the best there ever was is wayne toups

quit it...your gonna give someone a heartattack

anyone ever heard of iry lejeune? if it werent for them we wouldnt have what we have today

Aaron,
I'll have to lend you some CDs. Iry did what he did because he heard Joe Falcon and Amedee Ardoin. Even in his prime, he didn't have Amedee's licks. IMHO!

thass a fack jack

amedee be da big bawss

That'll surely spark a debate! All kidding aside, if you look beneath the typical ZydeCajun hype with all the hammered licks, Wayne really is a great player. Over the years, he has sat in with various bands that I have played with, including Bayou Roots, and I have jammed with him off of the bandstand. He makes a strong effort to do it the old way because it is important to him that people know that he can. He also idolizes Iry LeJeune and Lawrence Walker.

Anyone who has any doubts about Mr. Wayne's playing should get his latest CD. The best stuff on it is the last cuts where he plays acoustic. He can play with the best. Speaking of Zydecajun, did he invent that? It seems to me that lots of players owe Mr. Wayne a real debt for popularizing that modern jacked up dance hall sound if not inventing it.

All these young folks play good but Aldus Roger was the best.

Being from Crowley (and I bet some others can attest to what I'm going to say), it was the late J.D. Miller who invented Wayne's sound. J.D.'s son, Mark, was on bass for the first several years and was also the engineer on those early ZydeCajun recordings. I'm not knocking Wayne's playing - he just owes a lot people for getting him (and keeping him) where he is today.

What do these guys get? Honorable mention?
Octa Clark, Amede Breaux, Angelas LeJeune, Pee Wee Broussard?

Give me those slow guys, too: Ambrose, Bois Sec

Hoo wee! That's a hard topic to decide! Ray Abshire...

Cory McCauley

Cory who?

Cory McCauley, Neal is speaking french.

I just dont think I can pick a favorite, I like too many, and the "best" is definately a fruitless debate.

Not saying the best, just some of my favorites (in no particular order.)

Robert Jardell, Alphee Bergeron, Joe Falcon, Austin Pitre, Don Montoucet, Lawrence Walker, Walter Mouton, Iry LeJeune, Jason Frey, Amede Breaux, Marc Savoy, Octa Clark, & Cory Something or another.

NATHAN ABSHIRE, MARC SAVOY, IRY LEJEUNE no coke heads need apply, sorry

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh.........

Over the years I have discovered "the best player ever" at least six times.

I finally realized that certain players played certain songs the way I liked them played.

Tnx
RPr

I don't think there's a best accordionplayer ever.
There are many very good players with a different style of playing.
It's amazing what some players can do on ten-buttons.
I like the playing of Octa Clark and Eddy Lejeune very much.
It's the way they are playing the tunes.
I keep on listening to all those very good players.

Jimmy Breaux.

(This is fun! AND EASY!)

Rick

jawel en natuurlijk

kijk maar eventjes

heb je mischien en lading waardevole akkoordijoenen bij je?

ja, toch maar.

jt

I am new to this board and I am enjoying it very much. "Best Accordion Player Ever" Hmmmm. has anyone considered Jason Frey? Just a thought.

Megan

Cokeheads?

Wait. I have it on good authority that many of old timers were REALLY into speed.

Aldus Roger. Ahem.

He's gotta be #1, at least for the quick songs...

Nick B

Why do we have to have a "best of" anything. Depends on who strikes that chord in you. For me it forever will be Iry Lejeune's original Lacassine Special regardless of whether he learned by listening to Falcone or Amede. Jeffrey Broussard and Wayne are the best "ever" at what they do also.

All the above listed along with: Jamie Berzas (Mamou) & the late Kenneth Thibodeaux (Eunice)

Horace Trahan rates very high up there for the younger players. Then don't forget Nathan Abshire in the old decesed group. He played in a beautiful simple style.

Those middle aged coke heads missed out on a lot. Their burnt brains will never be the same.

And they all came after him. And they're still trying to catch up.

But we are just talking about the ones who have been recorded. There have been many many great musicians in every community who have never been recorded, especially in Amedé's day, and who know's before that.

Check out the DVD, Jai Ete Au Bal ( I went to the dance ) There are dozen's of "best accordionists" in Louisiana. I consider Marc Savoy the best of the best. This DVD highlights Marc's skill.

See this quote from Marc Savoy's piece, PONDERINGS OF A REINCARNATED NEANDERTHAL, at the Web site of the Savoy Music Center

There was black man working on our farm who would talk to me about another black man by the name of Joyah Guidry who was a great accordion player. He would tell me that when Joyah was a bit younger he was considered to be a better player than Amédé Ardoin and had taught Amédé how to play. When I found out that Joyah was still alive and lived in Ville Platte, I kept pestering the tenant until he finally consented to take me over to listen to him play. I was very familiar with Amédé's music, because I would spent hours winding up the crank on my grandmother's Victrola playing her 78s of Amédé Ardoin. Also my father would tell me stories about how he had known Amédé very well and had once hired him to play for a house party in our kitchen before I was born. So my black friend took me to Ville Platte to listen to Joyah Guidry. I met a very jolly old black man who was very excited to have someone visiting him but was sort of puzzled about why a young white boy wanted to hear him play. He went into some back room and returned with an old Monarch accordion in excellent condition and started playing the Eunice Two Step exactly like Amédé's record. It was note for note the same as the old 78 I had heard so many times. It was so close to Amédé's playing that I told him he sounded just like Amédé Ardoin. He shook his head and said, "no no son - Amédé sounded like me. I taught that tune to Amédé."

Neal,
Is Mr. Guidry still alive? When did you go to see him?
Kirk Menier

No No! I was quoting Marc Savoy. HE went see Mr. Guidry, I think even before he started building accordions. That would be over 40 years ago, so I doubt Mr. Guidry is still alive. If Guidry ever recorded, that would be news to me.

Has anyone ever heard of him, outside this story?

Nope, no one's ever heard of Joyah Guidry outside of the Ponderings of a Reincarnated Neanderthal. So far I've heard that Canray Fontenot's father taught or helped Amede Ardoin. Now I hear about this Joyah Guidry. One day Imma have to sit down and list all the accordion players born within a few years of Amede Ardoin.

Amede Ardoin-1898
Angelas Lejeune-1898 or 1899
Amede Breaux-1900
Joe Falcon-1900

While you're at it, check on these also:

John Bertrand
Oscar Doucet
Columbus Fruge
Bixy Guidry
Mayeus LaFleur
Bartman Montet
Moise Robin
Dewey Segura

They alll recorded in the late 1920's and earley 30's.

Thanks Nedro. I will add them to the list I started the other night. I'm starting to see that Amede Ardoin didn't just appear on the scene and create all Cajun accordion music. It's starting to look like there were many unknown accordion players going back to the 1830's roughly. And I think they got their song repertoire from fiddle players both white and black. It is said that Dennis McGee had a song repertoire of close to 500 songs on fiddle. I would think that when the accordion made it to Cajun land, they tried to hunt and peck out these old fiddle songs on the accordion by memory.

Watch JAI ETE' AU BAL ( I WENT TO THE DANCE ) The answer should be clear after watching this DVD