History of Cajun music
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the history of Cajun music, which is not to be confused with AcadianAcadianThe Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...
music or French CreoleFrench-based creole languagesA French Creole, or French-based Creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koiné French extant in Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies...
music.
Cajun music
Cajun music
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...
has its roots based in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada and Country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
.
Early years
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. When the Acadians came from New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
& Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
to Louisiana in 1764, they brought with them many beautiful ballads that told stories of bygone years. Many of these songs can be traced back to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and many songs from France drifted to the bayou
Bayou
A bayou is an American term for a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river , or to a marshy lake or wetland. The name "bayou" can also refer to creeks that see level changes due to tides and hold brackish water which...
and the prairie region via Nova Scotia and New Orleans. These ballads are not widely performed today, but were the basis of what is now accepted as cajun music.
In the late 19th century, affordable accordions were introduced into Louisiana and were adopted by both Cajun and Creole musicians. Cajun and Creole musical styles at this time grew in parallel: mostly two-steps and waltzes meant for dancing, played by accordion and fiddle.
Some of the first accordions imported in America were "Lester", "Pine Tree" and "Bruno" brands, but they were bulky, cheaply made and hard to play. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that Buegeleisen & Jacobson of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
brought in from Rudolph Kalbes of Berlin, Germany the "MONARCH", then the "STERLING", in the key of C and D. These were assembled in Klingenthal
Klingenthal
Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlovy Vary.The Aschberg towers above the...
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
by several different families. They were "les tit noirs", meaning "the little black ones". They were a bit smaller than some of the older brands and were all black with pewter trim. They were the best ever at that time. Later the Sterling family bought the factory in about the 1920s, then the Eagle family operated the factory, but both were virtually the same instrument as the Monarch, except for the name. During World War II, the Nazi government focused on building its war machine and closed down the accordion factories. Eventually, the factories were bombed by the allies effectively ending the production of these accordions. Today, they are collectables.
Early Recording Era (1920s through 1940s)
The first recorded Cajun song, "Allons à Lafayette" (Let's go to LafayetteLafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
) was recorded in 1928 by Joe Falcon
Joe Falcon (musician)
Joseph Falcon was a Cajun accordion player in southwest Louisiana, best known for the first recording of a Cajun song entitled "Allons à Lafayette" in 1928...
and Cléoma Breaux. Standard versions of songs started to emerge due to the increase in the availability of phonographs. Some of the earliest recordings of Cajun music that exist were done in Louisiana during the late 1920s by noted historian and American folklorist
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
.
Many notable musicians during the time period include Joe Falcon
Joe Falcon (musician)
Joseph Falcon was a Cajun accordion player in southwest Louisiana, best known for the first recording of a Cajun song entitled "Allons à Lafayette" in 1928...
and Cleoma Breaux, Amédé Ardoin
Amédé Ardoin
Amédé Ardoin was an American Louisiana Creole musician, known for his high singing voice and virtuosity on the Creole/Cajun Accordion...
, Breaux Brothers, Segura Brothers, Leo Soileau
Leo Soileau
Leo Soileau was one of the most prolific Cajun recording artists of the 1930s and 1940s. He recorded over 100 songs, which was a substantial amount considering the reluctance to record the music during its early stages...
accompanied by accordionist Mayuse (Maius) Lafleur or Moise Robin, and Dennis McGee
Dennis McGee
Dennis McGee was one of the earliest recorded Cajun musicians.A fiddle player, he recorded and performed with black Creole accordionist and vocalist Amédé Ardoin, with accordionist Angelas LeJeune, and with fiddlers Sady Courville and Ernest Frugé...
accompanied by fiddler Sady Courville or Ernest Frugé.
By the mid-to-late 1930s, a large influx of English speaking people came for the oil fields in Southwest Louisiana. Also, a large migration of French speaking Cajuns expanded to Texas. It was common for performers to sing in both French and English and borrow heavily from the popular country music and Texas swing music on the radio.
Notable musician Harry Choates
Harry Choates
Harry Choates was an American Cajun music fiddler....
recorded the first national hit with a Cajun song, Jolie Blonde in 1946. Other groups from the 1930s and 40s that were able to garner national attention include Leo Soileau and His Four Aces, the Hackberry Ramblers
Hackberry Ramblers
The Hackberry Ramblers , a Grammy Award-nominated Cajun music band based in Hackberry, Louisiana, formed in 1933. Since its heyday in the late 1930s it has become one of the most recognized names and influential groups in Cajun music...
, Happy Fats and the Rhythm Boys, the Alley Boys of Abbeville, the Dixie Ramblers, and J. B. Fuselier and His Merrymakers
J. B. Fuselier
Jean Batiste "J.B." Fuselier was a Cajun musician most remembered for his tune "Ma Chere Bassette." He played for many years with the group J. B. and His Merrymakers.-Early life:...
. Choates' Jolie Blonde, and Hank Williams' song Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
"Jambalaya " is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952...
, which used the melody of the Cajun song Grand Texas, spawned regional and national interest in the music, opening the door to Nashville country music careers for Cajun musicians Jimmy C. Newman
Jimmy C. Newman
Jimmy Yves Newman , better known as Jimmy C. Newman , is an American singer and a long time star of the Grand Ole Opry.-Biography:Newman was born near Big Mamou, Louisiana...
, Rufus Thibodeaux
Rufus Thibodeaux
Rufus Thibodeaux was an American Cajun music fiddler.Thibodeaux played guitar from age six and fiddle from age twelve. He played in local dance halls at 13, and joined Julius Lamperez's Cajun band in 1949. He worked extensively as a studio musician for J. D...
, Doug Kershaw
Doug Kershaw
Doug Kershaw, born January 24, 1936, is an American fiddle player, singer and songwriter from Louisiana. Active since 1949, Kershaw has recorded fifteen albums and charted on the Hot Country Songs charts.- Early life :...
, Jo-El Sonnier
Jo-El Sonnier
Jo-El Sonnier is an American singer-songwriter and accordionist who performs country music and Cajun music. Originally signed to Mercury Nashville Records, Sonnier charted several minor singles on the Billboard country charts in the late 1970s...
, and others.
The Return of the Accordion, the Dancehall Era, and the Cajun Renaissance Movement (1940s through 1970s)
This era is named for the cultural "Cajun Renaissance" movement of the late 1960s to the present, a period in Louisiana of burgeoning pride in the local Cajun and Creole culture and interest in preserving the French languageFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and uniquely Louisiana traditions.
Important musicians in the years after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
brought back the accordion as the lead instrument, following the string band era of the late 1930s and 1940s when the accordion was not featured on recordings. During the 1970s and beyond the trend continued, sometimes with elements of country-western music of the day and rock added to the sound.
A performance by Dewey Balfa
Dewey Balfa
Dewey Balfa was an American Cajun fiddler and singer who contributed significantly to the popularity of Cajun music. Balfa was born near Mamou, Louisiana...
, Gladius Thibodeaux and Vinus LeJeune at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
was one major reason behind a revived interest in traditional Cajun music in the mid 1960s. In 1972, the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana
Council for the Development of French in Louisiana
The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, or CODOFIL — known in French as le Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane and Konséy pou Dévelopmen di françé en Lwizyàn in Creole — is a state agency created in 1968 by the Louisiana legislature...
started an annual festival that came to be known as Festivals Acadiens.
When bands like the Balfa Brothers
Dewey Balfa
Dewey Balfa was an American Cajun fiddler and singer who contributed significantly to the popularity of Cajun music. Balfa was born near Mamou, Louisiana...
, Octa Clark and Hector Duhon, and the black Creole band Bois-Sec Ardoin and Canray began to appear and perform at prestigious national folk festivals like the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
, the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
Folk Festival, the National Folklife Festival, etc., they inspired renewed interest in Louisiana in Cajun and Creole music, leading to the contemporary Cajun music scene.
Musicians of note from the classic period of the 1940s through the 1960s include Iry LeJeune
Iry LeJeune
Iry LeJeune was one of the best selling and most popular Cajun musicians in the mid to late 1940s into the early 1950s....
, Nathan Abshire
Nathan Abshire
Nathan Abshire was an American Cajun accordion player who, along with Iry LeJeune, was responsible for the renaissance of the accordion in Cajun music in the 1940s....
, Lawrence Walker, Aldus Roger, Austin Pitre, Joe Bonsall, Adam Hebert, Robert Bertrand, Phil Menard, The Sundown Playboys, Badeaux and the Louisiana Aces, Rodney LeJeune, Belton Richard, and many others. Musicians such as Walter Mouton, Paul Daigle, Sheryl Cormier, Johnny Sonnier, Ed Gary, Jackie Callier, and others continue the tradition.
This style of Cajun music is well documented by regional records producers such as Floyd Soileau
Floyd Soileau
James Floyd Soileau is an American record producer.Soileau was born November 2, 1938, in Faubourg, a small community between Ville Platte and Washington, Louisiana. He grew up speaking Cajun French and did not speak English until attending school at the age of 6 years...
(Swallow), J.D. Miller (Feature, Fais Do-Do), Eddie Shuler (Goldband), Lee Lavergne (Lanor), Carol Rachou (La Louisianne), George Khoury (Khoury, Lyric) and others. Jukeboxes, radio programs and TV spots in Cajun French helped publicize a band's work, making it easier to get jobs performing on the dancehall circuit in southwest Louisiana and East Texas.
Contemporary Era
By the 1980s, a new sound of cajun music mixed with elements of rock, blues and R&B was introduced to south Louisiana with Wayne ToupsWayne Toups
Wayne Toups is one of the most commercially successful American Cajun singers. He is also a songwriter.-Biography:...
and Zydecajun.
A new respect for Cajun culture developed in the 1990s. Among the most well-known Cajun bands outside of Louisiana is the multi-Grammy-winning Beausoleil
Beausoleil
BeauSoleil is an American musical group specializing in Cajun music. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, the group members are brothers Michael Doucet and David Doucet , Jimmy Breaux , Billy Ware , Tommy Alesi , and Mitchell Reed .-Band history:Founded in 1975, BeauSoleil BeauSoleil (French, beautiful...
, who have joined several country music artists in the studio, and served as an inspiration to the Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer...
hit, "Down at the Twist and Shout
Down at the Twist and Shout
"Down at the Twist and Shout" is a single written and recorded by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Released in June 1991, it was the third single from the album Shooting Straight in the Dark...
".
Today
Today, all forms of Cajun musicCajun music
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...
can be heard, including those considered "modern traditionalists" who draw on a variety of elements from the broad history of Cajun and Creole music. From the 1990s to the present, artists such as Cory McCauley, Jason Frey, Mitch Reed and Randy Vidrine, Balfa Toujours, Ray Abshire, the Lost Bayou Ramblers
Lost Bayou Ramblers
The Lost Bayou Ramblers are a Grammy-nominated Cajun music band from Pilette, Louisiana.-Career:The Lost Bayou Ramblers were formed in 1999 by Louis Michot and his brother Andre Michot...
, the Pine Leaf Boys
Pine Leaf Boys
The Pine Leaf Boys is a Cajun and Creole band from South Louisiana. Members include Wilson Savoy , Courtney Granger , Drew Simon , Jon Bertrand , and Thomas David .-Career:...
, Chris Miller and others, have been popular with contemporary audiences while maintaining a connection with traditional forms.
On June 7, 2007, The Recording Academy (NARAS) announced a new Grammy category, Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists at the 50th, 51st, 52nd and 53rd Grammy Awards for quality zydeco or cajun music albums...
, in its folk music field.
See also
- Cajun musicCajun musicCajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...
- Cajun French Music AssociationCajun French Music AssociationThe Cajun French Music Association is an association dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Cajun music and culture.-History:The Cajun French Music Association is a non-profit organization of Cajuns and non-Cajuns whose purpose is to promote and preserve, not only Cajun music, but also...
- List of festivals in Louisiana
- List of Notable People Related to Cajun Music
- Cajun accordionCajun accordionA Cajun accordion also known as a squeezebox is single-row diatonic button accordion used for playing Cajun music.-History:Many different accordions were developed in Europe throughout the 19th century, and exported worldwide...
- Cajun fiddleCajun fiddleCajun fiddle music is a part of the American fiddle music canon. It is derived from the music of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas, as well as sharing repertoire from the Quebec and Cape Breton traditions...
External links
- A Brief History of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco Music
- Cajun Music mp3: Hadacol it Something: samples of Cajun music