Sunday, July 01, 2001

By Nate Guidry Post-Gazette Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS - For years it was simply an indigenous culture, acknowledged but neglected. But in the 1980s, something happened to Cajun and Creole culture and the music it spawned: Tourists discovered Louisiana. As a result, Cajuns and Creoles rediscovered themselves. And there's no turning back.

Se remettre au courant de aa couture francophone -- put yourself back in the French-speaking culture.

Radio and advertisements began promoting the music. Films like "The Big Easy" and others, while more concerned with merchandising the caricature of Cajuns trekking through the swamps, were transporting an image and a culture into places it had never gone.

		If you go ... Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission, Box 52066, Lafayette, LA 70505; 337-232-3737; www.lafayettetravel.com Vermilionville, 1600 Surrey St., Lafayette, LA 70508; 337-233-4077; www.vermilionville.org New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, 1520 Sugar Bowl Drive, New Orleans, LA 70112-1259; 504-566-5045; www.neworleanscvb.com

Mainstream bands led by Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett and others began sampling the music, fusing its essential elements with rock and other musical forms. Millions witnessed Stanley Dural Jr., aka Buckwheat Zydeco, perform "Jambalaya" at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.

But to understand the music and its culture, you must experience its authenticity.

"I guess everyone thought we were behind the cultural Iron Curtain," says Cajun accordion maker and musician Marc Savoy (pronounced "Sav-wah"). Recently Savoy and his wife, Ann, an author on Cajun and zydeco music, as well as a guitarist and vocalist, were performing and providing insight into the history of the music and culture during an eight-hour journey aboard the Louisiana Music Train.

The trip began in Shreveport, stopped in Baton Rouge, meandered down Interstate 10 to Lafayette for a night at the Festival de International, then made its way to the Crescent City for the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

"People have stereotypes about Cajuns, and people in the media have contributed greatly to that exaggeration," said Savoy. "There are people who have spent a lifetime maintaining the integrity of this culture, but often they are not the ones used to connect the region's cultural and musical ties."

But things are changing. Louisiana and its unique culture are no longer secret.

For the past two years, the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism has partnered with marketing agencies in Baton Rouge and Shreveport to sponsor the five-day musical and cultural journey through the state, with stops along the way to highlight its culture, cuisine and joyously provincial music.

The Louisiana Music Train is actually the famous Kansas City Southern "Southern Belle," the same train used in Harry Truman's famous whistle-stop tour. This train shuttled some 30 journalists from around the world from Shreveport to New Orleans.

The focus was on four cities with distinct musical styles: Shreveport is known for its "Louisiana Hayride," displaying a strong gospel and country music influence; Baton Rouge is the self-proclaimed blues capital of the South; Lafayette is drenched in Cajun and Creole culture; and New Orleans has its jazz, brass bands and nouveau swing.

But before the train comes the bus and a tour of Shreveport's treasures.

Shreveport: "Elvis has left the building"

From 1948 to 1960, Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium was home to the "Louisiana Hayride," a radio show that was the counterpart to Nashville's "Grand Ole Opry." The show was among the earliest platforms for Willie Nelson, Hank Williams and a young Elvis Presley.

It was at the Hayride in 1956 that Horace Logan quieted the audience by announcing "Elvis has left the building."

Like much of contemporary Louisiana, Shreveport and neighboring Bossier City get much of its revenue from gambling. Old neighborhoods have been replaced with parking lots, hotels and riverboat casinos. Four riverboats have been built, and more are expected.

But amid the glitz and transplanted palm trees, Presley's legacy stands secure even 45 years after he first gyrated across the stage singing "Hound Dog" and "Heartbreak Hotel."

"Hayride" was aired live on KWKH radio and broadcast nationally by CBS and Armed Forces Radio.

It was called the "Cradle of Stars" and featured such up and coming stars as Faron Young, Gene Autry, Jim Reeves, Kitty Wells and former singing governor of Louisiana, Jimmie Davis.

"Everybody got their start here," says Frank Page, standing in Presley's old dressing room. Page introduced Presley and others during their "Hayride" performances.

"Elvis earned about $18 a show in the beginning," adds Tillman Franks, the original bassist for "Hayride," who signed Presley to his first Shreveport performance. "I loaned Hank Williams my suit for his first publicity photograph. I was in the car with singer Johnny Horton ["The Battle of New Orleans"] the night he died in an auto accident in 1960. I don't know how I survived that, but I'm here."

Old architectural styles and unusual kitsch shape the downtown Shreveport skyline. At the plaza, a giant guitar replica hangs from the outside of James Burton's rock 'n' roll club. For years Burton toured with Jerry Lee Lewis and Presley.

A few minutes later, the tour bus crosses Leadbelly Heights, a desolate stretch of the city where blues guitarist Huddie Ledbetter grew up.

A trip through Franks' office is followed by a tour of Stan "the Record Man" Lewis' company. Lewis concentrates mostly on Southern soul and gospel music these days, but in the 1950s he produced rock 'n' roll and R&B recordings, including those of Ike and Tina Turner, Big Joe Turner and Dale Hawkins, whose 1957 recording of "Suzie Q." was named after Lewis' daughter, Susan.

A slow blues tune is playing when the bus arrives at Tommy's Place, the famous night spot where Kenny Wayne Shepherd cut his teeth. Inside, Dr. Cookie and Louisiana Dan are laying down the sounds.

"Roll me, baby! Roll me, baby just like you roll a Louisiana wagon wheel," someone shouts. And the band keeps playing.

"Most people aren't aware of the talent that has come from this area," says Dan Garner, tour guide and local musician. "People from all over the world come here, and they often know the history better than the people who live here."

Wednesday morning begins at the Stonewall Baptist Church in Bossier City with a Southern gospel breakfast. The crowd is entertained by the Ever-Ready Gospel Singers, a 58-year-old harmonizing group that's also part of Shreveport's heritage.

After breakfast comes dessert -- the train.

Baton Rouge: "It's like gumbo"

Cotton and soybean fields, neglected and abandoned buildings whisk by as the Kansas City Southern "Southern Belle" rolls slowly but steadily southward.

In the center of the dining car, journalists gather at a large mahogany dining table nibbling bread pudding, muffalettas and fresh picked berries. Just beyond, Marc Savoy and his wife, Ann, demonstrate their unshakable thirst for capturing the spirit of Cajun culture.

"Jolie Blonde, Jolie Blonde," sings Ann, her wide eyes focused on her husband as she strums the guitar.

Oh, mais jolie blonde, tu m'as quitter pour t'en aller

T'en aller avec un bon a rien,

Quelle espoir et quelle avenir que moi j'peux avoir?

She sings of a young man who is heartbroken because his girl has left him for another woman:

Oh, but pretty blonde, you've left me to go away,

To go away with that good-for-nothing,

What hope and what future can I have, baby?

"The only thing we are interested in is preserving this wonderful culture," says Marc. "Young musicians are taking elements of this music and fusing it with other styles and calling it zydeco or Cajun. But they failed to realize why people are attracted to the music. People are attracted because this is the only music they can find in its original form."

It's simple music intended to be played with simple instrumentation.

"This music is like gumbo," he continues with a chuckle. "It's the fusion of some simple stuff. But people try to make it so difficult. But no matter how difficult they try to make it, the best gumbo comes from scorched flour."

The original "Southern Belle" was built for the Kansas City Southern. For nearly 30 years, it traveled from Kansas City to New Orleans.

Over the years, the car has been rebuilt several times. In 1995, the train was completely modernized. Trimmed down to 64 tons, it now sports a beautiful cherry wood interior, a spacious lounge, dining area, several restroom and sleeping cars. The car also is equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, featuring a satellite television and Dolby Surround sound.

The Music Train slowly crosses the Mississippi River bridge into Baton Rouge, providing a picturesque view of the Louisiana Capitol building and the Casino Rouge, a floating riverboat casino designed like an old paddle-wheeler.

The Capital High School band strikes up a beat as the train comes to a rest. Outside, local officials are shaking hands and exchanging greetings.

Later, at Tabby's Blues Box, an old-style blues house where the Christmas lights are still blinking, the popularity extends beyond the normal blues constituency to new young audiences. The music is restorative, linking tradition with popular culture.

Pictures of local and national celebrities grace the walls, including several photographs of Shaquille O'Neal, the Los Angeles Laker center who attended college nearby at Louisiana State University.

"We are the state where all the styles are born," says pianist and club owner Tabby Thomas, whose club has been the spawning ground for artists as diverse as Slim Harpo and Tabby's son, Chris Thomas. "So just relax and enjoy yourselves while we give ya'll a little of this hoo doo blues."

It's juke house blues -- lowdown, stank and greasy, capturing nearly everyone in its spell.

"I love big fat women," he shouts into the microphone, a can of Lysol spray sitting on the edge of the piano. "I like big fat women. Women with meat on dem bones."

But Baton Rouge is as much political as it is musical. Former governor Edwin Edwards -- who happens to be the subject of a new book by author Tyler Bridges titled "Bad Bet on the Bayou" -- defined contemporary Louisiana politics. But the spirit of Huey P. Long looms everywhere, including the old Governor's Mansion, which he built in 1930 and now serves as a historic house museum.

During breakfast in the mansion's ballroom the next morning, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and others discuss Long's legacy, including his desire to become president.

That quest was so strong that he designed the floor plans of this mansion very much like those of the White House in Washington, D.C. Both have oval rooms on their second floors, as well as east wings with guest bedrooms. The mansion has four 30-foot columns that rise two stories. They support a fanciful pediment that depicts the seal of the state of Louisiana -- a pelican feeding her young.

On the second floor, above the main doors, French doors open onto a balcony. Bedrooms are filled with artifacts, including boots and a pair of pajamas.

But there's no snoozing on this tour.

Lafayette: "It must be pure"

A walk through the old Magnolia Mound Plantation leads back to a tour bus and a 45-minute trip west along Interstate 10. The group is taken into Lafayette, where Cajun culture is being preserved like canned figs. People here now two-step to Cajun and zydeco music at the drop of a hat.

Outside Louisiana, the terms zydeco and Cajun are often interchangeable. But there are differences, both culturally and musically.

The word "Cajun" comes from "Acadia," a French settlement in Nova Scotia that was dispersed by the British in the mid-1700s. Cajun music is a blend of French folk music, Native American, German, Anglo-American and African.

Early Cajun music featured the fiddle and "tit fer," an iron triangle struck with a spike. In the 1800s, the accordion was introduced by German immigrants who settled in Louisiana.

Zydeco, the younger of the two styles, grew out of the Creole tradition called "La, La," a home entertainment enjoyed by black sharecroppers and farmers.

Creole are descendants of slaves who were torn from their homes in West Africa to clear land for Louisiana planters. The Creoles, like the Cajuns, are a French culture and primarily Catholic.

One of the earliest Creole accordionists was Amedee Ardoin, whose 1929 recordings of "Taunt Aline" and "Two Step De Eunice" laid the groundwork for much of Cajun and zydeco music.

Ardoin died in a mental institution in Pineville, La., in 1941. A few years earlier, he had been beaten senseless by a white man who didn't like the idea of a white woman giving Ardoin a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his face during a performance.

Zydeco by definition has a harder edge, incorporating elements of gospel, R&B and blues. It is, as zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier once said, "simply the traditional French two-step with new hinges so she can swing."

"There are cultural differences in the music," explains Savoy. "But those differences aren't as important as recognizing that this music is unique to this area. And for it to sustain itself, it must be pure."

At Vermilionville, a replica of an early Acadian settlement, a cochon-de-lait has been roasted on a rack over an open flame in intense heat.

Cochon-de-lait translated means "pig in milk" -- preferably a suckling pig because they provide the best flavor. Flavor is something Cajuns and Creoles can appreciate. Depending on the size of the pig, the cooking time can vary from seven to 10 hours.

Marinated in lemon juice, Cajun Power Garlic sauce, wine vinegar, chopped onions, garlic cloves and parsley, it took about nine hours to cook, but only one hour to eat.

"Dig in," said one of the chefs. "Don't be bashful. There's plenty mo' where this come from."

Gumbo with pork sausage, boiled crawfish, corn, jambalaya and a bevy of other dishes are also being served.

Inside the performance center, Le Jour De Fete, Frances Haymark, a 46-year-old zydeco dance instructor, demonstrates her technique, while Jeremy and the Zydeco Hot Boyz introduce the crowd to their version of "nouveau zydeco," which features a hybrid of funk, zydeco and rhythm and blues.

A little later on, during the opening night of the 15th Festival International de Louisiana, people are dancing in the streets downtown. The beats are provided by groups from France, Canada, Guinea, Mali and locals like Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp band.

Frank Menard and his wife, Janet, feel that roll. He spins her around once, and back again.

"Man, we've been into zydeco music all our life," he said. "We were Creole when it wasn't cool."

The festival, the best-kept secret in the state, showcases more than 80 performances over five days, culminating with a tribute concert to Clifton Chenier. The music is compliments of All the King's Men, featuring Buckwheat Zydeco, C.J. Chenier, Alonzo Johnson, Lee Allen Zeno, Paul "Lil Buck" Senegal, Robert St. Julien and Sonny Landreth.

It's a festive night, but morning looms -- and with it, our trip to the Crescent City.

New Orleans: "Swing, chops and cats"

It's just past 10 a.m. Friday morning. The "Southern Belle" chugs east from Baton Rouge toward New Orleans for the first weekend of the Jazz and Heritage Festival.

On board is Nicholas Payton, a 27-year-old jazz phenom who has risen from the ranks of a long line of New Orleans trumpeters and is now starting to mark his own musical territory.

That's no easy feat, especially considering the tradition that has come before him; Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Kermit Ruffin, King Oliver and Charles "Buddy" Bolden.

But at the heart of that tradition is Louis Armstrong, the trumpet player with the winning grin, gravely voice and the broad smile who immortalized "Hello Dolly!" But his music was so far-reaching that new categories had to be created to catch up to him.

On his 1925 recording "Heebie Jeebie," Armstrong invented scat singing. On "Basin Street Blues," he created the scat solo. He is responsible for much of the jazz lingo -- "swing," "chops," "cats."

"Every trumpet player who has come from New Orleans has had to deal with the Armstrong comparisons," says Payton, sitting in the train's dining car. "Pops set incredible standards. He not only was a great trumpet player, but he revolutionized American music and the art of improvisation. I'm trying to build on what he accomplished and to establish my own artistic vision."

Payton's latest vision has him re-examining the music of Armstrong on "Dear Louis." With an 11-piece ensemble featuring guest vocalists Dr. John and Dianne Reeves, the recording explores 12 Armstrong staples, including "Potato Head Blues" and "Tight Like This."

"The idea was to evoke Armstrong's spirit and give listeners some indication of what I'm about compositionally," adds Payton. "I tried to represent as many periods and aspects of his musicianship as I could."

Outside the train station, placid- looking tourists get a sampling of Lil Freddie, who is much closer to huge than he is small, and his boys hoofing and tapping for pocket change.

On Decatur Street across from Jackson Square, a gold-faced mime stands near jugglers and purveyors of trashy souvenirs.

The square was named after Major Gen. Andrew Jackson, who defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.

Not much is happening at Molley's, a local watering hole where a different local journalist is bartender every Thursday night.

Farther down is the French Market. The once-colorful trading center for fruits and vegetables has become the equivalent of a California swap meet. Vendors now dominate the market, peddling sunglasses and three-for-$10 T-shirts. But there's still good fruit here. You might have to look harder.

Way down yonder on old Rampart Street lives sweet papa Lou,

Way down yonder on old Rampart Street lives sweet papa Lou,

He's the only sweet papa I can tell my troubles to.

Down on Rampart Street, at the edge of French Quarter and the Treme, the nation's oldest black neighborhood, is Louis Armstrong Park. Here is a huge statute of Pops smiling over Congo Square, an area of the park that was the only place in the city where slaves were allowed to gather and worship.

Next month, this city will host a series of events celebrating Armstrong's centennial. "From Satchmo to Marsalis" will feature pianist Ellis Marsalis and his sons, Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason, with special guest Harry Connick Jr.

But Armstrong music can be heard everywhere, including at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, where clarinetist Michael White and his group are performing "Alligator Crawl," "Muskrat Ramble" and other songs from Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings.

One of the benefits of the festival is that it forces everyone to mingle. Here are all kinds of people just enjoying the music and sampling the food, which, sometimes, can be better than the music.

More than 500,000 fans attended last year's event. This year, organizers expect more, many of whom are already here.

The annual festival, which began in 1970, is sponsored by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. It is build around time-honored music with Louisiana roots, from Kermit Ruffin's' Barbeque Swingers to the Algiers Brass band, from the Neville Brothers to Los Hombres Caliente's.

It's a little past 7 p.m. at the Louisiana Fair Grounds, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown has just completed a rollicking one-hour performance that has the crowd pleading for more. Mixing a blend of blues, country and some of jazz's more standard riffs, Brown swung from guitar to violin and back again with ease.

Now on stage is trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who captivates an audience with rich and resonant tones.

The same tones that have been captured throughout this musical journey through Louisiana.

Later, the Rev. Al Green begins to galvanize the crowd. Dressed in a white suit with his charismatic smile, he hands out roses to the crowd and plenty of "Love and Happiness."