Music of the Louisiana Creole People

 

From: Creoles of Color of the Gulf South (1996)
By: James H Dormo

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Zydeco Music

 

 

Sesame Street - It's Zydeco

 

The music of Louisiana Creoles like the bluesand jazz, rock and reggae often called Zydeco is the   result of a typically     American experience that combined European, Native American, and   Afro- Caribbean musical tradition. Nothing quite like them developed in Europe where direct contact   with African culture was uncommon and interesting.

   In America, both European and African cultures were far from home, on new ground. Settlers   learned some old ways from each other and made up lots of new ways for themselves as they carved   out a new world on the frontier. Among the most important influences in this new blend was   percussion. This new music was hard-driving, polyrhythmic dance music.   This critical African tradition may also have been reinforced by an overlap with Native American drumming. In any case, it survived to provide a beat for zydeco and Cajun music, as well as for rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, soul, hip hop, and other black-influenced American music styles. Zydeco, zarico, zodico, zordico, and even zologo represent a few of the spellings used by folklorists, ethnomusicologists, record producers, and filmmakers, as well as

dance hall owners and fans, to transcribe the word performers use to describe Louisiana's Creole French music. The word Creole, which originally meant simply "native or homegrown, not imported," served, among other things; to distinguish African slaves from the more valuable Creole slaves.

In South Louisiana, where the French language is an important cultural identity maker, French-speaking blacks often called themselves Creoles noirs (Black Creoles) or Creoles de couleur (Creoles of color), Creoles Francais (French Creoles) to distinguish themselves from French-speaking whites, who might be either Creoles Francais (French Creoles) or Cadiens (Cajuns), as well as from English-speaking blacks, who are called negres americains (American Negroes).

Native Louisiana Creoles explain that the word comes from les haricots because of the expression, "Les haricots son pas sales" ("The beans aren't salty"), a phrase often heard in traditional songs. The spelling of zydeco was the first one to appear in print

 

From: Creoles of Color of the Gulf South (1996)
By: James H Dormo

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.tabasco.com/html/arts_irlove.html

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.sfbayou.com

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erols.com/ghayman

Zydeco-a-go-go

zydamax.com

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