VA - Putumayo Presents Zydeco (2000)

Review by Christina Roden
Zydeco is the favored social and dance music of Louisiana's Creole population, who are the descendants of African and Afro-Caribbean slaves and free people of color. The related Cajun style occupies a similar place in the lives of a nearby white community, whose ancestors were a colony of French settlers called Acadians. Creoles are proud of their language, customs, and cuisine, and guard them fiercely. However, as time passes, zydeco has inevitably become heavily influenced by soul, R&B, funk, and gospel, although the time-honored squeezeboxes and metal washboards are usually still somewhere in evidence among the woodwinds, brass, and electric guitars. Among this lineup, the more traditional tunes tend to be the winners. Boozoo Chavis' "Lula Lula Don't You Go to Bingo" is a hilarious cautionary tale about the evils of gambling, while the riff underpinning Clifton Chenier's "Calinda" has been unceremoniously lifted by several rock bands, including the Rolling Stones in "Under-Assistant West Coast Promo Man." Joe KK and Zydeco Force contribute "Hootchie Cootchie," a roistering floor-filler full of fortune telling and macho bravado. The rhythms tend as much toward the straight-ahead stomp of Chicago blues as the more usual chug-chug preferred by the old timers, but even the more diluted tunes have a certain earthy, swinging something that screams zydeco from a mile away.