocque should try to get along better and put aside competitions. He says he regrets doing those things in his early shows.
1:10:40 Sidney talks about producing Boozoo's 'Dog Hill'.
1:17:15 They talk about Mardi Gras and Luke Collins being the first Zydeco radio d.j. Sidney's stations are KAOK in Lake Charles and KEAZ in DeRidder.
1:27:05 Sidney, Queen Ida, and Clifton all won Grammy Awards.
Interview with Rockin Sidney by Michael Tisserand Part 3
0:00 Tisserand and Sidney are in Sidney's warehouse digging through all of the records, memorabilia and merchandise that Sidney has stored. He mentions the agency he ran, Dance and Showband Attractions, and his former agent,, Huey Meaux, with whom he was with for one year. Sidney says Huey Meax got into some trouble and is in jail now, possibly in Houston.
8:35 Sidney find the tape of the show from October 30th at The Summit in Houston for the First Annual Texas and Louisiana Blues and Zydeco Festival with Z.Z. Hill, Clifton Chenier, Lil Milton, Buckwheat, John Delafose. Sidney was billed last. He says the man who booked the show was Richard's brother-in-law.
12:30 Sidney digs through his old costumes he wore on stage. He made them himself. He's got mannequins he got from Wal-Mart to dress up as zydeco musicians for Festival City, the entertainment complex he is planning.
20:40 Sidney is the first Zydeco musician to have his own studio. He says he's the first and only Zydeco musician to make a Christmas record. He says he likes to be the first to do what people aren't doing. He likes to consider himself 20 years ahead. He talks about artists being labeled by their genres.
30:00 Sidney says his biggest goal is to help other people like the old man in New Orleans helped him. He can't remember the man's name but said that the old man is the one who started him recording. He said he made trips to New Orleans to learn from him. He remembers the man played shows with his wife and he told Sidney that he shouldn't want to be a musician but instead should be an entertainer--a star.
Interview of Lil Buck and John Hart by Michael Tisserand Part 1
Former Accession # TI1-009
0:00 interview on road with Lil Buck.
Lil Buck, John Hart, Joe Brouchet, Robert St. Judy -- original Red Hot Louisiana Band started in 1969
1:00 Lil Buck met Clifton Chenier one night at the Blue Angel Club after Buck's rock n' roll band had broken up. Buck's uncle owned the club. Clifton asked Buck to play that night because his guitar player was stuck in Houston. After the gig, Clifton asked his bass player to pick Buck up for the rest of the gigs that weekend in Houston without even asking Buck. Buck recorded 9-10 albums with him after that over about 11 -12 years.
2:50 Buckwheat, The Hitchhikers
3:28 Lil Buck says when he left to play Zydeco, that turned everything around. he says he's the one who brought the younger people to Zydeco.
4:30 Claude Boudreaux -- Lil Buck'ss uncle that owned Blue Angel
6:05 They recall a story Clifton had told them when a black accordion player was hired to play but they thought he was white when they hired him. They made him play outside and put white gloves on him.
6:55 Clifton came up with the name Red Hot Louisiana Band. Clifton played songs in different keys often. He was creative on the bandstand trying out different things and taking chances.
11:00 They talk about how Clifton would hang out with the guys in the band during the day, but at night during the shows, he'd sit at another table planning. When together, he liked to tell and joke with the band about how hard it was in the past being on the road playing for little money or for BBQ. Buck said after the shows Clifton would take his shoes off and pour the sweat out. They'd get on the stage at 9pm and it was nonstop til 1.
15:17 Leaving CA going to Austin a week before coming back to Lafayette. Lil Buck did all the driving. An ice chest full of beer and water and snacks also had Clifton's insulin. They cleaned out the chest and accidentally threw out the insulin. Clifton's feet started to swell and he told Buck to speed to Austin. He got there and went to the doctor and got the shot and went to bed and still played the gig that night. Lil Buck says Clifton was an 'Iron Man'. They talk about other stories when Clifton was sick but kept playing. Clifton said 'whenever people are waiting for me that's where I'm gonna be'.
20:38 Etta James Buddy Guy. Buck talks about how Clifton's last name was pronounced different everywhere and how Clifton pronounced it.
22:40 Tisserand asks if Clifton or Clevland would say they invented the rub board. Buck says Clifton. Playing with Lightin' Hopkins. Buck said the way the washboard started was when Clifton worked in Port Arthur at a refinery and asked a metal worker if he could make a washboard the way he drew it. The man said he could make it any way he wanted. Ernest Johnson had been with Clif a long time and ended up playing with Buckwheat.
24:50 They'd that tour to California/Pacific NW all the way to Canada twice a year and be over there for two months. They had a few agents Big Pete (accordion player) Oakland, CA, someone named Buddy.
26:14 Helen Faulk-- Buck said she was his number one agent and Tisserand says Helen said she was his other woman so she knows him well. Buck says she used to do the driving for the band in a '59 Cadillac.
27:50 Clifton got his crown in California and also was given the key to Paris, France. There's a street named after Clifton in Paris.
29:30 Passe-partout television. Danny Caron. C.J. Sparking Paradise. C.J. replaced John Hart and Hart went on to play in Doopsie's band. Swamp party every Monday.
33:27 change to an interview with Lil Buckin Opelousas. Lil Buck says John is a master mechanic. They've been friends since before they played together in Clifton's band. John played with Little Bob on Monday nights before Lil Buck played with Clifton at the Peppermint Lounge. Lil Buck says John drinks scotch and milk.
36:15 Clifton didn't mind the band drinking as long as they could do there job. Lil Buck says Clifton used to drink heavily. Funny story about a gig in St. Martinville. Lil Buck says Clifton and Cleveland got along in the band. Cleveland was the older brother. Buck tells a story about playing the prison in San Francisco. C.J. was quiet in the band. Buck says he was with the band from 1969 to about 1982. Buck talks about Clifton becoming ill and his cousin played in his place for a gig in Galveston. His cousin was killed in a car accident on the way back to Lafayette.
41:20 Buck says the last time he saw Clifton was the night before he died. He went to the hospital with him and friends and family. The next day Buck left to play a gig in Houston and got the call that Clifton had died when he got to the motel. They announced it from the bandstand and everyone was upset. They were playing a Catholic Church in Houston.
44:10 They talk about records made with Chenier. One album was with Elvin Bishop and Steve Miller. Buck tells a funny story about kicking Elvin's pipe under the table so that he could solo.
45:47 John Hart comes in.
49:00 John Hart says Zydeco is far-fetched and says he's an authority on it. Hart is 64 years old and says you have to do research to be authentic. Clifton Chenier created it. Claude Faulk.
58:40 Hart says People are playing music and calling it Zydeco when it isn't. He says it's a fast name for a fast dollar. Talks about someone named Larry who is going to expose the truth about Zydeco and put it on the internet.
Interview of Lil Buck and John Hart by Michael Tisserand Part 2
Former Accession # TI1-010
0:00 They tell stories about Clifton Chenier recording with Floyd Swallow and Clifton's band traveling all over the world. The Louisiana Red Hot Band brought the blues and rhythm and blues to Zydeco. John Hurt last talked to Clifton about a month before he died. Clifton was neat and would drink VO but he'd never seem drunk. Hart and Buck say they learned a lot from Chenier. They enter a club where Buck and Hart are going to play that night.
9:15 They started playing with Clifton in the late 60s. Clifton was crowned overseas before they started playing with him. Hart talks about having been on the road with C.J. Chenier and Rockin Dopsie.
14:35 Marcel Dugas was one of the few people who would sit in with Clifton. Clifton's uncle played on an album but never in a live show. They tell a funny story Robert St. Julian told them about making that album. They talk about the way Clifton played the accordion. There's a story about going out to Opelousas to hear Buckwheat play right after they started playing with Clifton. They asked them to sit in and Clifton played Hammond organ. He played harmonica too. Lightnin' Hopkins once came to the church hall they played and sat in. They also backed Lightnin' up at The Ranch in Duson. They backed up a lot of blues acts.
20:13 They didn't know Clifton's parents but Buck says he went with Cleveland to clean the parents' grave for three or four years for All Saints Day. They mention other players who played with Clifton after their time in the band including Tee Jim, Dopsey, Milton, Raymond Monnet,, Alonzo Johnson, Danny Caron, Sherman Robinson, Wayne Burns, Katie Webster. Hurt played in Dopsey's band on Paul Simon's Graceland album recorded at J.D. Miller's studio and they talk about that experience.
25:02 Clifton used to play a dance all night Saturday night and start another dance on Sunday morning at Truman Palace. They tell a story about Cleveland getting sick on stage after drinking and eating pork chops. There's a story about an accident while the band was on the way to Holly Beach and another story about a hurricane when they were playing in Holly Beach. Buck tells a story about a show they played on Good Friday around 1971 and why they'll never play on Good Friday again. They tell more stories about troubles on the road.
34:15 There was a club called the Four Ace Club that's a janitorial service now. One whole wall of the stage was a mural of Clifton and the band. He has a friend who bought the wall and still has it. Buck's uncle, Claude Boudreaux was Clifton's first booking agent.
40:00 They talk about the show in Houston at The Summit. Buck played with Buckwheat at that time. When Clifton started to get really sick, he'd have to sit down on the shows. The last time Buck heard him play was at the festival in Plaisance. Clifton got on stage and said to play that song "I'm Coming Home" and started crying.
Interview with Nathan Williams by Michael Tisserand Part 1
0:00 The beginning of the recording sound like it's something that was on a tape that Tisserand recorded over and is not part of the interview.
0:57 Interview begins here. Nathan grew up in St. Martinville. His dad was a construction worker who dies of a heart attack when Nathan was seven. His mother had to work 2-3 jobs to take care of him and his 7 brothers and sisters. His grandmother helped out and cut sugarcane and his oldest brother helped raise the kids. His mother sent them all to Catholic school. In 9th grade, Nathan hitchhiked from St. Martinville to Lafayette to stay with his brother, Sid, and has stayed in Lafayette ever since. After school everyday, he worked in his brother's store. He graduated from Northside and married his wife Nancy.
5:50 When he was in 7th or 8th grade he would go and listen to Clifton Chenier play at the Casino Club in St. Martinville. He'd listen from outside the club and sometimes get in trouble with the neighbor of the club.Clifton was the first zydeco music Nathan ever heard. Buckwheat came out when he was in high school and he would visit with Buckwheat after school and started sitting in with him at his dances.
8:15 Nathan didn't play music growing up. His brother played organ. His family was very religious. His grandmother helped out a lot as did the man who owned the construction company where his father had worked. He graduated Northside in 1983 and then got sick. Soon after, he was hospitalized for 8 months with a thyroid condition which left him with a large medical bill he has only just finished paying.
13:30 Nathan spoke French growing up. He says he sings French better than he speaks it. He talks about his family heritage. His uncle, Harry, plays guitar with C.J. He talks about having his own style and being the first zydeco musician to have a parade band play his music. It makes him proud.
19:17 Follow Me Chicken I'm Full of Corn. He uses slang in his songs.
25:50 Nathan grew up in a one-room sharp-shooter (shotgun) house. He talks about adding on the house with his brothers. Growing up in school, Nathan wanted to be a football player.
30:30 Nathan's family comes home. Nathan, Jr. plays accordion and rubboard. Junior goes and gets his accordion. Nathan's daughter was born on his birthday.
34:45 Nathan talks about growing up with his brothers and the kids in the neighborhood.
37:30 He started playing zydeco after he got better from his illness and was getting ready to get married. Before he had an accordion, he had a dream that he was playing accordion in front of a bunch of people. Clayton Salpy would come by the store and play the accordion. Nathan would listen to him and one day asked him if he could play his accordion. Instead, Clayton bought him an accordion. He still has that accordion. He says has about 7 accordions. He says he never really learned until he bought his own accordion and Romero's Music Store in Lafayette.
43:40
Interview with Nathan Williams by Michael Tisserand Part 2
0:00 Tisserand is interviewing Nathan by phone and will be writing the notes to go with the new album. Nathan doesn't know the name of the album yet (Zydeco Crossroads) but mentions Zydeco Hog, the first track on the album, as a possibility. Nathan talks about some of the places and times he (as a kid) saw Clifton play. He says he listened to Clifton Chenier's tapes so much that he had them memorized. Nathan's song Ma Femme Nancy is about his wife. He explains some of the lyrics and old slang. He tells a story about the first time he ever heard Clifton's song "Black Snake Blues" with his grandmother. The first Zydeco song he ever heard on the radio was "Opelousas Sostan". When he was a kid, the older men would get together for a baza and play music.
11:00 He talks about how Clifton was a legend in his own time. Nathan says "You've got to wonder where you're going but you can't forget where you come from." He hopes his new album will revive the memories of people and remind them where the music comes from.
15:20 Nathan says he's been doing this music for ten years and has not been recognized by Big Easy Awards. He talks about his track record and touring and bringing Louisiana culture and music all over the country. He says even though he has been on commercials and national t.v., they don't recognize that. He says he doesn't get recognition locally but he plays here because it's where he comes from.
19:00 Nathan tell him about the songs on the album and how they came to be. They talk about the 'tomato gravy' lyric and its secret meaning.
23:38 Nathan talks about his experience playing with Michael Doucet on the album.
27:40 People ask him about the difference between Cajun and Zydeco music.
31:15 It's good to have a Cajun artist and a Zydeco artist playing together.
33:00 Nathan says people should read the history books before they talk about Cajuns. He says there are black Cajuns too.
Tribune des Francophones No. 1 face A-B
Recorded Winter of 1976;
Discours de Jacques Chirac devant l’Union des journalistes de langue française : Une offre de rapprochement et de paix
L’Académie française;
L’Académie française est née des réunions hebdomadaires d’un groupe d’intellectuels. Richelieu leur proposa de devenir un corps officiel et en 1635, Louis XIII signa la création de l’Académie française, qui comptait 40 membres. Leur rôle était d’examiner les ouvrages et de fixer les règles du langage.
La diffusion culturelle dans les pays francophones;
La langue française est considérée comme une langue d’intelligence et une langue tonique. La francophonie n’a pas de monopole, elle se nourrit notamment des apports des civilisations africaines (philosophie et art de vivre). Chaque peuple dispose d’une originalité particulière. Ainsi dans les Flandres cette particularité est façonnée par l’influence des libertés communales, des kermesses, de la musique et de la peinture. Quant à la Suisse romande, elle a été marquée par la Réforme et nous offre l’image de ce que serait devenue la France si le calvinisme avait fini par triompher : un pays marqué par le moralisme, le sérieux et l’introspection. Les auteurs francophones originaires de ces terres qui bordent l’hexagone (Suisse, Belgique, etc) ont contribué de manière importante à la richesse de la littérature francophone, et les événements historiques de leurs pays ont influencé leur façon de penser.
En Amérique du Nord, le rayonnement de la francophonie s’étend du Québec aux Antilles en passant par la Louisiane, Haïti, la Guadeloupe, la Martinique et la Guyane.
Au Canada la société française vivait autrefois en vase clos. Mais le Canada est aujourd’hui sur la voie de la reconquête, non économique mais culturelle. Ainsi les Acadiens ont reconquis en Louisiane la fierté légitime d’appartenir à la culture française.
Aux Antilles et en Amérique latine, l’élite est francophone et le peuple utilise un parler créole. Ces élites sont imprégnées de la philosophie du siècle des Lumières.
En Afrique du Nord et au Moyen-Orient, la culture française et la culture arabe se sont rencontrées en Méditerranée à travers le contact avec les croisés. Plus tard les conquêtes françaises ont amené une connaissance plus profonde de la culture française et de la culture musulmane. Mais trop souvent cette culture musulmane nous reste difficilement connue. Et ce sont davantage les divergences entre les cultures qui impressionnent les peuples, plutôt que les convergences.
Les civilisations d’Extrême-Orient sont très éloignées de nous, mais la culture française a reçu une empreinte spirituelle profonde au contact de la civilisation du Vietnam et des Khmers (Indochine française). Le français est devenue une langue véhiculaire et certains mots français sont passés dans la langue populaire du Vietnam.
La langue française n’est pas la langue du commerce et de l’industrie, mais demeure le véhicule de la pensée. Ainsi Paris est vue comme la capitale internationale de l’esprit.
L’Alliance française
L’Alliance française est une association culturelle privée, indépendante et apolitique dont le but est de protéger et promouvoir la langue française.
Tribune des Francophones No. 1 face C-D
L’Alliance française (suite):
L’Ecole internationale de langue et civilisation françaises de Paris réunit 127 nationalités depuis 1945. Aujourd’hui l’Alliance française est présente dans 110 pays. C’est une association culturelle sans but lucratif qui vise à répandre la langue et la culture françaises. L’Alliance française offre également des bourses aux étudiants.
En 1943 a eu lieu le 60e anniversaire de l’Alliance française à Alger, anniversaire auquel a assisté le Général De Gaulle.
L’Alliance française est une école et un lieu de libre rencontre et d’échanges qui encourage l’ouverture à toutes les formes de culture. Elle tire son inspiration de ses conseillers et professeurs.
Le miracle de la francophonie en Louisiane:
La Louisiane est un fidèle foyer de la francophonie. Au sud-est, la Nouvelle- Acadie occupe un quart du territoire, là où se trouve le cours inférieur du Mississipi. Il y a encore beaucoup de descendants de ceux qui sont autrefois venus d’Acadie ou de France, environ 900 000 d’entre eux vivent toujours en Louisiane. Bien qu’éloignés de l’Acadie et de la France, ils se sont efforcés de sauvegarder leur héritage. Nous pouvons constater cela en observant le nom de certaines paroisses (Lafayette, Acadie, Beauregard, Lafourche, Orléans, Vermillion, Bienville, etc.) et villes louisianaises (Basile, Baton Rouge, Blanchard, Bienville, Broussard, etc), ainsi que les nombreux noms de famille à consonance française.
Quelques marqueurs historiques importants:
En 1604 l’Acadie devient la première colonie française. Les colons viennent de Bretagne, du Poitou et de Normandie.
En 1755 les Acadiens sont chassés par les Anglais et s’exilent en France et en Louisiane afin de rester catholique.
En 1673 Louis Jolliet et le Père Marquette découvrent le Mississipi. Quelques années plus tard en 1682 Cavelier de La Salle explore le fleuve du Mississipi et établit la fleur de lys en Louisiane pour le Roi de France Louis XIV. En 1699 la Louisiane est colonisée par les Français et Jean-Baptiste Bienville tient un rôle important dans cette colonisation. La Nouvelle-Orléans est fondée par Bienville en 1718.
En 1755 les Acadiens sont déportés et une partie d’entre eux arrive en Louisiane en 1765.
Louis XV cède la Louisiane à l’Espagne en 1763. Elle sera finalement rétrocédée à la France en 1800. Quelques années plus tard, en 1803, Napoléon accorde la Louisiane (qui s’étendait des Grands Lacs au Nord jusqu’au Mexique au Sud) aux nouveaux Etats-Unis pour 15 millions de dollars. Après l’acquisition d’autres territoires comme la Floride et l’Alaska, les Etats-Unis deviennent une puissance continentale puis mondiale.
En 1824 Lafayette visite les Etats-Unis.
Pendant la guerre de Sécession entre 1861 et 1865 les Louisianais de langue française servent dans les régiments sudistes.
En 1884 la ville de Vermillion devient celle de Lafayette et en 1825 le dernier quotidien de langue française L’abbaye cesse de paraître.
Pendant la première guerre mondiale, les Acadiens bilingues sont employés comme interprètes. La période de l’entre-deux guerres voit se développer la politique du Melting-pot, au détriment de la langue française qui n’est plus étudiée à l’école et dans les années 1920 et 1930 les enfants sont même sanctionnés quand ils parlent français a l’école. Dans les années 1960 le français n’est parlé que par les personnes d’un certain âge et la francophonie semble disparaître. C’était sans compter sur l’intervention de James Domengeaux, avocat acadien et ancien membre du Congrès à Washington. Il se consacre à la renaissance du français dans son état pour que la Louisiane devienne le premier état bilingue des Etats-Unis. Finalement en 1968 les lois 408 et 409 sont adoptées et entraînent la création du Conseil pour le Développement du français en Louisiane (CODOFIL).
L’action du CODOFIL consiste en l’organisation de conférences, d’interviews et en la publication d’articles. Le CODOFIL a mené une campagne de sensibilisation pour redonner confiance aux Acadiens afin qu’ils parlent à nouveau leur langue maternelle. Les slogans étaient les suivants : Soyez fiers de parler français ; Est ce que vos enfants apprennent le français a l’école ?
Pour enseigner le français au niveau élémentaire le CODOFIL a fait appel à des enseignants originaires de pays francophones comme la France, le Québec et la Belgique. Certains instituteurs pouvaient venir enseigner le français dans le cadre du service militaire et de la coopération militaire internationale. Les écoles privées bénéficient également des programmes bilingues. Le CODOFIL souhaiterait désormais créer des programmes en français à la radio.
Bilinguisme et éducation bilingue :
Le bilinguisme désigne un fait historique, politique, géographique ou l’état de quelqu’un pouvant s’exprimer aisément dans deux langues. L’éducation bilingue désigne l’acquisition d’un bilinguisme concerté, équilibré et harmonisé.
L’éducation bilingue ou plurilingue est nécessaire à tous : aux populations des pays en situation bilingue ou multilingue ; aux pays unilingues pour faciliter les relations entre les peuples et les pays ; aux pays en voie de développement qui ont besoin d’acquérir la maîtrise des langues répandues dans le monde de la technique.
La Fondation mondiale des villes jumelées vise à favoriser les efforts de l’éducation bilingue basée sur l’acquisition précoce d’une langue seconde pour favoriser la communication entre les peuples.
L’Association culturelle francophone par le tourisme international et social a été fondée en 1975. C’est une association à but non-lucratif qui a pour objectif de :
- Promouvoir et réaliser des rencontres et échanges nationaux et internationaux pour une meilleure compréhension des individus dans le respect de leurs convictions
- Favoriser le tourisme culturel et social
- Faciliter le resserrement des liens culturels et affectifs issus de la francophonie
L’association envisage d’organiser des échanges de jeunes, de familles et de retraités entre la France, le Québec et la Louisiane.
L’Agence pour la Coopération Culturelle et Technique a été fondée en 1970 à l’initiative du Président du Sénégal et du Président de la Tunisie avec pour objectif de diffuser les différentes cultures des pays membres et de favoriser la coopération scientifique et technique entre ces pays.
Tribune des Francophones, No. 2 face 1A-2B
ƒditorial : 2e numŽro de la tribune des FrancophonesË lÕoccasion du bicentenaire des Etats-Unis, rendons gr‰ce au courage des AmŽricains et de leurs alliŽs qui ont vaincu, il y a 200 ans, douze millions de colonisateurs. Rendons hommage aux pionniers qui ont quittŽ leurs terres natales pour aller construire un nouveau monde et qui ont rŽussi ˆ rassembler de nombreux peuples en une communautŽ. Les Etats-Unis sont un exemple de solidaritŽ et de fraternitŽ. LÕAmŽrique a rŽussi ˆ b‰tir une fŽdŽration de peuples europŽens dans le Nouveau monde. Puisse lÕEurope suivre cet exemple et fonder une fŽdŽration europŽenne, les Etats-Unis dÕEurope. La France et lÕindŽpendance amŽricaine, livre du bicentenaire de lÕindŽpendance, ouvrage Žcrit par le Duc de Castries de lÕAcadŽmie franaise. Synonymes de puissance matŽrielle, de bond vers lÕavenir et de civilisation spontanŽe, les Etats-Unis sont devenus un vaste et puissant Žtat en moins de deux sicles. Et lÕamitiŽ entre la France et les Etats-Unis sÕest maintenue intacte depuis deux sicles.La dŽcolonisation jadis et aujourdÕhui : ˆ quel moment un territoire se considre t-il capable de fonder une nation ?La seconde moitie du XXe sicle a vu presque toutes les colonies se constituer en Žtats souverains. Mais il faut tre conscient de la diffŽrence absolue entre les dŽcolonisations contemporaines et la dŽcolonisation qui a fait des deux AmŽriques des Žtats indŽpendants. Au XXe sicle, les populations indignes ont chassŽ les coloniaux pour rŽcupŽrer les territoires qui leur avaient ŽtŽ confisquŽs lors des conqutes des colonisateurs. En AmŽrique, les populations indignes dŽcimŽes ou refoulŽes dans des rŽserves nÕont pas profitŽ de la dŽcolonisation. Ce sont les colons eux-mmes qui se sont sŽparŽs de leur mre patrie, et ont constituŽ des nouveaux Žtats sous leur contr™le. Cette situation posa le problme de la reconnaissance diplomatique dÕun Žtat qui sÕŽtait constituŽ spontanŽment par un acte de rŽvolte envers le pouvoir dont il dŽpendait lŽgitimement. Mais le traitŽ dÕalliance signŽ entre la France et les Etats-Unis en 1778, constituŽ dÕun accord commercial et dÕune assistance militaire entre la France et les Etats-Unis, a fait jurisprudence.Dans les dŽbuts, le peuple amŽricain nÕavait pas rŽelle conscience de lÕaide matŽrielle apportŽe la France, aide financire et assistance dans lÕarmement. Le Congrs sollicita lÕaide franaise, car la France Žtait lÕun des pays les plus important dÕEurope et Žtait hostile ˆ lÕAngleterre.En 1787 la Constitution des Etats-Unis dÕAmŽrique fut signŽe. Mais un dŽsaccord perdura concernant le choix de la capitale : Boston, Philadelphie ? Au lieu de choisir une de ces villes, George Washington dŽcida que la capitale des Etats-Unis serait sa crŽation personnelle. Il choisit un marŽcage au bord du Potomac, un compromis entre le Nord et le Sud. Il dŽsigna Charles LÕEnfant comme architecte de la future capitale. LÕEnfant, qui arriva en AmŽrique ˆ peu prs en mme temps que Lafayette, Žtait influencŽ par lÕarchitecture franaise. Il dessina les plans de la ville et fixa les cožts des travaux du Capitole ˆ 95 000 dollars, mais le Congrs jugea son projet insensŽ et lui refusa les crŽdits pour construire le Capitole. Aprs 10 ans de lutte, il fut Žconduit et mourut dans la misre. Les plans de LÕEnfant furent plus tard utilisŽs pour construire la capitale des Etats-Unis. Diverses festivitŽs sont prŽvues aux Etats-Unis et en France pour cŽlŽbrer le bicentenaire et lÕamitiŽ entre ces deux pays. Le PrŽsident franais ValŽry Giscard dÕEstaing est invitŽ aux Etats-unis. Il se rendra tout dÕabord a Washington, puis sÕarrtera ˆ Houston et enfin a Lafayette.LÕAcadŽmie franaise Le r™le de lÕAcadŽmie franaise depuis 1635 consiste ˆ examiner les ouvrages et fixer les rgles du langage. Le but est de conserver et perfectionner la langue franaise pour quÕelle puisse succŽder au grec et au latin. Ainsi les acadŽmiciens condamnent certains abus, approuvent certains termes nouveaux, et prŽcisent le sens des mots qui prtent a ambigu•tŽ.Conrart fut le premier secrŽtaire de lÕAcadŽmie franaise. En 1647 Corneille est Žlu acadŽmicien. LÕun des principes de lÕAcadŽmie franaise est lÕŽgalitŽ. Ainsi aucune distinction nÕest faite, et il nÕy a pas de dŽsavantage entre les acadŽmiciens. La premire Ždition du dictionnaire avec lÕordre alphabŽtique est prŽsentŽe au roi en 1692. Et la deuxime Ždition para”t en 1718. Le dictionnaire fixe lÕorthographe et le sens des mots par des dŽfinitions accompagnŽes dÕexemples. Ë chaque Ždition, le nombre de mots augmenta et le changement dÕorthographe alla dans le sens de la simplification, par exemple beaucoup de mots furent dŽbarrassŽs de lettres inutiles. Durant la Terreur, lÕAcadŽmie franaise ainsi que dÕautres AcadŽmies furent supprimŽes par un dŽcret de 1793. Certains membres de lÕAcadŽmie furent guillotinŽs comme Baillay, Malesherbes ou Nicola•. Condorcet sÕempoisonna et dÕautres acadŽmiciens immigrrent ou se cachrent pendant la Terreur. Le directeur rŽussit tout de mme ˆ sauver et ˆ cacher les archives, y compris les feuilles du dictionnaire dont la rŽvision Žtait terminŽe. En 1795, lÕAcadŽmie franaise fut ˆ nouveau autorisŽe et en 1798 la 5e Ždition du dictionnaire fut publiŽe. En 1816, Louis XVIII dŽcida que lÕInstitut de France serait composŽ de 4 acadŽmies : lÕAcadŽmie franaise, lÕAcadŽmie des inscriptions et belles lettres, lÕAcadŽmie des sciences et lÕAcadŽmie des beaux arts. LÕorganisation actuelle est celle de 1816 avec en plus lÕAcadŽmie des sciences morales et politiques qui fut crŽŽe en 1832. La 6e Ždition du dictionnaire fut publiŽe en 1835 et la 7e Ždition en 1878. De nos jours, lÕAcadŽmie franaise sige chaque semaine le jeudi aprs-midi. Et chaque annŽe au mois de dŽcembre se tient une sŽance publique. CÕest ˆ ce moment quÕa lieu la rŽception solennelle des nouveaux Žlus.
Tribunes des Francophones cassette
Le bilinguisme en l’an 2000
En l’an 2000, les nouvelles technologies rapprocheront les gens et les moyens de communication instantanée seront à la portée de tous. Il y aura une révolution culturelle et une révolution dans les transports.
L’intérêt du bilinguisme pour la nation est qu’il permet d’enrichir notre esprit. La langue et la culture s’entremêlent. Ainsi en apprenant une langue étrangère nous pouvons comprendre plus facilement les mœurs, les coutumes, la culture et la psychologie du peuple étranger. Faciliter l’échange d’opinions et d’influence entre pays favorise l’enrichissement de la culture d’un pays et le développement de la tolérance sur le plan international.
Les langues classiques sont encore étudiées dans le monde entier (latin, grec, etc). Étudier une autre langue nous pousse à confronter diverses façons de penser et ainsi accroît la vivacité de l’esprit.
La traduction est utile, mais elle a ses limites. Les traductions ne peuvent transmettre que le contenu, non le contenant. Pourtant le fond et la forme sont tous deux essentiels à la compréhension et à l’appréciation d’un texte. La traduction transmet l’idée, mais pas l’expression. Par exemple en poésie, il est impossible de traduire le son ou la mélodie d’un texte (assonance, etc).
La France est continentale, méditerranéenne, occidentale et nordique. De la Méditerranée, elle tire une influence des civilisations antiques et classiques, ainsi que le contact avec l’Afrique, l’Asie et l’Orient. Du Nord sont arrivés les armées conquérantes, les explorateurs et les colons, qui s’établirent dans le Nouveau monde depuis le Canada jusqu'aux Antilles.
Ouverte aux échanges, la France est considérée comme la plaque tournante des civilisations. Sa situation géopolitique la pousse à jouer les médiatrices. Paris est ainsi à égale distance du centre des Etats-Unis et du centre de l’URSS.
Etant séparés de l’Europe et de l’Asie par deux océans, les Américains ne pourraient parler que l’anglais. Néanmoins l’Amérique ne peut se passer de bilinguisme pour des raisons économique, diplomatique et culturelle. La politique du Melting-pot a fonctionné pour intégrer les immigrants. Mails il est maintenant indispensable que les Américains fassent renaître la langue de leurs ancêtres. Des efforts ont été faits en Louisiane par le CODOFIL et en Nouvelle-Angleterre, et les programmes ont été bien accueillis par les anglophones de ces régions.
Le français est une langue universelle parlée dans 40 pays. L’Esperanto, inventé en 1887, pourrait être la solution pour la communication internationale. Mais malgré les efforts pour promouvoir cette langue artificielle, son emploi reste très limité.
Après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale il y a eu une forte volonté de reconstruire un monde meilleur, un monde où tous les hommes pourraient se comprendre et ou régneraient l’entende internationale et la fraternité humaine. Ainsi Jean-Marie Bressand fonda en 1951 le Monde Bilingue, et en 1957 la Fédération des villes jumelées. Le jumelage de villes françaises et anglaises fut un énorme succès. L’anglais et le français sont les langues les plus utilisées dans les organisations internationales comme l’ONU, l’Unesco, etc. Le bilinguisme anglais-francais semble donc indispensable. La maîtrise d’une langue étrangère permet de mieux comprendre et communiquer avec l’autre. Aussi les interventions américaines dans les conflits a l’étranger en Corée et au Vietnam ont été la conséquence, selon certains, du manque de perspicacité concernant la mentalité et la psychologie des Orientaux.
Investir sur la langue française
L’Association Internationale de la Langue Française fondée en 1967 a établi une politique générale de la langue française dans le monde pour redonner au français son statut de langue de communication alors que l’opinion publique considérait la langue française uniquement comme un objet d’art et de littérature. Les objectifs de l’association sont :
- Favoriser l’accès à un patrimoine littéraire et culturel
- Assurer la communication entre les membres d’une même communauté
- Exprimer tous les aspects du monde moderne, notamment les objets et notions nouvelles nés de la civilisation scientifique et technique de la fin du XXe siècle
Tribune des Francophones, No. 2 face C-D
LÕAcadŽmie franaise (suite)Dans les nouvelles Žditions du dictionnaire sont entrŽs des nŽologismes et certains mots dÕorigine anglaise comme Ç surprise party È. Au moment de sa crŽation, les femmes nÕŽtaient pas admises a lÕAcadŽmie franaise. Beaucoup dÕhommes dÕEglise Žtaient Žlus et lÕAcadŽmie ne pouvait passer outre un veto du pouvoir. Depuis 1635 jusqu'ˆ nos jours, le nombre dÕacadŽmiciens, ou Ç immortels È, sÕŽlve ˆ 650. Le Collge de France fut fondŽ un sicle avant lÕAcadŽmie franaise. Les 5 acadŽmies de lÕInstitut de France sont :- LÕAcadŽmie franaise, fondŽe par Richelieu en 1635. Son r™le est dÕexaminer les ouvrages et de fixer les rgles de la langue franaise.- LÕAcadŽmie des Beaux Arts. En 1648 le roi approuva la crŽation de lÕAcadŽmie de Peinture et de Sculpture. Les femmes nÕŽtaient pas exclues de cette AcadŽmie. - LÕAcadŽmie des inscriptions et belles lettres fondŽe en 1663 par Colbert, elle Žtait surnommŽe la petite acadŽmie. Elle Žtait en charge des descriptions historiques des ŽvŽnements que commŽmoraient les mŽdailles, des descriptions des antiquitŽs et monuments franais et de la connaissance de lÕantiquitŽ grecque et latine. - LÕAcadŽmie des sciences, dont lÕinstallation officielle eu lieu en 1666. Son r™le est de cultiver et perfectionner les sciences. Ses membres disposent de crŽdits pour Žquiper leurs laboratoires et pour construire des machines. Chaque semaine, lÕAcadŽmie publie les comptes-rendus de ses sŽances.- LÕAcadŽmie des sciences morales et politiques fondŽe en 1795. Chaque semaine, ses membres discutent une question ˆ lÕordre du jour concernant les sciences humaines. Le Conseil International de la Langue franaise a ŽtŽ fondŽ en 1967 et son but est de sauvegarder lÕunitŽ de la langue franaise dans le monde.Le Conseil de la vie franaise en AmŽrique a ŽtŽ crŽŽ au QuŽbec en 1937. Ses membres reprŽsentent les groupements franais du Canada, des Etats-Unis et des Antilles et ils cherchent ˆ soutenir les intŽrts des populations franaises en AmŽrique du Nord. La francophonie La langue franaise vaut dÕtre dŽfendue pour ses caractŽristiques (clartŽ prŽcision et logique) et pour son universalitŽ. En effet plus de 150 millions de personnes sur 5 continents parlent franais. Depuis le XVIIe sicle, le franais est une langue de culture et la langue utilisŽe par les Žlites de nombreux pays non francophones. Mais avec les changements de rŽgimes et de sociŽtŽ, nous assistons ˆ la disparition des Žlites francophones. Le franais recule devant la trs forte expansion de lÕanglais, considŽrŽ comme la langue de la communication internationale. Le franais est envahi de termes anglo-amŽricains. Des institutions francophones ont donc ŽtŽ crŽŽes pour protŽger et sauvegarder la langue franaise. Il est nŽcessaire dÕaccro”tre la solidaritŽ entre les pays francophones mais aussi de favoriser lÕŽgalitŽ et la complŽmentaritŽ dans les rapports avec les autres langues et les autres cultures. La francophonie existe tout comme lÕanglophonie et, selon un principe de rŽciprocitŽ, il faut que les Franais apprennent des langues Žtrangres.Il y a une volontŽ dÕaccro”tre la prŽsence et lÕinfluence culturelle franaises aux Etats-Unis. La francophonie se dŽveloppe comme un moyen pour Žviter dÕtre absorbŽ par lÕun des deux empires qui se partagent le monde ˆ lÕheure actuelle. En effet, la France et les pays francophones aspirent ˆ une organisation du monde diffŽrente de celle qui sÕest Žtablie depuis 1945 et esprent pouvoir apporter une contribution franaise ˆ un nouvel ordre mondial. Ceci est favorisŽ par lÕappui de toutes les personnes ayant appris le franais ˆ lÕŽcole ou au sein de leur famille dans dÕautres pays, ce sont les francophones (QuŽbŽcois, Romans, AfricainsÉ), nos cousins par le langage.La francophonie, dimension de la politique franaise, ne vit que par le dialogue entre les diffŽrentes cultures francophones qui forment une communautŽ basŽe sur lÕŽgalitŽ, communautŽ qui fait vivre les valeurs morales et humaines hŽritŽes de 1789. Le principe dÕEurafrique dŽsigne la coopŽration privilŽgiŽe entre les pays africains et lÕEurope. LÕEurope entretient Žgalement des liens particuliers avec les pays dÕIndochine et avec les communautŽs francophones dÕAmŽrique.Comment le Canada favorise t-il la francophonie ?Le QuŽbec a mis en Ïuvre un programme dÕassistance technique en Afrique francophone. Le Canada a aussi organisŽ le rassemblement de la jeunesse francophone, connu sous le nom de Francofte. Le pays prŽvoit aussi de mettre en place un projet de dŽveloppement en Ha•ti dans le domaine de la santŽ et du logement. Investir sur la langue franaise Le Conseil international a permis la publication dÕune collection de vocabulaire technique pour rŽpondre aux besoins des chercheurs et ingŽnieurs. Cette collection traite des sujets suivants : pŽtrole, transport, radio et tŽlŽvision, finance, travaux publics et urbanisme, Žnergies nuclŽaires, techniques spatiales, informatique. Le Conseil a Žgalement participŽ a la publication de manuels techniques sur la mŽcanique et lÕagronomie tropicale, ˆ destination des pays du Tiers-Monde. Le combat francophone au CanadaLe Canada est officiellement bilingue et compte dÕimportants foyers de francophones dans lÕOuest du pays. La culture anglo-amŽricaine est dominante et les groupes francophones de lÕOuest sont minoritaires. Ë la fin du XIXe , lÕOuest du Canada sÕouvre ˆ la colonisation et des populations mŽtisses de langue franaise sÕy installent. En 1890 la population anglaise devient majoritaire et le Manitoba est dŽclarŽ anglais. Ainsi les francophones perdent leurs droits linguistiques et religieux. La langue maternelle devient langue seconde et elle sÕappauvrit au contact de lÕanglais. Mais des organismes de dŽfense de la langue franaise sÕorganisent (paroisses, Žcoles) et les Žglises ou le franais est la langue du culte servent de centres culturels franais (scout, choraleÉ). Les foyers francophones Žvoluent Žgalement. Si les familles Žtaient autrefois catholiques et parlaient le franais, cette langue est devenue langue seconde, et les jeunes parents peinent ˆ transmettre ˆ leurs enfants une langue quÕils connaissent mal.Des collges et des couvents offrant un enseignement universitaire en franais sont Žtablis par les congrŽgations religieuses venues du QuŽbec ou de France. Et gr‰ce ˆ la politique du bilinguisme et du biculturalisme, ces collges franais peuvent tre intŽgrŽs au systme universitaire des autres provinces. AujourdÕhui beaucoup dÕŽcoles proposent un enseignement bilingue. Les Associations provinciales tiennent Žgalement un r™le important dans la promotion de la langue et de la culture franaises. Elles ont permis la crŽation de coopŽratives, lÕorganisation de voyages-Žchanges et de rallyes. Des troupes de thŽ‰tre et des chorales ont aussi ŽtŽ crŽŽes. En outre la tŽlŽvision franaise diffuse des programmes pour enfants en franais.Le gouvernement a aussi lancŽ la crŽation de grandes unitŽs scolaires avec des classes pour francophones et des classes pour anglophones. Le changement de la loi scolaire a rendu possible lÕenseignement en franais de matires scolaires autre que le franais. Comment est nŽe la notion de francophonieLa francophonie est une notion nouvelle qui est apparue pendant la pŽriode de la dŽcolonisation aprs la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Avec lÕencha”nement des dŽclarations dÕindŽpendances, il y a une prise de conscience de lÕexistence ˆ travers le monde de nombreuses nations qui entendent se dŽvelopper et se cultiver par la langue franaise. Le terme Ç francophone È est finalement lancŽ dans lÕusage courant par le Magazine Esprit en 1962. Plus tard la distinction des notions de francophonie et de francitŽ est Žtablie. La francitŽ dŽsigne lÕensemble des valeurs de civilisation du monde francophone alors que la francophonie dŽsigne lÕensemble des pays o lÕon parle franais. DiversitŽ des anglicismes : Anglicisme orthographique, typographique, morphologique, sŽmantique, syntaxique. Une idŽe ancienne encore valable de nos joursRabelais suppose que nous avons assez dÕintelligence pour conserver notre sang-froid. Mais aujourdÕhui nous avons tendance ˆ nous libŽrer outre mesure. La libertŽ totale de lÕesprit mne ˆ la violence. La littŽrature du XVIe sicle, et notamment les idŽes de Rabelais, peuvent nous aider ˆ trouver lÕharmonie entre la libertŽ de lÕesprit et la ma”trise de soi.
Dick Richard at Mulate’s.
Song 1 – Je m’ennui plus de toi (0:01)
Song 2 – Old Fashioned Two Step (4:14)
Song 3 – Trop jeune pour marier (7:17)
Song 4 – She Didn’t Know I Was Married (10:08)
Song 5 – Diga Ding Ding Dong (13:30)
Song 6 - Zydecos sont pas sale (16:20)
Song 7 – La valse de Cajun/Cajun Waltz (20:08)
Song 8 – Jambalaya (23:38)
Song 9 – Tous les soirs (27:09)
Song 10 – Highpoint Two Step (31:20)
Song 11 – La valse du malchanceux (34:17)
Song 12 – ‘Tits yeux noirs (38:26)
Song 13 – Choupique Two Step (41:36)
Song 14 – J’ai fait mon idée (44:22)
Song 15 – La pointe aux pins (47:06)
Song 16 – Oh ye yaille (50:43)
Song 17 – Pine Grove Blues (55:00)
Song 18 – Belizaire Waltz (1:02:30)
Song 19 – Bosco Stomp (1:06:33)
Song 20 – Reno Waltz (1:10:13)
Song 21 – The Back Door (1:13:40)
Song 22 – I Can’t Forget You/ J’peux pas t’oublier (1:17:34)
Song 23 – La dernière fois (1:24:58)
Song 24 – Catch My Hat (1:28:05)
Song 25 – La valse de ‘tit Maurice (1:32:00)
Cyprien Landreneau and Adam Landreneau. From "Louisiana Cajun and Creole Music : The Newport Field Recordings"
Song 1 – La robe à Rosalie (0:13)
Song 2 – La prairie ronde (3:25)
Song 3 – La taille d’eronces (6:23)
Song 4 – Les pinieres (8:12)
Song 5 – Treville t’es pas pecheur (11:15)
Song 6 – La danse de limonade (13:00)
The Carrière Brothers, from « The Carrière Brothers: Musique Creole » and « La La Louisiana Black French Music » /Mitch Reed Fiddle Lesson.
Song 1 – Zydeco de Carrière (0:18)
Song 2 – Madame Faielle (2:12)
Song 3 – Daddy Carrière Waltz (4:01)
Song 4 – Zydeco sont pas sale (6:16)
Song 5 – Les barres de la prison (8:36)
Song 6 – Jolie Catin (11:18)
Song 7 – Robe a parasol (13:10)
Song 8 – Home Sweet Home (16:20)
Song 9 – Hey Mom! (18:05)
*Switches to Mitch Reed Fiddle Lesson*
(20:30 – 31:09)
*Switches to « La La Louisiana Black French Music » *
Song 1 – Zydeco a Carriere (31:30)
Song 2 – Robe a parasol (32:51)
Song 3 – Blue Runner (35:31)
Song 4 – Blues of the Lonesome Road (37:25)
Song 5 – Johnny Can’t Dance (40:40)
Song 6 – Valse a Cherokee/Cherokee Waltz (42:50)
Song 7 – Bosco Stomp (45:05)
Song 8 – Blues a bebe (47:25)
Home Recording of Mitch Reed and Calvin Carrière
Song 1 – Tous les deux pour la même (0:00)
Song 2 – Grand Texas (1:37)
Song 3 – Colinda (3:48)
Song 4 – Petite ou la grosse (7:20)
Song 5 – J’ai passé devant ta porte (9:50)
Song 6 – Cherokee Waltz (13:40)
Song 7 – Unknown tune (Quand j’etais pauvre) (18:50) *
Song 8 – Blue Runner (21:40)
Song 9 – Blues a bebe (23:33)
Song 10 – Unknown tune (« I forgot [the name of the song] ») (black snake blues?) (25:48) *
Song 11 – Unknown tune (27:30)
Song 12 – Hippy Taio (28:44)
Song 13 – Unknown tune (34:15)
Song 14 – Unknown tune (36:45)
Song 15 – Eunice Two Step (38:27)
Song 16 – Grand Mamou (40:30)
Song 17 – Donnez-moi mon chapeau (43:10)
Song 18 – Mon vieux wagon (45:25)
Song 19 – Les flames d’enfer (47:58)
Song 20 – Jongle à moi (50:30)
Song 21 – Unknown tune (58:33)
The Revon Reed Tapes: Preston Manuel, Chuck Guillory, Shirley Bergeron, Floyd Fuselier, Cheese Read, and Aubrey Deville.
Song 1 – Grand Texas (0:00)
Song 2 – Tolam Waltz (1:54)
Song 3 – Grand Mamou (4:29)
Song 4 – Jolie Blonde (7:03)
Song 5 – Les jeunes gens de la campagne (9:39)
Song 6 – La danse de limonade (12:10)
Song 7 – Valse de mon grand galaxy (14:04)
Song 8 – Grand Mamou (15:16)
Song 9 – Pauvre Hobo (18:34)
Song 10 – San Antonio Rose (21:38)
Song 11 – Unknown waltz (like chere meon) (23:23) *
Song 12 – La jig de mardi gras (26:25)
Song 13 – La valse de Cherokee/Cherokee Waltz (27:11)
Song 14 – J’ai passé devant ta porte (29:13)
Song 15 – Grand Texas (31:30)
Song 16 – La valse de grand Reno/Reno Waltz (33:50)
Song 17 – Sundown Special (37:22)
Song 18 – Chere Alice (39:43)
Song 19 – Faded love (43:33)
Song 20 –T’es petite mais t’es mignonne (45:32)
Song 21 – Chere Meon (how it is spelt on the record) (chere mignonne) (47:39) *
Song 22 – Unknown breakdown (sugarfoot rag?) (49:11) *
Song 23 – Dans la louisiane (50:51)
Song 24 – La jog a plombeau (52:40)
Song 25 – Jolie Blonde (55:24)
Song 26 – Mon bon vieux mari (57:31)
Song 27 – Grand Mamou (1:00:50)
Song 28 – No name stomp (1:03:17)
Song 29 – La valse de grand port auteur (1:04:40)
Song 30 – Flow Bouncers Stomp (1:06:55)
Song 31 – Emotion waltz (1:09:00)
Song 32 – Mardi Gras (1:11:30)
Song 33 – La marche de marier (1:13:34)
Song 34 –Mazurka (1:16:32)
Song 35 – Unknown waltz (1:18:30)*
Song 36 – J’ai passe devant ta porte (1:19:56)
Song 37 – Grand Texas (1:23:00)
Song 38 – Unknown tune (des pins/along the pines) (1:26:08)*
Song 39 – Unknown, “mes chers ‘tits yeux bleus” (same tune as wild side of life) (1:28:50)
Lomax Recordings 1934/Cajun and Creole Mus, Vol 1 & 2
Song 1 – The Kaplan Mazurka (0:08)
Song 2 – Wayne Perry - Creole Blues (0:56)
Song 3 – Wayne Perry - Cajun Waltz (2:22)
Song 4 – Wayne Perry - Waltz (3:50)
Song 5 – Wayne Perry - Easy Rider Blues (Cajun Two Step) (5:28)
Song 6 – The Segura Brothers - Viens donc t’assir sur la croix de ma tombe (6:45)
Song 7 –Joe Segura – Joe Feraille (9:22)
Song 8 – Joe Segura – Un te pas gain de l’air (11:50)
Song 9 – Oakdale Carriere – Catin, prie donc pour ton negre (15:22)
Song 10 – Paul Junius Malveaux and Ernest Lafitte - Bye Bye, bonsoir, mes parents (17:05)
Song 11 – Paul Junius Malveaux and Ernest Lafitte - Tous les samedis (18:30)
*Switches to cajun and Creole Music, Vol 1*
Song 12 – Six ans sur mer (21:25)
Song 13 – Les clefs de la prison (24:16)
Song 14 – J’ai vu lucille (26:03)
Song 15 – La belle et le capitaine (26:30)
Song 16 – Une fille de quatorze ans (31:06)
Song 17 – Mademoiselle Émélie (35:30)
Song 18 – Tout un beau soir en me promenant (38:25)
*Switches to Cajun and Creole Music, Vol 2*
Song 19 – Belle (41:05)
Song 20 – Je m’endors (43:15)
Song 21 – Je me suis Marie (44:38)
Song 22 – Trinquons (45:38)
Song 23 – La chanson de Savoy (46:24)
Song 24 – La chanson de Theogene Dubois (48:00)
Song 25 – J’ai marie un ouvrier (49:00)
Song 26 – Madama Gallien (52:18)
Song 27 – Je m’ai fait une maitresse (54:43)
Song 28 – Les amours sonts courts (57:45)
Song 29 – Mes amis, je suis gris (59:00)
Song 30 – Le pays des estrangers (1:00:40)
Song 31 - Dego/Zydeco (1:01:55)
Song 32 – J’ai fait tout le tour du pays (1:04:05)
Song 33 – S’en aller chez moreau (1:05:56)
Song 34 – Je veux me marier (1:07:45)
Song 35 – Blues de la prison (1:09:28)
Song 36 – La-bas chez moreau (1:14:07)
Song 37 – Feel Like Dying in His Army (1:18:16)
Song 38 – Rockaway (1:21:20)
Harry Trahan (accordion and vocals), Mitch Reed (fiddle), Corey McCauley and Lisa Trahan on guitar.
Song 1 – One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer (0:08)
Song 2 - T’en a eu, t’en auras plus (2:59)
Song 3 – Eunice Two Step (6:15)
Song 4 – Tous les soirs (8:14) *
Song 5 – Bayou Pon Pon (10:14)
Song 6 – Chere bebe creole (12:25) *
Song 7 – ‘Tit Maurice (15:56) *
Song 8 – Diggy Diggy Lo (18:26)
Song 9 – Unknown waltz (20:42) *
Song 10 – J’étais au bal (22:45)
Mitch Reed (fiddle and vocals) , with Another Unknown Fiddle Player and Vocalist.
Song 1 – Unknown fiddle tune (lake arthur stomp?) (0:04) *
Song 2 – Bonsoir Moreau (2:20)
Song 3 – Unknown fiddle tune (5:58) *
Song 4 – Pointe aux pins (7:40)
Song 5 – Reel à bouche (10:18)
Song 6 – Unknown fiddle tune (11:26) *
Song 7 – Lougaroo mange pas mes enfants (14:30)
Song 8 – Unknown fiddle tune (16:22) *
Song 9 – Saute Crapeau (19:15)
Song 10 – La coulée rodaire (22:10)
Song 11 – Turkey In The Straw (25:15)
Song 12 – Unknown fiddle tune (27:52) *
Song 13 – Perrodin Two Step (29:39)
Song 14 – Unknown song (32:18) *
Song 15 – Guilbeaux’s Pelican (34:40)
La Veillée des Veillées, La Group de Portneuf. Ruine-Babines, Rêve du Diable, Louis Boudreault. French Canadian Fest.
Song 1 –Reel des ouvriers (0:01)
Song 2 – Reel à Hélène (1:47)
Song 3 – La tugue bleue (3:15)
Song 4 – Reel d’isidore soucy et Reel des noces d’or (5:40)
Song 5 – Blues du canard (7:20)
Song 7 – Turlute à Antonio (11:10)
Song 8 – La Belle Catherine (16:20)
Song 9 – Reel du pêcheur (20:40)
Song 10 – Unknown Reel (24:10)
Song 11 – Reel du Lièvre (27:50)
Song 12 – Derriere chez nous y’a un champs de pois (31:20)
Song 13 – En filant ma quenouille (35:05)
Song 14 – L’homme à deux femmes (37:15)
Song 15 – À la claire fontaine (40:05) *
Song 16 – Bourrée (43:30)
Song 17 – Sony’s Mazurka (46:20)
Song 18 – Laridé Lokmariakêr (49:38)
Song 19 – The Exile’s Jig and the Flowing Tide (51:45)
Song 20 – Paddy Ryans’s Dream (57:13)
Song 21 – Set amércain (1:00:05)