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CAJUN ACCORDION DISCUSSION GROUP

 

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It's not surprising to me.

I am not surprised by that.

It might be a bit of an oversimplification, but you can make the case that any type of music that was uniquely created in the US was by black people.

Jazz, blues, R&B. The list goes on and on.

Even other forms of music that you might consider to be lily white, like Blue Grass or Country, if you listen carefully enough, you can detect the significant influence of African Americans.

Re: It's not surprising to me.

I would agree with you on this Dave. There was some speculation a while back on who were the first Cajun accordion players. The common thought was Amedee Ardoin, but there were white Cajun players taking up the accordion at the same time as him. Angelas Lejeune for example was born the same year as Amedee Ardoin in 1898. Amedee Breaux and Joe Falcon were born two years later in 1900. But records show that Amedee Ardoin the black man, had to have learned from others coming before him. I believe Canray Fontenot the fiddle player and Amedee Ardoin were tied together to an elder musician that showed them the ropes. I also believe that when the accordion finally came to the Cajun people, both black and white, all the players had to do was follow the Cajun fiddle music that had already been around for a very long time and voila! They could also take that accordion and invent some new tunes depending on what their ears and fingers were willing and able to produce. Perhaps the thought of these non Cajun black men playing accordion to the delta blues gave the early Cajun players the idea to try it against the Cajun fiddle. Maybe there was some cousinship or something like that within Amedee Ardoins family that exposed them to Lead Belly or some other black accordion playing blues brother.?? Or the world was a smaller place back then. Hell, Amedee Ardoin, a young black man went all the way to New York City. I've never even been to New York City and it's the year 2017! I still would say that whitey copied from the black man back then, but whitey sure did a good job with his own style of Cajun accordion music. After all, he sure as hell wasn't going to be out done by no black man! LOL. But it's all relative. Black folks sang in the fields. They gave each other hope with song when there was little hope and the work was mandatory and hard. But get this...Cajun women sang in the fields too back in Nova Scotia I'm told. And they sang when they arrived in Louisiana too. So, whether the chicken or the egg came first, does it really matter? LOL!

Re: It's not surprising to me.

Mississippi Delta bluesmen claim they were influenced by white fiddlers' reels! They even call some their own tunes reels. I think there's white fiddler influence on accordion style quite likely!

It's a real mix of black and white. So it irks me when they claim that jazz is the only truly American music form. No it isn't. There's also Cajun music and country music borne out of the mixing of the black and the white. Then there's the Tex-Mex music mixing Mexican and Central European. And what about Hawaiian? The jazz crowd doesn't know what it's talking about! I am on jazz discussion boards and this comes up rather frequently. There are genres of music that could have ONLY happened in America due to our unique mix.

See my reply to Bryan Lafleur.

Re: It's not surprising to me.

Tex-Mex music is influenced by the polka. Invented, and brought to Tejas, by BOHEMIANS.

It just so happens my great grandfather was from Salnau, Bohemia, Austria as it says on the ship manifest and his immigration papers. He settled in the Seattle, Wash area. He was a box player. According to my mother, her grandfather played for the Bohemian Hall the Swedish Hall, dances, weddings, parties etc. and played mazurkas, waltzes and of course the Polka. (which is not Polish)

I have, and play, his 2 1/2 row D/G box.

PS Salnau, Bohemia, Austria was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a "kingdom" within the Empire. Many of the Bohemians, such as my great grandfather spoke German with an Austrian inflection. Salnau is now Zalnav and in the Czech Republic. It is six miles east of the German Bavarian border and six miles north of the current Austrian Czech border.
When Hitler invaded... he annexed "Bohemia" and confiscated our family's mill and property. It was Hitler's first conquest.

My great grandfather's birth name was Jakob Josef Bock, his father was Wenzl Bock .

Apparently both played the button accordeon.


PS There were no Cajuns in Nova Scotia or Newfoundland or any of the other island provinces(sp).. They were Acadians.

Re: It's not surprising to me.

If I'm not mistaken, the Mrnustik family of Houston was Czech as well. He was a box player that did repairs during the 40s.

Re: It's not surprising to me.

With that last name, he could be a Czech speaking Czech.. or, like my GGF spoke both Czech and German.

Re: It's not surprising to me.

I heard that Marc Savoy said that during a seance of Marie Laveau a black accordionplayer was playing.
I have to search for the video where he said that.
Is anybody familiar with that or i sthat a rumour ?

Re: It's not surprising to me.

Marc talks about it in the documentary of Les Blank titled Jai Ete Au Bal.
It's when he talks about the accordion.

Re: It's not surprising to me.

I have the video.. I'll check it out.

Re: It's not surprising to me.

meloderon
I heard that Marc Savoy said that during a seance of Marie Laveau a black accordion player was playing. [...]
Is anybody familiar with that or is that a rumour ?

This is what I found in the chapter about Marie Laveau in Janet Allured/Judith F. Gentry's Louisiana Women:
"Marie Laveau's front room was filled with altars laden with candles, images of the saints, flowers, fruit, and other offerings. Here she presided over weekly Friday night meetings, which were attended by "more white than colored". A core group of her closest followers was always present to assist her. A chorus of young singers, accompanied by an old man who played the accordion, supplied the music..."



Jamey Hall's most excellent Cajun Accordion Music Theory

Brett's all new Cajun Accordion Music Theory for all keys!

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