Zydeco [Putumayo]

1	Creole Farmers Stomp / Creole Zydeco Farmers 3:23
2	Ço Fa / Keith Frank 4:27
3	You're No Good for Me / Rosie Ledet 4:27
4	What You Gonna Do? / Beau Jocque 5:41
5	I'm in Love / Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas 5:33
6	Burnin' Flames Special / Jude Taylor 2:43
7	Lula Lula Don't You Go to Bingo / Boozoo Chavis 3:42
8	My Girl Josephine / Queen Ida 4:29
9	Calinda / Clifton Chenier 3:23
10	I'm on the Wonder / Buckwheat Zydeco 4:34
11	Bye Bye Mon Nèg' / Geno Delafose 4:05
12	Hoochie Coochie / Zydeco Force 3:33
13	Stay in or Stay Out/Pass the Dutchie / Chris Ardoin 3:51

Barnes & Noble

Putumayo's ZYDECO, released in conjunction with the R&B-heavy LOUISIANA GUMBO, is a boiling cauldron of infectious grooves. It easily serves double duty as an informative introduction to the genre or the perfect soundtrack to an enthusiast's house party. Like the Louisiana Creole culture out of which it sprung following World War II, zydeco music is a rich stew of different traditions -- blues, R&B, African, Caribbean, and Cajun -- each adding its own flavor to a mix that, in the end, sounds like nothing else. The main ingredient is the accordion, as much a rhythmic as a melodic instrument in the hands of zydeco masters such as Clifton Chenier, Queen Ida, and Boozoo Chavis. Each of these legends steps up to the mike here. Chavis's accordion drives the tight groove of "Lula Don't You Go to Bingo," Ida offers a lilting shuffle, and Chenier rolls through 1973's "Calinda," a blues jam featuring guitarist Elvin Bishop. A blues vibe runs through many of the tracks, informing Roise Ledet's "You're No Good for Me" and Buckwheat Zydeco's slow moan "I'm on the Wonder." A younger generation of zydeco players is also here to show what it means to be part of a living tradition. Rather than repeating the sounds of their elders, Keith Frank and Chris Ardoin (grandson of Creole accordion pioneer Amede Aroin) each update their selections with more recent sounds of the Caribbean, be it reggae or ska. They ensure the party captured on ZYDECO will be going for a long time. Karl Hagstrom Miller

All Music Guide

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. Christina Roden