Customer Reviews

Zydeco!

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4 star:		(1)
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As a zydeco novice, I really enjoyed this book. It is not an exhastive history of zydeco. Rather, author Sandmel covers the giants of the genre with chapters on Clifton Chernier, Boozoo Chavis and Buckwheat Zydeco. Shorter chapters cover some other musicans. Looks like Sandmel conducted personal interviews with most of his subjects.

Oliver's black-and-white photographs are terrific. While there are a few photos of the musicians performing, most are of a portrait nature.

The appendices include a discography of Louisiana music (more than just zydeco), Internet resources, etc.

I also recommend Let the Good Times Roll: a Guide to Cajun and Zydeco Music by Patricia Nyhan.

Well maybe I channel for the original king of zydeco - maybe I don't. But hey this is the real book about this southwest Louisiana music. The photos are second to none. The photos really could be framed and hung on the wall of any art gallery in the country. Sure I know the photographer but anyone who knows me knows I tell it like it is. And this is a wonderful book. The writer, Ben Sandmel, writes like he is talking to a good friend. It is a fun read. Both the writer and the photographer must have had really good access to the musicians to come up with such original stuff.

I met Rick Olivier, the photographer for this book, a couple of days ago at a photo club meeting. Am I ever glad I went. Rick is gregarious, outgoing, funny and a darn good photographer. We gave him a microphone (which he warns against) and he promptly broke out into a rap like ditty about New Orleans life.

But onto the photographs and Zydeco. Each picture tells a story. And each picture has a story. Not just the technical aspects, although Rick Olivier does for Zydeco and the Delta Region what Ansel Adams did for Mountains and Yosemite. Each photo coveys not only the depth of the subject, but the relationship they have with the photographer.

Rick is much about the respect for the character, and the characters in turn respond by opening up. Be it a young girl on a first shoot, or a pro like Irma Thomas revealing what to me was a secret. There is fancy techniques or papers or film, mostly Tri-X. But here the grain of the film is the grit of the subject. Second big lesson I got was that Rick is not afraid to break away from the set formula. What you may think of as a perfect portrait shot is not enough for Rick. He actually enjoys an occasional distraction (like a man with a wheelbarrow in a background) as it adds reality. To him a visqueen covered window, room air conditioner with exposed coils, and line art wall decorations are an integral part of the smoky and sometimes mysterious aura that are Zydeco.

So enjoy your guided tour. This book may not be a money maker but certainly is a labor of love.

I am from Louisiana and have listened to a great deal of our state's very unique zydeco and Cajun music. There is always a lot of controversy about the differences between Cajun and zydeco music, and the definition of Creole people. This book was so well-researched over a period of years, it helped me understand even better than before how zydeco was born and who started it. I particularly enjoyed the wonderful interviews with the musicians themselves, particularly people who are no longer with us, like Clifton Chenier and Beau Jocque. If you want to know about zydeco, this book is the next best thing to coming to Louisiana to listen for yourself!

Zydeco! doesn't really cater to somebody looking to learn a full history of zydeco with an arsenal of knowledge; it's there but that's not the point. This book puts more effort into making sure the reader knows the full cultural context of zydeco with no misrepresentation and comes out a lot better in doing so. I've found myself grabbing whoever has an ear just to read them a small passage on more than one occasion.

While this is certainly better than a coffee table book, the pictures can make it serve as either one. Great portraits and incredible concert energy that are making me think about toting a camera along to the next zydeco show I see

FAIT ATENCION!: This is one vast bursting boudin of a book! It'll put the salt back into your snap beans! Tear out its pages and stick 'em in your dancing shoes, cher! Along with Michael Tisserand, Sandel and Olivier form the triumviate of Zydeco, mavens three of zydeco! For locals fans, converts and overall BooZoo-aholics, you have a New Testament (to Tisserand's Old Testament -- The Kingdom of Zydeco)! For recent arrivals and the general reader 'zydeco' will now no longer just be a killer Scrabble word! For anyone who reads this book, I bet you a six pack of Dixie that you'll soon be booking your flight to SW Louiaiana! You can't go wrong if you play it right, and nose to nose with Mr. Tisserand, Messers Sandmel and Olivier have done it big-time right! Merci beacoup. Laissez les bons temps roulez!