Some new activity from two of the most active record labels keeping Cajun and Zydeco music alive and well.
First up we have a new album from Bonsoir, Catin a female-powered Cajun band from Southwest Louisiana, who first appeared back in 2005 and rapidly became a popular draw at Dancehalls and Festivals throughout Louisiana and beyond. The new album, Bonne Vie, is released on Valcour Records on August 21st and is available for pre-order at the Valcour website. This will be their fifth album, with 2016’s Light Up the Stars, their third release, picking up a Grammy nomination in the Regional Roots category. It would be nice to think that Bonne Vie might go one further!
Bonsoir, Catin, (it means Goodnight, Sweetheart, in Louisiana French) is made up of Kristi Guillory on accordion, fiddle player Anya Burgess, Christine Balfa (guitar), Maegan Berard (electric guitar), Ashley Hayes (bass guitar), and Danny Devillier on drums. The band are known for their progressive style and for pushing the boundaries of Cajun music, both in their playing and their songwriting, and their music is an exhilarating modern take on the traditional form. You can find out more about the band itself over on their website. Our featured track below is one of the singles taken from the new album and is a great example of rocking, progressive Cajun music.
Also on Valcour Records we have a new album from a very interesting band, Lafayette/New Orleans collective Boma Bango. On Va Voir, scheduled for a September 18th release, is Creole music at its best, a project that channels the spirit of 1960s–70s Congolese rumba without copying it. Echoing that reverb washed groove of a Golden Age, the album mixes in the heat, cadence and vernacular of Southwest Louisiana. On Va Voir is an album that honours its influences while staying true to its own vision of Congolese styles that draw on a deep Francophone connection.
The band is led by guitarist and founder Daniel Coolik, who formed Boma Bango in 2018, fascinated with early Congolese styles that saw Cuban and African music collide. The band writes in Louisiana French and draws on the Cajun/Creole connections to create music that both recognises heritage but remains forward-looking. The ensemble features Daniel Coolik (electric guitar), Trey Boudreaux (bass), Megan Brown Constantin (vocals, percussion), Doug Garrison (drums), Cesar Bacaro (congas, percussion), and Tim McFatter (saxophones), often augmented by Jafet Perez, Aurora Nealand, and Brad Webb. This is a real celebration of interlocking cultures, producing exciting, mesmerising music.
Over on the other side of the country, the El Cerrito, California-based Arhoolie Foundation celebrated a run of particularly successful events with their first ever block party, where Foundation Board members Suzy Thompson and Larry Batiste presented awards to this year’s Arhoolie Award winners, André Thierry & his Zydeco band and gospel group Sons of the Soul Revivers. By all accounts, André’s lively zydeco performance drew line dancers and two-steppers to the dance floor, and The Sons of the Soul Revivers got the crowd on their feet with their rousing gospel numbers. Sounds like it was quite the party.
They were also celebrating the success of their Clifton Chenier: King of Louisiana Blues & Zydeco boxed set, released in February of this year and a collaboration between Arhoolie Records and Smithsonian Folkways. The set recently picked up two honours in the Living Blues magazine Critics Poll. The box was voted Best Historical Reissue (Postwar), and Arhoolies’ own Adam Machado was voted Best Producer for a historical reissue. Covering Chenier’s career from his early forays into R&B up to his peak 70s-era band, this is good-time music at its best. You can find it at Smithsonian Folkways recordings, along with a lot of other outstanding historic roots recordings.
Chenier is, without doubt, one of the most important musicians in the history of Zydeco, and is considered by many to be the first real pioneer for the music. Born in Leonville, Louisiana, in 1925, he spoke Louisiana French as his first language and grew up listening to his father and uncle playing Creole-influenced dance music. He started playing the accordion when he was in his early 20’s and began his recording career in 1954, so he was a relatively late starter, but once he started recording, his career quickly took off and he would go on to tour with the likes of Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Etta James, and Little Richard, among others. He was only the second Creole musician to win a Grammy Award (Queen Ida was the first. Chenier won for his 1983 album, I’m Here) and is also credited with creating the Frottoir, the crimped metal vest that hangs from the shoulders (a redesign of a traditional wahboard) and is such an essential part of any Zydeco band. Clifton Chenier left us back in 1987, at the relatively young age of 62, but the legacy he left is enormous, as this box set shows. He has always been, beyond question, the King of Zydeco.
