Post-Ponderosa stomp at the Long Beach Bayou Fest

TERRANCE SIMIEN

Tradition needs tweaking in order to survive, no? Take both Cajun and zydeco music: Purists may cringe, but without the contemporary stylings of bold leaders like Terrance Simien and Michael Doucet, the distinctive music of the Louisiana bayou would surely wither away.

An eighth-generation Creole who grew up in the St. Landry Parish of Mallet, La., singer/songwriter/accordion player Simien has played zydeco professionally for over 20 years. His roots are firmly planted in the rich zydeco tradition of masters like Clifton Chenier, Boozoo Chavis, John Delafose, Amede Ardoin and Canray Fontenot. Still, Simien, 43, was equally influenced by Bob Dylan, the Band, Simon & Garfunkel, plus a host of rock, soul, R&B and reggae acts.

So it’s not unnatural to hear Simien and his crack Zydeco Experience Band play an eclectic hybrid of sounds and styles—think soulful, hippie-era jam band meets funk and reggae-flavored Afro-Caribbean world music. But is he pushing the envelope too far?

“I’m not the first to create rather than imitate,” Simien says by phone from a tour stop in Winnipeg. “Ardoin changed the music from the days of the jure [slave songs, spirituals, call-and-response a cappella]; Chenier followed with his infusion of R&B and blues, and Beau Jocque took the music even further.”

Just as Simien’s own voice has emerged over the years, he insists that he first had to immerse himself in zydeco’s rich tradition. Now he’s making sure that others—particularly kids—have that same opportunity. In 2002, Simien released Creole for Kidz, which presented the history and culture of the French-speaking Creole people of southwest Louisiana with music by Simien plus narration by Louisiana State Sen. Donald Cravins.

More recently, Simien hit the road with “Creole for Kidz,” a multimedia arts-in-education performance focusing on interaction. Children get to wear Mardi Gras beads, ask tons of questions, and (following the live presentation) even strap on the accordion and frottoir (“rub the board”). What began modestly in Louisiana schools has blossomed, spreading to more than a half million children around the world, including classes in South America, Mali, Australia, Europe, Canada and parts of Asia.

Simien’s appeal extends outside the classroom as well. Onstage, the energized, barefoot showman glides between smooth, Sam Cooke-like ballads and rollicking, party-minded zydeco tunes. And who knows? Being a big political year, he just may make a statement, one perhaps recalling his stirring, post-9/11 medley of the “Star Spangled Banner,” Edwin Starr’s “War (What is it Good For?)” and John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.”

More prominently featuring the fiddle and rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Nova Scotia, Cajun music is also steeped in tradition. Its greatest ambassador today is singer/songwriter/fiddler Michael Doucet, who like Simien, understands that his music must be infused with fresh inspiration or run the risk of extinction.

Doucet, 57, founding member of both BeauSoleil and the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, learned his craft from his Lafayette, La., neighbors: Cajun greats like Dewey Balfa, Dennis McGee and Fontenot. Particularly in the Savoy-Doucet outfit—which also features the brilliant husband-wife team of Ann and Marc Savoy—Doucet mostly mines the traditional fare, focusing on timeless jigs, ballads, two-steps and baisse-bas.

But the more experimental Doucet shows off his alter-ego in BeauSoleil, whose style pulls from various genres, including Western swing, gypsy jazz, swamp-pop, zydeco, folk, blues, country and even surf-rock. Some critics have called the daring sextet the Cajun Grateful Dead, thanks in part to its improvisational live jams.

“I couldn’t do what I’ve done if I hadn’t learned directly from Dennis McGee and the others,” Doucet told me several years ago. “That’s how you truly learn. Once you absorb their ideas and techniques, you then are free to create music that stretches, yet still fits within, the tradition. Otherwise, the music grows stale and can’t move forward.”

TERRANCE SIMIEN, THE SAVOY-DOUCET BAND, GENO DELAFOSE, GUITAR SHORTY AND MANY MORE THE LONG BEACH BAYOU FESTIVAL | RAINBOW LAGOON | 400 SHORELINE VILLAGE DR | LONG BEACH 90802 | LONGBEACHFESTIVAL.HOMESTEAD.COM | SAT-SUN 11AM | $10-60 | ALL AGES | PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT COMPREHENSIVE CHILDCARE DEVELOPMENT

Tags: bayou festival, cajun, Music, zyedeco