Clifton Chenier
Zydeco
Years active 1954-1987
always klick on pic’s
Opelousas, Louisiana, USA
Born June 5, 1925; Died Dec. 12, 1987 (aged 62), Lafayette, Louisiana
Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 – December 12, 1987), a Louisiana French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordionand won a Grammy Award in 1983. In 1984 he was honored as a National Heritage Fellow. He was inducted posthumously into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2014, he was a Grammy recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was known as the King of Zydeco, and also billed as the King of the South.
Career : Chenier began his recording career in 1954, when he signed with Elko Records and released Clifton's Blues, a regional success. His first hit record was soon followed by "Ay 'Tite Fille (Hey, Little Girl)" (a cover of Professor Longhair's song). This received some mainstream success. With the Zydeco Ramblers, Chenier toured extensively. He also toured in the early days with Clarence Garlow, billed as the Two Crazy Frenchmen. Chenier was signed with Chess Records in Chicago, followed by the Arhoolie label. In April 1966, Chenier appeared at the Berkeley Blues Festival on the University of Californiacampus and was subsequently described by Ralph J. Gleason, jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, as "... one of the most surprising musicians I have heard in some time, with a marvelously moving style of playing the accordion ... blues accordion, that's right, blues accordion." … Read all the original text here >>> Clifton Chenier
King of The Bajous [1970]
C. J. Chenier
Zydeco
Years active 1978-present
always klick on pic’s
Port Arthur, Texas USA
Born Sept. 28, 1957 (age 60)
C. J. Chenier (born Clayton Joseph Thompson, September 28, 1957, Port Arthur, Texas) is the Creole son of the Grammy Award-winning "King of Zydeco", Louisiana musician, Clifton Chenier. In 1987, Chenier followed in his father's footsteps and led his father's band as an accordion performer and singer of zydeco, a blend of cajun and creole music. With five previous albums to his credit, by 1994, Chenier began to record for Chicago-based Alligator Records.
Career: Chenier grew up in the 1960s, in the housing projects of his native Port Arthur, Texas. There, Chenier was aware of, but not exposed to his father's music as a young child, and had not heard the word Zydeco until later in his youth. Instead, Chenier developed tastes in the 1970s soul, funk and jazz music of James Brown, Funkadelic, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
Upon first listening to his father's music, Chenier thought all the songs sounded the same. But he eventually began to appreciate and master the zydeco style, as he later joined and then took over his father's band and career. The first instrument Chenier learned to play was the saxophone. As a teenager in the early 1970s he played in black Top 40 bands in Port Arthur. By the mid 1970s Chenier went to college to study music. … Read all the original text here >>> C.J. Chenier
Alligator Stomp Vol. 3