Buckwheat's Zydeco Party

Buckwheat Zydeco

album cover

Believe the Title

Stanley Dural Jr. spent much of the 1960s playing soul and R&B on the club circuit in the South. An adroit organist and gruff singer, he followed James Brown's example as a bandleader: He expected the music to be tight, played by musicians who showed up ready to entertain people. Sometime in the 1970s, just as interest in rural forms of Cajun music was awakening among young people, Dural began experimenting with his father's accordion and the music known as "zydeco" that the legendary Clifton Chenier (see p. 160) spearheaded in the 1950s. It wasn't long before Dural and his southern Louisiana musicians fluent in soul and Cajun styles came up with dance floor dynamite—a tastefully modernized version of the zydeco rhythm, buttressed with horns, a stomping rhythm section, and soulrevue panache. This idea spread quickly: Several generations of zydeco bands, most notably Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers, followed Dural's example, covering rock songs and spicing up the tradition.

Zydeco Party contains material from the two albums Dural (stage name Buckwheat Zydeco) made for Rounder in the early '80s, just before signing a major-label contract. The timing is crucial: Though Dural crafted intermittently strong records after this, he fell victim to the excesses of "star time," cluttering his titles with pointless special guests and funk vamps that last way too long. Even his zydeco started to feel very Los Angeles.

Here, though, Dural and his quintet are still scrapping. Their rhythmic refinements aren't yet etched in stone, and as far as material's concerned, it's anything goes—there's even a version of the Little Richard standby "Tutti Frutti." They're striving for common ground between New Orleans boogie and the stately Clifton Chenier waltzes and the greasier side of Stax-Volt R&B. When they hit the sweet spot—see "Hot Tamale Baby" and "Zydeco Boogaloo"—it's the musical equivalent of a high-revving big rig that's just discovered a previously untapped cruising gear. And intends to roll that way all night.

Genre: Blues
Released: 1987, Rounder
Key Tracks: "Hot Tamale Baby," "Ya-Ya," "Someone Else Is Steppin' In," "Tutti Frutti," "Zydeco Boogaloo"
Catalog Choice: On a Night Like This
Next Stop: Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers: Pick Up On This!
After That: Boozoo Chavis: Johnnie Billy Goat
Book Pages: 128–129