Welcome to Issue #46
of FloridaCajunZydeco.com Update!
for November 2016
This newsletter showcases dance events from the FloridaCajunZydeco.com website and publishes articles not on the website pages. On Friday, Nov. 4 Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe at Ace’s Live in Bradenton. On Tuesday, Nov. 8 [Election Day] the Cajun and Zydeco Dance will be at Island Vibes in Largo. Other dances scheduled for Dec. 6 and Dec. 20. Easy Street Bayou
is back at the Zydeco Grille in Englewood most every Saturday starting this weekend. Also, check out these stories in this edition: Spotlight on The Zydeco Boss, Keith Frank. If you haven't visited FloridaCajunZydeco.com
website, please do so. It has a new fluid width format which fills your browser window with content for easy reading regardless of whether you are viewing it on a desktop computer, tablet or mobile phone. I have done the same thing to icajunzydeco.com for our Southern California audience. We're on Facebook in Groups (Florida Cajun Zydeco Dancers) and with our own Facebook Page
(Florida Cajun Zydeco). Check us out and "Like" us to see the posts and reminders throughout the week. This is a good way to get your Cajun and zydeco fix between newsletters. FloridaCajunZydeco.com loves to travel — in your pocket on your smart phone. Check the website for dance information wherever your travels take you. Regards, Jim Hance Publisher, FloridaCajunZydeco.com
Fri. Nov. 4 -- Dikki Du and The Zydeco Krewe
8 p.m. at Ace’s Live, 4343 Palma Sola Blvd., Bradenton, Florida 34209. Phone 941-795-3886. (Please confirm time on Ace’s Live website in case of a change.) Dikki Du (Troy Carrier)
was born in 1969 in Church Point, Louisiana and discovered his love for zydeco music at the tender age of nine. Troy’s brother Chubby Carrier started a family band and offered Troy a job playing the drums. Troy toured with his brother from the late '80s until the '90s when he returned home to pick up the accordion. It has now been nineteen years that Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe have been on the scene. Dikki Du has incorporated his musical heritage and created one of the most innovative zydeco groups around. His original funky and hypnotic zydeco style announces that he has arrived, occupying a spot on par with the best.” On his last trip to the area Dikki brought his sons with him, and featured a St. Petersburg musician on bass. Come out and support this venue again, and dance to a great zydeco band. At just $15 a ticket, you can't afford to stay home! Website:
http://aceslivemusic.com
Tues. Nov. 8 (Election Night) Cajun-Zydeco Dance (Largo)
6-9:30 p.m. Island Vibes, 351 West Bay Drive, Largo 33770. Ph. 727-240-4420. No cover charge. Please patronize the restaurant. Find the restaurant on the corner of 4th. Plenty of free parking nearby if the lot is full (small lot). The menu for the restaurant is at http://sweetislandvibes.com/ PRE-ORDER DINNER at the Cajun-Zydeco Dance on Tuesday.
Earl, the owner of Sweet Island Vibes Restaurant, says, "We would like to offer your group the opportunity to pre-order their meals. If anyone is interested in doing so, they can view the menu on our website at www.sweetislandvibes.com. You can then e-mail the orders to me with their names and we have the items ready at a specific time that you choose." Check out their menu and location at sweetislandvibes.com
Nov. 5 -- Easy Street Bayou Returns to Zydeco Grille
7:00-9:00 p.m. Zydeco Grille, 8501 Placida Road, Englewood, FL.
Website: www.zydecogrille.com No cover charge.
Lisa Brande and Mark Trichka are back from their summer retreat in Vermont to play for you Saturday evenings at the Zydeco Grille in Englewood, FL. They will be joined by Mary Morella on frottoir. Lisa and Mark play in various ensembles including Slippery Sneakers and Maple Sugar Serenaders, and are alumni of Thomas “Big Hat” Fields Zydeco Band and Al Berard Cajun Combo. They have been full time musicians for 30 years playing swing, bluegrass, Cajun, zydeco, rockabilly and honky tonk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjK9MO19rbE
Spotlight on:Keith Frank,
"The Zydeco Boss"With a musical heritage dating as far back as the mid-19th century, Keith Frank can boast to come from one of the oldest musical families in Louisiana. Born in 1972, raised and still living in the heart of Acadiana, Frank could hardly escape the family tradition and become something other than a musician. Since entering the Louisiana music scene in the 1990s, Keith Frank carved a niche for himself as one of the leading lights of “nouveau zydeco”, a generation of musicians who have mixed rhythm and blues, hip-hop, reggae, rap and other contemporary popular stylings with the “traditional” zydeco of a previous generation which was already a mixture of different influences. The movement was led by musicians who grew up in families that
performed traditional zydeco such as Jeffery Broussard with Zydeco Force, Chris Ardoin, Rosie Ledet, and Beau Jocque. The competition was fierce as to who was “top dog.” As Michael Tisserand reported in Offbeat Magazine
in 1995, “Twenty-two-year-old Frank has seized the reigns to become the top draw at such zydeco proving grounds as Richard’s Club and Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki.” His fans began referring to him as “The Boss” and the sobriquet stuck. Keith Frank calls himself the “The Zydeco Boss” on his website, and has even published a phone app called Zydeco Boss for keeping track of Keith Frank’s shows and music. According to Keith Frank’s father, Preston, “He does it all. He can do the Nouveau and then, he can play identical to like I play, which I can’t do quite the same like he does. He can do it any kind of way that it needs to be done. The old-fashioned or the new one, or La La. It’s all the same to him.” In the
Kingdom of Zydeco, Michael Tisserand talks about the Frank family lineage of Creole musicians. Keith Frank’s great-great-grandfather Joseph Frank, Jr. was an accordion player, and his great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Frank, Sr. was known as a fiddler. But they never recorded. Today, the Frank name rests largely on Keith’s shoulders. At age 9, Keith started out playing drums full time in his father’s band, the Preston Frank Swallow Band, which was best known for the song, “Why Do You Want to Make Me Cry?” composed by Preston and Leo ‘The Bull' Thomas. But zydeco was definitely not his first love. “I hated it,” Frank admits. “I swear, I could not stand playing music. I hated zydeco, I hated the whole thing. Because my old man would make me practice, and I wanted to be riding
my bike and stuff like that.” But when Keith was in the eighth grade, his father began to perform less frequently. “That’s when I started getting more into it,” Keith says. “I realized it was a part of my life, and I couldn’t stand being without it. I didn’t know rap and stuff, but I always knew zydeco. I felt at home.” Keith Frank and three friends formed a band, and began entering talent contests at Oberlin High School, winning and losing “about the same amount.” On school marching band trips, students would often bring radios. Keith Frank brought his accordion. “On the way there, we would all play on the bus, play in the band room. People would laugh, say it was hilarious. I didn’t think it was funny. I knew what to expect,” he continues. “I knew they
would laugh at me and criticize me. If I went back and played in my home town, in Oberlin, I’d get no support at all. But I don’t let it bother me.” As a teen, Keith played guitar with Jo Jo Reed, and played in his family band, which played traditional zydeco music behind his dad, Preston, and different interpretations of that music with just his siblings. The kids recorded one cassette tape, On The Bandstand,
with their father’s producer, Lee Lavergne, for Lanor Records. The tape included a new version of Amédé Ardoin’s “Two Step de Prairie Soileau” as well as songs influenced by Boozoo Chavis and Zydeco Force. According to Lavergne, “They were searching for something different. It never could be loud enough on the drum for him. He wanted to do things his way, and we didn’t get along about that, and he went and did his thing with somebody else. And he done good, you know.” In 1993 Keith Frank showcased his new sound with his solo debut album, Get On Boy! He reworked Boozoo Chavis’ “Zydeco Hee Haw” into his own “Murdock”, and D.L. Menard’s Cajun classic “The Back Door” into an instrumental called “Huh.”
THE ZYDECO GUMBOAs Tisserand describes it, Keith Frank’s song material could come from unlikely sources. “During Zydeco Festival in Plaisance, his local hit “Get On Boy” included licks from the “Star Spangled Banner,” as well as theme songs to Woody Woodpecker, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and The Andy Griffith Show. Other tunes included riffs from Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On,” the Beverly Hillbillies
theme, and a jingle for Chia Pets. “I try to do something out of the ordinary, just so the wallflowers don’t get bored,” he explains. Other songs come from direct experience: “'Going to McDonald’s' was written at a trail ride. I hadn’t had a thing to eat all day, and they had this cowboy stew or something like that, and somebody came in with a bag from Checkers. I always eat at Checkers or McDonald’s at McNeese [University, where Frank earned a degree].” A QUESTION OF WHO WROTE THAT SONGAccording to Tisserand, some of the songs on Get On Boy!
featured the same minor chord vamps and classic rock riffs used by another performer who lived just a few miles down Highway 165 from Soileau, and who had also gone to Lanor to make his debut record: Beau Jocque. “Keith saw where Beau Jocque was getting the attention of the young ones, and how he was going into that rap beat,” Lavergne said. “I think he kind of copied Beau Jocque to some extent, because he changed his style completely after he left me.” It wasn’t long before a feud began to develop between the two musicians. Public scenes between the two erupted, indicating that this was not going to be the friendly rivalry once seen between Beau Jocque and Boozoo Chavis. The first major battle was over who copied whom in the songs “Went Out Last Night” by Keith Frank and
“Yesterday” published later by Beau Jocque. The matter was finally resolved to nobody’s satisfaction: it was determined that both songs derived from “I Got Loaded,” a popular R&B song by Little Bob and the Lollipops. The next volley was a song on Keith Frank’s What’s His Name? that everyone knew was about Beau Jocque. Against a minimalist background of accordion and double-kicking drum, he sang:
“One lick from my get-on boy, the pork chop got sick.
Two licks from my get-on boy, the pork chop ain’t ——“
A cymbal crash finished the thought. Beau Jocque began performing a tune in the clubs called “What’s Wrong with the Get-On Boy?” He didn’t intend to record the song, but after Keith Frank barged into a radio station to complain to station manager Don Wilson that he was playing too many Beau Jocque songs, Don Wilson went to a club where Beau Jocque was playing and recorded “What’s Wrong” on his cassette. Wilson had his deejays play it every hour of every day on the radio. And so the bad blood continued. But controversies over who wrote the Keith Frank melody wasn’t limited to just songs done by Beau Jocque. Boozoo Chavis had little patience for bands borrowing his melodies for their own songs. A Keith Frank song, “Let Me Be,”
clearly owed its melody to Chavis’ “Suzy Q” and Boozoo had to comment on that. “I heard Keith Frank made my record ‘Suzy Q.’ But he sings, ‘Let me be, the place to be.’ Now you ask him, ‘What you mean with where you ought to be?’ What’s he going to tell you? He doesn’t know where you ought to be. He can’t tell you. If I make a record, I can tell you. I say, ‘I ought to be in the movies,’ or ‘I ought to be in heaven.’ But [he] can’t explain what [he's] saying.”
LIVE AT SLIM’S Y-KI-KIOne thing is common to all zydeco music: it is created for the sole purpose of dancing.
Some people believe zydeco is best live. Keith Frank’s live album recorded at a Louisiana nightclub fits the bill. At the end of the 20th century, plenty of gifted young musicians showed both a reverence for the zydeco tradition and an eagerness to forge their own unique musical style. Zydeco audiences went wild for such avid genre innovators as Chris Ardoin and Keith Frank. With the 1999 release, “Live at Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki,” Frank didn't shy from innovation. A subtle reggae influence adds to the seductive appeal of songs such as "Rising to the Top,'" "Hold On to It'" and "Sometimes We Make You Move Your Feet." Most of the tunes are originals. The album opens with the bubbly, hummable come-on "Give Me Just a Little Time." In the humorous, infectious "Hey Pretty Baby (With
Your Teeth So White)," Frank asks the musical question, "I wonder what you use, is it Crest or Colgate?" The concert was recorded in a dancehall in Opelousas, LA, but had it been outdoors, no doubt the churning "Ca Joue Ma Musique de Tuer Les Herbes (When I Play My Music, I Want You to Kill the Grass)'' would have led the dancers to decimate the lawn. By the end of the eight-minute, funk-tinged jam "Moving to the Groove,'' for that matter, the owner of Slim's Y-Ki-Ki was probably having to think about buying some new floorboards. DJ Greg Benusa sums up “Live at Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki”, an “amazing live recording with many great medium tempo zydeco tunes.” A BRIEF RETIREMENTIn 2010, Keith Frank announced his retirement from the zydeco circuit. After about twenty-five years immersed in zydeco music, however, the music business was not something he could shrug off to simply travel or do something else. He promised his mother he’d continue after she asked him to keep going, to keep carrying on the family musical tradition. So, Keith Frank decided on a come-back after only a few months in retirement. Not only a successful musician, Keith Frank has also become an accomplished producer and entrepreneur. His mastery of the sound-mixing and recording techniques (acquired thanks to the electronics degree he got from McNeese University) enabled him to
open his own recording studio and start his own music label, Soulwood Records. His last four albums were released on this label which gives him an absolute control over his work since he is at the same time creating, recording, distributing and promoting all of the Soileau Zydeco Band’s music. As an entrepreneur, Keith Frank understands the value of using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to broaden his audience and strengthen his fan base. He has come out with his own Zydeco Boss app to keep his fans up-to-date on recordings and appearance dates.
EMBRACING TRADITIONThis shift to nouveau zydeco was criticized by some preservationists who feared that the Creole music traditions might die. Many criticisms have been directed at Keith Frank’s musical style, calling it too R&B oriented, too loud, too urban — in short, saying that it is not zydeco, and that he was casting away his Creole roots. True, Frank has incorporated hip-hop, reggae and even Latin elements to his music; true also, he sings almost exclusively in English. But tradition is not totally absent in Keith Frank's work. In a sense, traditional zydeco has been revitalized: the introduction of R&B and hip-hop sounds attracted young crowds
and modernized the old French music, sometimes stigmatized in Louisiana as being too rural. In 2012, Keith Frank observed the past masters of the genre in the double-album Follow the Leader. On the first of two very different discs, he encompasses the modern urban sounds of hip-hop and R&B, and even features guest rappers; on the second disc called Boot Up,
however, he emphasizes the importance of his musical roots and displays a more traditional sound, as heard in “Adam 3-Step”, sung in French. The second disc celebrates Frank’s favorite zydeco musicians: Boozoo Chavis, who had a great influence on modern zydeco, and Buckwheat Zydeco, known for blending zydeco with soul and funk elements. The disc opens with a 1:16 minute-long track called “Lessons from the Master Boozoo Chavis”, a live recording on which Boozoo is urging the young generation to “keep the tradition up and play them zydeco” and closes with “That’s Why They Call Him the Boss”, both a tribute to Buckwheat (“the real king of zydeco”) and a criticism of wannabe zydeco players ignorant of their roots or foreign to Creole culture:
So you can’t run this / Because you’re not from this
Go sit back on the bench / And work on your French. As an advocate for Creole tradition in his music, Keith Frank is sometimes invited to speak about Creole culture and traditions at various schools throughout Louisiana. One appearance was at Lawtell Elementary School during their Black history program where Keith Frank was joined by musicians Chris Ardoin and Leon Chavis. Frank tells kids about zydeco and the musical traditions of Louisiana, and usually ends the day with a mini concert. According to “Lady Drama” Shannon Boutte in her review of
Follow The Leader / Boot Up, she is critical of the absence of traditional zydeco sung in Creole French. “I commend Keith for mixing the conventional sound of zydeco with modern twists, but we still need songs in traditional Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole. Our languages may be fading away, but our music is the lifeline helping to keep them from completely dying. I appreciate and am pleased by the fact that zydeco is becoming popular with all types of people, many of whom do not come from French speaking homes or families. Nevertheless, we do a disservice to all of zydeco’s fans if we neglect our roots. Zydeco, like our dying language, is native to Louisiana. One cannot survive without the other." But Shannon also finds messages in Keith Frank's music that are right on target:
See I’m the boss because I paid the cost
I’m a stick to my roots before I get lost. "The first time I heard this line, I got chills. He is basically saying that if we forget where we came from, we will be lost. Traditional Zydeco is no different than researching your family genealogy, something that I do often. Knowing who and where you came from is an important part of your identity. Let’s not allow zydeco music to lose its identity. This is just a sample of some of the many truths that Keith sings on this track.”
INSPIRING MUSIC, SAYS A KEITH FRANK FANShannon Boutte also shares how Keith’s music has been personal to her after a tragedy affecting her family's: "The final song I would like to touch on is 'Uplifting.' On each of Keith’s last few albums, there has been a track that serves to inspire, such as 'Dream Come Alive,' 'Overcome,' and now, 'Uplifting'. This latest installment of motivational tracks has a special place in my heart. In January, my family and I suffered a great lost. My cousin Barry P. Olivier suddenly passed away at the young age of 20 around the same time that Keith released 'Uplifting.' This
track brought me and my family so much comfort. With lyrics like 'Lord I’m worried but still I trust you / I feel that I am drowning but I know that you’ll come through,' I felt like Keith was singing directly to me. Such is the power of great music.”
CREOLE RENAISSANCE FESTIVALKeith Frank’s most visible contribution to the diffusion of Creole culture is probably the Creole Renaissance Festival, a musical event he created in 2012 which takes place in Opelousas on Labor Day weekend. Keith Frank’s objective is to rejuvenate the zydeco genre in order to attract young Creoles and to pass traditions on to them. The event observes the importance of zydeco for Creole culture and the necessity for young people to keep the traditions alive despite the prevalence of mainstream culture in the music industry and the media, evident in these Keith Frank song lyrics:
It seems that everybody wants to rap or do R&B
Where I come from, still zydeco for me
Now what I’ve learned came from what I’ve lost
If you take away the zydeco
It’s our culture that pays the cost
I wanna go back to what we used to have and what we used to play
Don’t be ashamed and deny your name
Creole is a lifestyle and zydeco is not a game
I wanna go back, so come on back with me LIVE AT Y-KI-KI Vol. IIDan Willging reviewed this recent CD, Live at Y-Ki-Ki Vol. II,
by Keith Frank. Here are excerpts from it: On his second live album recorded at the same venue, Keith Frank repeatedly asks the question “Do you wanna go back?” consistently followed by a litany of stomping beats. Yet only a few tunes briefly recall what Frank sounded like back in the day before shifting into newer textures like electronic funk and splattery, wall-shaking bass notes. The Frank foundation-building hits, “What’s His Name?,” “Sweet Pea” and “Get on Boy” are all here but substantially modernized, a sign that the zydeco boss continuously evolves his craft. Frank unifies his audience further by hollering out the names of towns (“Cecilia!,” “Basile”), jokes with them (“If you’re too drunk to count to 10, you probably need to sit down
anyway”) and launches tune after tune in rapid succession. If you try to dance to this one in its entirety, consider getting a blood transfusion beforehand. KEITH FRANK DISCOGRAPHY1993 Get On Boy!
1994 What’s His Name?
1995 Movin On Up!
1996 Only the Strong Survive
1997 You’d Be Surprised
1998 On a Mission
1999 Live at Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki
2006 Ready or Not
2007 Undisputed Double Disc
2009 Love. Feared. Respected.
2012 Follow The Leader / Boot Up
2013 Single “Haterz” featuring Lil Boosie
2014 Live at Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki Vol. II
2016 Single “Come On Home”
Festivals in November and December
Coming soon: 2017 festival listings at floridacajunzydeco.com/festivals Nov. 10-13, 2016 --- Riverhawk Music Festival (Brooksville, FL)
Bands include Travelin' McCourys, Delta Rae, Solas, Driftwood, Cornmeal, Shiny Ribs, Grandpa's Cough Medicine, The Honeycutters. Nov. 6-13, 2016 --- Carnival Dream Dance Cruise (Henderson, Louisiana)
Dance Cruise with Geno Delafose & French Rockin Boogie. Sat. Dec. 3, 2016 --- Al Berard Music Fest (Henderson, Louisiana)
Bands include Horace Trahan and The Ossun Express, Michael Juan Nunez, Major Handy & Lil' Buck, Traiteurs Reunion with Sonny Landreth, and Lafayette Parish Gifted and Talented Students.
Outside Florida
Atlanta Cajun Zydeco AssociationDecember 3 --- Jambalaya Cajun Band (ACZA Holiday Party and Dance)
Benson Center, 6500 Vernon Woods Drive, Sandy Springs, GA 30328; Phone: 404-613-4900. Free beginners dance lesson 7-8 p.m. Free intermediate dance lesson 6:15 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dance to live music 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. The Atlanta Cajun Zydeco Association (ACZA) would like to remind dancers traveling to Atlanta that there is information about a hotel discount for out-of-town dancers on their website (http://aczadance.org/). “It’s the hotel where the bands stay when they play for us.”
If you missed last month's newsletter...Discover all of the Update! newsletters and feature stories on Cajun and zydeco artists on the "Stories" page at floridacajunzydeco.com/stories.html
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