by Art Fein
The story’s the same wherever Clifton
Chenier & His Red Hot Lousiana Band are
playing, but my first encounter with him
was at a club frequented by college stu
dents. in the hills outside of Santa Cruz. Cal
ifomia.
The Club Zayante was alive The walls
were pulsating, and the shadows cast on the
steamed-up windows — in summer! —
showed packed-in bodies dancing wildly to
a strange, heavv-beat. foreign-bui-familiar
music.
I turned to the guy next to me and said
"Who is this?”
He grinned and slapped me on the back
like it was a fraternity initiation, removed
the beer bottle from his mouth and looked
at me like / was the one from Mars and said.
"Just the world's greatest rock & roll band,
that's all.”
I soon realized I had been leading an in
complete life before that night. When I got
inside 1 could hear this sweet unusual
music better, but I couldn't understand the
words. And what was that instrument carry
ing the melody ? 1 squeezed up front and
got the answer-, the room was under the
control of a gold-toothed black man playing
an accordion and singing in French! We re
from Louisiana.” he boomed out between
songs, where even the crawfish got soul!”
You don t hear much about rock & roll
accordions today. In fact, you never did. In
the history- of rock & roll no instrument has
been as scorned as the lowly squeeze-box.
Put one in the hands of Clifton Chenier,
though, and it s obvious that the problem
hasn't been the instrument — it’s been
who’s playing it. (Accordions apeared in the
bands of Bill Haley in the 1950 s. and Gary
Lewis & the Playboys in the 1960 s but it
wasn’t until the Seventies that musicians
like the Band. Ry Cooder. and Ponty Bone
of the Joe Ely band returned z semblance of
respect to it. )
When Clifton plays, it's a little of this and
a little of that — swamp music, rhythm &
blues, country blues, Cajun — all so dis
tinctly Rock & Roll with a capital R that
none other than Mick Jagger (of the other
' world's greatest rock & roll band”) recently
booked him into Carnegie Hall in New
York.
He knew Clifton was great: Jagger has
been seen digging Chenier performances in
the Watts district of Los Angeles. He figured
it was time other people did too.
Clifton w-as no overnight success. The
ennobling hand of Jagger was late in com
ing.
Clifton Chenier was born in 1925 in Ope
lousas, Louisiana. His childhood accor
dion-playing was influenced by his white
Cajun neighbors, as well as by pioneering
black accordionist Amade Ardoin Incor
porating these sounds with the new-, emerg
ing style of rhythm & blues, he was instru
mental in developing a new music called
Zydeco
The word, like Cajun, is a simplification
like many coined by Louisianans Cajun is
short for “Acadian," the area from which
the Cajuns emigrated. Zvdeco is taken
from a popular French folk song
whose first words were "les haricots.”
Musically, Zvdeco is French-Cajun
American rock & roll and rhythm &
blues, sung by blacks Although its
origin is the swamplands of the
American south, its popularity ex
tends around the world, and that
popularity goes double for Clifton,
who bills himself The King of the
South and wears a crown to prove
it
A normal year's concertizing will
take him to 3 areas: a route be
tween Lafayette, Louisana. New Or
leans. and Central Texas: the Cali
fornia coasdine. especially the San
Francisco area; and Italy. France,
or Switzerland!
To Europeans, the sight of this
proud, weathered, mystical black
man with a crown and a gold
tooth singing rhythm & blues in
French is, well remarkable
As it is here
"Put on your dancing shoes,”
Chenier warns at the start of a
Indeed, so manv rhythms
set
run irresistible crossing pat
terns, Zvdeco makes sitting
still impossible Once heard,
Zvdeco isn t easily forgotten.
In Chenier s group, the Red
Hot Louisiana Band, there’s
the massive, unrelenting
drumming of massive Robert
St. Judy Coupled to it are
the hypnotic, indescribable
rhythms of Clifton s brother
Cleveland Chenier, playing
a self-designed neck-held
metal washboard, stroked
by a handful of bottle
openersf!) And then
there's the man himself,
who for many years stood
and bobbed to the music
but today is sitting, pre
siding regally over the
proceedings, singing as
his fingers dance up and
down his upright key
board.
Other band members
vary, but there’s usually
a saxophone, a guitar
and a bass, and perhaps
an organ. Although the
Chenier brothers occa
sionally perform as a
duo, it is important to
see him with his
whole band.
Chenier’s road
work has been cut
down after he fell se
riously ill last year
from complications
brought on by dia
betes. “Don’t worry
about me,” Chenier
Art Fein has been described by the LA Times os a ‘rockabilly actuist Maybe that explains
the crazyr / sbtrt be wears around Hollywood — Free the Tennessee Three
r.
— \
assured me after a
recent operation, “I'll
be out playing soon Ain’t
no little thing like this gonna
keep me down.” He now plays an
electric accordion that doesn't need
squeezing The band now takes a break
after 2 hours instead of playing 4 hours
straight through. All this points, also, to a
reduced touring schedule which may make
seeing him difficult, except for those who
live in the Louisiana bayous, California, or
Europe!
But since most of us cant
live there, there are ample Clifton
Chenier records to choose from He's
recorded for a lot of labels, but we d rec
ommend these: Clifton Chenier "Live" —
(Arhoolie 1059) — Recorded at a Zydeco
dance in Richmond, California in 19*71 Play
it for your friends and see if they can figure
out what it is — if they'll stop dancing to
talk Hlack Snake Blues —(Arhoolie 1038) —
One of his best studio efforts, with powerful
drumming by St. Judy Bayou Blues —(Spe
cialty SPS 2139) — Recorded back in 1957
when someone at the label must have fig
ured “Little Richard s a star — this guy with
the accordion is weird too.”
But, face it — every Clifton Chenier rec
ord is worthwhile. If your local record shop
isn't hip enough to have a Clifton Chenier
section (they exist!) you can order them
through the Phonolog directory.