Step Right Here!

Step Rideau & the Zydeco Outlaws made their West Coast debut at Eagle's Hall on Friday night, May 19th and returned to play a second gig there just two days later, on Sunday. It was not too much. In fact, the Sunday evening performance far surpassed their Friday debut in energy and showmanship, leaving me to wonder if perhaps the band was just too tired to perform on Friday after traveling to Northern California from Texas. 

I've seen Step over a half dozen times, both  in SW Louisiana and also at last year's Fort Lauderdale festival,  and have enjoyed the band's rock steady beat.   Step, in fact, participated with Thomas Fields and Christine Balfa during one of the Ft. Lauderdale festival's history sessions, where the conversation turned to the 'soul' in Cajun/Creole music. Step related how, although only 32,  he grew up picking cotton outside Eunice, and how he
tried to ensure his music reflected his Creole heritage.  I was impressed by his thoughtful remarks.

At the Eagle's performance on  Friday, the set was characterized by extremely  long songs and to my ears (and to my surprise) a certain repetitiveness.  I left at midnight and the band still hadn't taken a break.  As I walked out,  I was puzzling over the fact  that the band didn't seem  as good as I remembered.  All that changed on Sunday, however.  Whereas on Friday night, the band seemed like they were checking out the audience, on Sunday, although the dance crowd was smaller,  the musicians  looked much more relaxed and  seemed like they were really enjoying themselves on  stage.  In fact, at times they were just wild men, doing Motown moves, running back and forth on stage, and just really getting into it.  Their energy also spilled over into their music, which are mostly original compositions. Now, this was more like the band I remembered, offering hot music and a lively stage presence.

 Step's tour was booked in association with Louisiana Sue and Dana DeSimone, who have been doing a great job bringing  these  Crawfish Circuit bands to our area.  

8th Annual Fort Lauderdale Cajun/Zydeco Crawfish Festival

Balfa Toujours

Musically, the festival has an equal emphasis on Cajun and zydeco acts, plus each years adds some C-z bands from outside Louisiana to mix it up.   This year's festival was ruled by the traditionalists.  For zydeco, you had  outstanding performances by Roy Carrier , Willis Prudhomme and Geno Delafose plus good sets by JoJo Reed, Leroy Thomas, Lil Malcolm, Ann Goodly  and Little Brian.  Traditional Creole music was  represented by a rare appearance by 84 year old Bois Sec Ardoin. Cajun musicians included, 9 year old Hunter Hayes, plus Balfa Toujours, T-Mamou, the Savoy Cajun Band, Charivari (a new incarnation of the Mamou Prairie Band) and the Magnolia Sisters.   Nouveau Cajun and beyond bands included File,  Wayne Toups and Waylon Thibodeaux.      Rockin Dopsie Jr (photo, right) and Chubby Carrier entertained big crowds with their theatrical zydeco performances.  Regional bands  included Lisa Haley from Southern California, Slippery Sneakers from Rhode Island,  Gris Gris and the Porchdogs from Florida and  Gumbo Junkyard from the mid-Atlantic area. 

One thing I enjoy about attending festivals is seeing  bands I'd only heard or read about, (or caught on a bad day.)  At this year, my big discovery was T-Mamou.   Featuring Al Berard from the Basin Brothers on fiddle, and Bob Reed  from the Mamou Prairie Band on accordion, plus Keith Blanchard (Basin Brothers), Sam Broussard and Tommy Bodin,  the band's regular gigs includes the Louisiana Cajun dance hall circuit of Mulate's and Randol's.    They play a lively, always danceable Cajun mix that stays planted in the tradition of the Balfa Brothers.  Watching them on stage, it is evident how much they love playing this music and playing with each other.  I was blown away.   

I was also really impressed with Roy Carrier's set.   I always wondered what the fuss was about Roy.  The few times I'd seen him in the past, I was not overly impressed.  Now I know these must have been bad nights.  Roy really rocked. During his Fort Lauderdale set,  accompanied by the always energetic Earl Sally on rubboard, he laid down a beat as unstoppable as a train coming down the track.  Plus, who knew he was also a gifted impressionist?  In the middle of one song, he announced that he was going to sing it like Queen Ida , and darn if he didn't nail it. His vocal impersonation was hilarious and right on.  Later in the set, Earl did vocals Bob Dylan style.  Book these guys on the Ed Sullivan show! 

Other highlights for me were Ann Goodly's and Willis Prudhomme's (photo, left) performance on the acoustic stage.  Ann has a lovely voice.  Plus, Geno Delafose, Balfa Toujours and File put on their usual extraordinary shows.  And it was good to see JoJo Reed fully recovered from his accident of several years ago. 

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the hospitality of the Fort Lauderdale dance community, and in particular Wayne Bridges, who opened up his home for a pre-festival brunch and post-festival lasagna dinner for the local and out-of-town dancers. Thanks, Wayne.  

File

The Fort Lauderdale Crawfish Festival is an event put on by folks who know this  music, love and respect the culture and understand the dance community.  It is well-organized, easy to navigate, relatively inexpensive to attend and a pleasure to attend. (Plus they have Krispy Kreme donuts there.)  I highly recommend adding it to the list of festivals you chose to travel to next year. 

Jazz Fest 2000

New Orleans' Jazz and Heritage Festival is just made for someone with Attention Deficit Disorder. There are so many things going on simultaneously at the Festival fairgrounds that you are forced to make choices all day long. Basically you walk round and round the racetrack sampling music, food, interviews, ethnic dance and crafts all day long, then go back to your lodging, clean up, and head out for dinner and then to the clubs at night to party. You return the next day to repeat the routine. It is an exhausting yet exhilarating marathon. As you meet up with friends the talk is who did you see, or what part of a musical set did you see, and where are you going next. At night, the clubs have 9pm, midnight or 1AM sets, plus many have shows that don’t even start until 3:30 AM or later (earlier?). It is impossible to fully describe the experience.

I attended all four days of Jazz Fest's 2^nd weekend (May 4-7) where attendance was estimated to be about 43,000 on Thursday, 60,000 on Friday, 95,000 on Saturday and 75,000 on Sunday. The trip started where it usually does: at Rock and Bowl on Wednesday night, where Steve Riley performed. The Mamou Playboys have 2 new members, replacing Peter Schwarz and Jimmy Domengeaux, and the band's music seems to be evolving into a more abstract, free form style of rock and roll. Much of the set was interesting, but not very danceable. The best part of the evening, as it always was, was seeing old dance friends again. For the rest of the week at RNB the Cajun Zydeco acts included Geno Delafose, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas, and Rosie Ledet on Thursday, which was packed, and Boozoo Chavis on Sunday, as a last minute substitute for Keith Frank.

Jazz Fest includes all kinds of music and it was great to discover new music or hear musicians I was curious about. From a zydeco perspective, I was most impressed with Chris Ardoin's set. (see photo, left)  He put on a great show, plus his music was interesting and always danceable. Close behind was J. Paul Jr and the Zydeco Newbreeds,.  J. Paul has a very urban sound, but goes a little overboard with the stage theatrics. Rosie Ledet also sounded great. She was in great voice, sang mostly original material and unlike the last few times I've seen her (several years ago), the band no longer dropped the beat. I came away impressed. While in prior years, Keith Frank , along with the late  Beau Jocque, was always one of my  favorite acts, this year I thought Keith's show was too toned down. He did a nice Fifties medley, but it wasn’t zydeco. He had a contest to see whether the men and women in the audience could yell louder. If I remember correctly, he even sang "Hey Pocky Way" (which I must have heard at least 5 times each day). I think he was trying to broaden his appeal. The set differed greatly from what he played at Richard's during Mardi Gras. Sunpie Barnes (see photo, below right)also played during JF. I was expecting a zydeco and blues set. Instead, to my surprise, Sunpie came out with a blue crown, and African drums and played songs that sounded like they could be coming from the Congo Square stage. He did play two zydeco songs at the end.

For Cajun acts, Steve Riley played the main Acura stage. When you are used to seeing Steve in club setting, it is weird to see his and David Greely's images staring out to you on the large overhead video screen. Just like a rock star! Wayne Toups played the slightly smaller Fox/Sprint PCS stage. I hadn't seen him for a while and only caught one Cajun song, but he sure rocked out. On the Fais Do Do stage, I saw Balfa Toujours (see photo, above left), Savoy-Doucet Band, the Hackberry Ramblers, D.L. Menard, Charivari and the Traiteurs with Sonny Landreth. For the Traiteurs set, it was fascinating to hear the lead instrument on Cajun riffs being played by a slide guitar rather than a fiddle or accordion. The band has enormous power and energy. If you ever get the chance, don't miss them. In my wanderings, I chanced upon young Kira Viator playing accordion on the children's stage. She was very accomplished. Another children's band, Le Bande FeuFollet, played the Fais Do Do stage, and if you were just listening, you would never have suspected the young age of these musicians. (see photo, left)

Other musical highlights for me included fine sets by Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers, Diana Krall (both jazz stylists, with arresting vocals), and John Mooney on his slide guitar (both at the Fest and at a 1am set at Storyville). I was also impressed with the few songs I heard by Julio & Cesar (Latin), Lil Band of Gold (a new swamp pop supergroup of LA musicians that included Steve Riley, David Greely, CC Adcock, David Egan (of File) and Warren Storm among its members, see inset photo), Walter Payton , and Marva Wright (both NOLA based). Other sampling included Aaron Nelville singing gospel backed by the Zion Harmonizers, the Temptations, the Neville Brothers, Ani Defranco, the Rebirth Brass Band, plus African dancing by Tanably of Cote d'Ivoire and cooking demonstrations (including one by Ann & Marc Savoy.) I couldn't even begin to list the things I missed.

If you decide to go to Jazz Fest, which I recommend, I would tell you to take lots of clothes, lots of money and lots of sunscreen. Remember to pace yourself, drink plenty of water, and find a place to get out of the sun and cool down during the heat of the afternoon. I found that filling a water bottle filled with diluted Emergen-C (a vitamin-sports drink mix) really revived me. Make your reservations way in advance… lots of folks book rooms for next year's fest  before they even check out of this year's lodgings. And of course, have fun. I know I did!