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©Andrea Rubinstein 2000
The Zen of Beausoleil
(April 6, 2000). Okay. Maybe it's a Northern California thing. Maybe we've heard
too much Grateful Dead here. But the soaring lyricism of Beausoleil's show at
Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on Wednesday night reminded me of the
Zen concept of mindfulness or living fully in the present moment.
Beausoleil put on an amazing show, which reflected their Cajun footing, yet
explored many other musical influences. The two-steps and waltzes were there,
but you could also hear strains of calypso, Celtic, Parisian cafes, new age,
swamp pop and rock and roll (how about a Cajun French version of "I hear
you knocking"... mais ne pas entrée??) which kept the music fresh and
vital.
The interplay of the three front men, Michael Doucet on fiddle, Jimmy Breaux on
accordion, and David Doucet on guitar, had an ebb and flow that just was
astonishing in its beauty. As many times as I've seen Beausoleil in the past, I
am always newly impressed with the consummate musicianship of the players. The
way Michael would set up a phase on his fiddle, Jimmy would pick it up and
embellish it and David would elaborate on the last variation, and then pass it
back to Michael, is a musical tour de force. If I still used some of those funny
drugs from the Sixties, I would say I was hearing wave upon wave of music
crashing down on me, flowing up and down with phrasingthat passed from player to
player in an exquisite flow of sound. (I guess you had to be there). I was
certainly carried away in the moment and you could sense the band was, too.
There were instances you could see Jimmy and Michael's eyes literally roll back
up into their heads, as they concentrated intensely on what they were playing.
Cajun Zen mindfulness? At other times, you could see how much the band really
delighted in their playing. For example, someone would lay down a a distinctive
bit of music, and surprised, another band member would sort of look up and grin
at what he'd just heard. On one beautiful waltz, while David played lead guitar,
Michael plucked his fiddle rather than bowed it, and it sounded like raindrops.
Just breathtaking.
As always, the venue couldn't have been better. GAMH is a gorgeous old Victorian
hall, with ornate balconies, soaring marble columns and elaborate ceiling
frescoes plus a good wood dance floor and great acoustics. The dance hall was
crowded but not packed and there was enough room to dance and even do some Cajun
spins and twirls without crashing into others.
Side Note: Every time I go to GAMH, I am intrigued by the ambiance. It turns out
that GAMH was opened the year after the 1906 earthquake, as Blanco's and was one
of the most popular entertainment spots during San Francisco's notorious Barbary
Coast era. The restaurant/bordello offered fine food, gambling, and fast women
right up until the dark days of the Great Depression in 1933. In 1936 through
the end of World War II, the extravagant and elaborate fan dances of local
favorite Sally Rand brought new life to the building, which was renamed The
Music Box. In 1948, it was reincarnated as a jazz club and in the 1950's, it was
a Moose Lodge. By the 1970's. the building had so declined that it was actually
condemned by city building inspectors. A last minute reprieve saved it from
demolition and the tarnished interior was spruced up and briefly turned into a
French restaurant. Its current incarnation, as GAMH, began in 1972.
