Would it be possible for someone to post a link to video or audio clips of a tune played in the three styles of cajun, creole and zydeco? Went to a dance last night featuring a zydeco band but a friend kept telling me they were playing more "cajun" style than zydeco and I kept disagreeing. I don't think that either of us really can define the differences among those three styles. Is it possible? For instance, "Poullard Special" is creole, I suppose, but with a full band it could be zydeco, right?

Thanks for any help answering the question and, i suppose, making everything even more confusing.

That's a tricky subject.
Between the three there's a misty area were you can choose two genres to gave the music a name.
If you only look at the instruments they use it's also not easy to choose.
With some bands/artists it's not difficult, but it can be a dillemma to make a choice.
I hope the guys from LA can give some explanation.

It's all French music...except when it's in English.

Seriously, though, does it really matter? The only distinction that matters is whether it's any good or not.

No, it really doesn't matter to me. I bring it up because it came up in a discussion last night at a zydeco dance (I'm in CT) and because when talking with the promoter/organizer/volunteer she told me, when asked why so many "zydeco" bands, that cajun bands didn't draw much of a crowd. (This dance series has been ongoing for at least 15 years and my zydeco/cajun/rock 'n roll band played it many times at the beginning.)

Now that I'm trying to learn to play the single row I'm beginning to think that cajun accordion playing is just a little more ornamented than zydeco, has a different swing to it. I don't know...
Anyway, one of my favorite, if not my favorite, accordion player has always been Danny Poullard. To my ears he may be a representative melting pt of the three styles.

Just thinking out loud.

zydeco = rubboard
cajun = fiddle or triangle

beyond that it gets pretty muddy

also the sound of a BAND is different from the sound of the ACCORDION

one thing is, zydeco accordion parts usually don;t sound like anything on their own - the sound of zydeco isn;t the sound of an accordion, it;s the sound of a band playing a certain way, which usually does have an accordion, but the zydeco sound isn;t usually detectable in -just the accordion part-

cajun on the other hand usually is
the accordion part is closer to being a real tune or song on its own
usually

also a lot of zydeco now is in english

a subset of zydeco is 'the old creole songs played a lot louder with electric stuff and drums'
but that isn;t all there is, by a long shot



wle

Here's my take on your tricky question.

I find Cajun & "black" Creole French music are extremely close. They often play the same songs in old French, but with a slightly different approach. The Creole style is slightly more rhythmic with less ornamentation while the Cajun style has more ornamentation. You will find fiddles in both Cajun and Creole but not in Zudeco. When you think of Creole fiddling, think of Canray Fontenot. For Cajun fiddling, think of Dewey Balfa. This question reminded me of a presentation I attended at Balfa Camp in '06 which focused on this very topic. It featured Steve Riley and Jeffrey Broussard, each playing Amédée Two-Step in their own style (see below or links #1 and #2).

Another little nuance is that Cajun players will often use a tit-fer (steel triangle) for percussion in a back porch jam while Creoles will often use a frattoir (rubboard).

As for Zydeco, I find it distinctly different from Creole and Cajun. Zydeco came from the "black" Creole music (also called La-La music) from the country that people like Clifton Chenier brought to the city and electrified it. That genre eventually was also anglicized quite a bit. So typically, Zydeco is very repetitive, rythmic, you'll almost always have a frattoir and drums for percussions, it's mostly in English nowadays and high energy - loud.

I hope this makes sense to you.



Steve Riley (Cajun)



Jeffrey Broussard (Creole)

Cajun Creole Zydeco