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* AP…
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger sings in swaggering French. Louisiana native Lucinda Williams delivers a slow, slinky, swamp pop sound. Steve Earle, Taj Mahal, Jimmie Vaughan, Charley Crockett and more energize Creole classics from accordionist and pioneer Clifton Chenier, the late King of Zydeco.
Chenier, who died in 1987 due to diabetes-related kidney disease, would’ve turned 100 on June 25. To celebrate his centennial, Valcour Records founder Joel Savoy and Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin teamed up with executive producer John Leopold to produce “A Tribute to the King,” out June 27.
Savoy’s primary role was to assemble the local backing band to support these artists — and to spotlight “the Zydeco legacy families,” he said. “My job was to help create a house band paired with the best accordion players representing Clifton’s style and the appropriate people for this project.”
* The Atlantic…
As Landry remembers it, he first met Jagger at a Los Angeles house party following a Philip Glass Ensemble performance at the Whisky a Go Go. The next night, as luck would have it, he saw Jagger again, this time out at a restaurant, and they got to talking. At some point in the conversation, “Jagger goes, ‘Your accent. Where are you from?’ I said, ‘I’m from South Louisiana.’ He blurts out, ‘Clifton Chenier, the best band I ever heard, and I’d like to hear him again.’ ”
“Dude, you’re in luck,” he told Jagger. Chenier was playing a show at a high school in Watts the following night. […]
As the final addition to the album lineup, the Stones were the last to choose which of Chenier’s songs to record. Looking at the track listing, Jagger noticed that “Zydeco Sont Pas Salé” hadn’t been taken. “Isn’t that, like, the one?” Adcock recalls him saying. “The one the whole genre is named after? If the Stones are gonna do one, shouldn’t we do the one ?” […]
The Stones’ version of “Zydeco Sont Pas Salé” opens with St. Julien, Chenier’s longtime drummer, playing a backbeat with brushes. He’s 77 now, no longer the young man Jagger saw in Watts in 1978. “I quit playing music about 10 years ago, to tell the truth,” he said when we spoke this spring, but you wouldn’t know it by how he sounds on the track. Keith Richards’s guitar part, guttural and revving, meets St. Julien in the intro and builds steadily. The melody is introduced by the accordionist Steve Riley, of the Mamou Playboys, who told me he’d tried to “play it like Clifton—you know, free-form, just from feel.”
It’s strange that it doesn’t feel stranger when Jagger breaks into his vocal, sung in Creole French. His imitation of Chenier is at once spot-on yet unmistakably Jagger.
* The original Zydeco Sont Pas Salé…
Stay tuned.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 17, 25 @ 7:35 am
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Took a ride on the Illinois & Michigan Canal in LaSalle on Sunday. A very interesting tale about our state’s formation.
Comment by Proud Papa Bear Tuesday, Jun 17, 25 @ 8:03 am
Starting to feel more like summer out there now. Not so much intense humidity yet.
Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Tuesday, Jun 17, 25 @ 9:11 am
I was so bummed that CJ Chenier’s set at the recent Blues Fest got cancelled due to weather. Zydeco is a really underappreciated genre.
Comment by Victor Tuesday, Jun 17, 25 @ 9:54 am
It’s not Illinois, but if anyone wants a bit of NOLA jazz, Doreen Ketchens does livestreams once a week or so from Royal street just down from Preservation Hall. Her husband and band sousaphonist died just a few months ago, but she’s still out there playing and is as great a NOLA jazz clarinetist as you’ll find.
Comment by jimbo Tuesday, Jun 17, 25 @ 11:10 am
Wayne Toups from Crawley, Louisiana, combined Zydeco, R&B, Rock, and Cajun to create Zydecajun. He sings in both French and English.
A usual headliner for the Festival De Musique Acadienne Et Creole in the fall in Lafeyette Louisiana.
If you get a chance, take a listen
Comment by Frida's Boss Tuesday, Jun 17, 25 @ 12:27 pm