Welcome to old and new friends who are interested in discussing Cajun and other diatonic accordions, along with some occasional lagniappe....



CAJUN ACCORDION DISCUSSION GROUP

 

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Re: "Unique" explaination?

That makes total sense to me, Nick.

Re: "Unique" explaination?

Big Nick
OK, this is going to be the craziest explanation you’ll probably hear ....

Like watching an infant, sitting in the sun and
playing, being amused by humming an apparently
aimless melody.

On first impression, it seems endearingly simple and
meaningless .. until one realizes that it’s actually
perfect in a cosmic sense. No further embellishment
is required, the music has “arrived”.

Hope that makes sense? --Big Nick
Completely, but only mention that to a Cajun when he's high or loaded of some spacey (spicy?) substance, and also not holding a gun; you might get shot albeit accidentally ....

PS that maybe lightning-stuck and out of space feel i had back in the 70-ies when as old time country fiddler i first heard the Balfa brothers and later a French Lady playing fiddle and singing joining our old band with Peer. And besides listening other traditional players .... - Nout

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

That is an interesting question, Charles, one that I try to understand for myself. I happen to like both Cajun and Old-Time music.Although the following quotes are more directed at Old-Time music, I think that for me, they also apply to Cajun music:

First is a quote from the movie "R.Crumb" by Robert Crumb: "When I listen to old music...actually I have a love for humanity. You hear the best part of the soul of the common people. It's their way of expressing their connection to eternity. Modern music doesn't have that."

Second is a quote from Bruce Greene, a superb fiddler, field recorder, and advocate for the preservation of traditional music: "I ponder that question (about old music) myself. The thing I love about it, other than its intrinsic beauty, is that it is not dictated by the "media machine." And then the old country musicians, 78s, etc., appeal to me so much because they are unpretentious and unselfconscious. So much music nowadays is so the opposite - purposely trying to make a sellable sound, cult of personality...but that is all intellectualizing. I just like it."

At least for me, recordings of traditional music and "live" performances made any time never get out-of-date; so I never get tired of listening...

Jack Bond

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

That's an excellent question. What attracts me to Cajun music, is the energy in the music. It makes you want to move to the rhythm. This music makes you feel good. I love the blend of accordion, fiddle and guitar together with triangle for percussion. Add a bass guitar and drum kit and you can't stop moving your feet. I have been to Cajun and Zydeco dances and always found a well behaved crowd in an upbeat and festive mood. They came to dance and dance they did, right from the first song. This music is very similar in tempo to the polkas we played back in the 70s when I played bass guitar and chemnitzer concertina. We had two fiddles and two trumpets which gave us a unique country flavored polka sound. You add the accordion to drive the melody and we had a kick-ass sound that would "turn goat pee into jet fuel". When I heard my first Cajun two step, it took me right back to the stage, pounding out a solid danceable beat with the crowd cheering us on. When I heard Nathan Abshire's "Domino Two Step" it blew me away and I knew I had to learn to play accordion. I have also played two row Irish accordion in the past so I am naturally attracted to the accordion in this music and am learning to play from Big Nicks DVD volume 3 as I write this. Hopefully, I will learn the language in time.

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

Dana don't know where you're from but there is a group of Polish people in Houston, and in Texas generally that keep playing their traditional music, and the instrumentation is much as you described. The lead instrument is the fiddle, the accordion merely seconds by chording and playing simple melodic lines. Very interesting.

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

I'm from Massachusetts. Sadly, the polka business is dying out. When I played back in the 70s and early 80s, and we played every weekend. I stay in touch with them and have been told that they don't play very often anymore.

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

The sound of the accordion and the melodies. But also the links with the other fields of the culture (especially the language and history of Louisiana).

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

i love the yin/yang nature of the music. such happiness in the music, such sadness in the vocals. sweet and sour. like christian Le Jeune so aptly put, I've never connected to any other music this strongly.

roger

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

I believe Cajun, Old Timey and other “folk” developed styles have unique appeal because they do not follow the usual musical note relations ships.

Why would you play a “C” box in “G” when the cords do not really match? Why tune a banjo to a G Modal tuning or have the drones humming on the bag pipes etc.

The music professional might explain that we are playing outside of the standard major or minor note scale and into one of the other music mode scales with different note intervals.

To many, myself included, this is interesting. However, I believe we listen because we simply like the sound.

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

i grew up in south la, but did not like cajun music at the time. I would only hear it on television or something, and I'd go turn it off.

I moved to California, and some girlfriends kept dragging me to take cajun dance lessons because "I should know how to do this already". Then I started dancing well to it, and was hooked. And then I know what was missing. It is DANCE music, not so much LISTENING music. Even today, though I listen to a lot of cajun, and now more zydeco, I'm STUDYING the music, to hear what I can learn how to do. There's only a couple of cajun bands that I'll listen to for enjoyment: Balfa Brothers, Balfa Toujour, Racines. Even with zydeco, I'm studying a lot, though it is more in the listening realm for me.

But beginning to play the music was a game changer. First, it is a somewhat forgiving genre for beginners, so that helped. But that fact helped me to take to step I always wanted to take, to be a musician. Though I'm highly critical of my playing (particularly some timing issues), I can get people dancing. And being on the other side of that line (dancer vs musician) is rewarding.

I remember a couple of years ago, when I started to appreciate Adam Hebert's singing, that I felt I had turned some sort of corner. I used to hate to listen to him. But something percolated down into me. And now that I know he wrote a bunch of songs that are now standards, I have more respect.

Re: The appeal of Cajun music

My favorite music is dance music.

I believe many folks have forgotten what the original purpose was of many of the folk "genre" ( I don't like the word but we're stuck with it)

Music I like has "drive" and rhythm. It is a core thing; a pulse, like a heartbeat, whether Cajun, Quebec, Appalachian, fiddle tunes, Irish, French whatever...



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