Cajun fiddle
Music for the dancefloor can be shallow and
unadventurous, and when even the top performers are virtually
all holding down day jobs, you might expect to rank cajun music
as a poor cousin to its slick neighbours such as bluegrass and
Western Swing. Technically unsophisticated it may be, but cajun
music has a lonely beauty all of its own, and is one of the most
honest, open and heartfelt folk traditions, full of the contradictions
of pain and joy felt by a long-suffering people.
The Cajuns are a French-speaking people who emigrated from France
to Nova Scotia, only to be expelled by the British in 1755 for
their Catholic faith and their refusal to swear allegiance to
the Crown. Years of wandering and hardship lead many of them to
the unpromising backwaters of Louisiana, where other French speakers
already lived. Since then the Cajuns (a corruption of Acadians,
from the name given to their Nova Scotia home) have slowly evolved
a highly distinctive culture which is neither American nor French;
two of the strongest elements of this culture being the spicy
food and even spicier music.
The first instrument widely used by Cajuns was the fiddle; from Acadian times it provided accompaniment for dancing at Bals de maison (house parties). It was common for one fiddler to play the melody while another provided rhythmic accompaniment (called bassing or seconding). The fiddle style of this time was relatively delicate and complex, using many old French melodies. It is best represented by the playing of Dennis McGee, who first recorded in 1929, and his contemporary Wade Frugé (who gave up for a long time because he claimed he couldn't keep the guys on the dancefloor off his girlfriend whilst he was playing!)
The supremacy of the fiddle was toppled in
the 20's by the arrival of the diatonic accordion; though small
and light this instrument is tremendously powerful and ideal for
the heaving dancefloor in the days before amplification. This
accordion was technically quite limiting; unable to play chromatic
notes, many of the old tunes were abandoned or simplified. The
fiddle style had developed largely around the key of D, to accommodate
the use of open string drones; if playing with a D accordion this
was fine, but with a C accordion the fiddler had to tune all his
strings down a tone. Dennis McGee formed a highly influential
partnership with the acclaimed black accordionist Amadée
Ardoin; they played and recorded widely in the 20's and 30's.
A typical band of the time would include accordion, one or two
fiddles, guitar and triangle ( a bistringue), along with vocals.
From the mid 30's came several changes which were to bring the
fiddle back to pre-eminence. The discovery of oil in Louisiana
opened up the region to outside influences- largely from Texas,
where Western Swing and Hillbilly music were in their Heyday.
These fiddle-dominated styles were taken on board by many cajun
bands, allowing greater commercial possibilities for many musicians.
In addition, the innovation of amplification meant that the accordion
lost its natural advantage. The accordion went out of fashion
(cheers from the gallery!), replaced by steel guitar, bass and
drums.
One of
the first cajun string bands with this new, smoother sound was
the Hackberry Ramblers, led by fiddler Luderin Darbonne.
Although cajun by birth he honed his fiddle skills in Texas, and
he was the first to bring amplifiers to the dancehalls.
Hackberry Ramblers
Leo Soileau and
his band the Three Aces brought a strong dose of Western Swing
to cajun, as did Harry Choates, who earned himself the
modest title "fiddle king of Cajun Swing" .
The accordion enjoyed another revival after the war in the hands
of the great Iry LeJeune; cajun war veterans returned home nostalgic
for the distinctive sounds they remembered, and the new Americanised
cajun styles faded. Tragically, Iry LeJeune was killed in a car
accident in 1955, though his son Eddie, also an accordion player,
keeps his memory very much alive.
With the arrival of rock and roll, cajun music as a whole had
little chance of being heard much beyond Louisiana until 1964,
when fiddler Dewey Balfour very reluctantly agreed to appear
at the Newport Folk Festival. To his great surprise, he received
not scorn but adulation from the huge audience, and he returned
home convinced that cajun music was not something just for the
old folks back home, but potentially had great international appeal.
Balfa Brothers
Along with his four brothers, Dewey Balfour
became one of the pioneers of the great cajun revival, bringing
music to audiences worldwide, a crusade continued by his daughter
Christine Balfour of Balfour Toujours. Michael Doucet of
Beausoleil brings a modern perspective to cajun music, while Ken
Smith, an outstandingly clean and smooth fiddler, tours widely
with DL Menard and Eddie LeJeune. The success of such musicians
in reaching a wider audience is clearly demonstrated by the fact
that Britain, for example, can now boast a whole army of home-grown
cajun bands.
Zydeco
A mention must be made of Zydeco, a closely neighbouring style played by black Creole people of Louisiana; influences include French, Spanish and African, along with blues and R&B. Whilst the fiddle does often feature in these bands (notably Douglas Bellard, the first Creole to make a record, and more recently Canray Fontenot, this is primarily accordion driven music with a heavier, more electric sound than cajun.
Cajun fiddle technique
Cajun fiddle style evolved with the necessity to be as loud as possible, so the use of double stops is paramount. Wherever possible open-string drones are used, and simple double-stops are frequent. The bowing is strongly accented, with separate bows sawing out most of the beats. Trills are used, and slides can go both up to and down from a note. A trademark ornament of cajun fiddling is a little one-string run up to a third or fourth-finger note, combined with the lower string drone. As mentioned before, older players often tune the whole instrument down a tone if accompanying a C accordion ; some also use alternative tunings such as GDGB (tuning down the E and A strings), increasing the effect and availability of drone notes. Where twin fiddles are used, the second fiddle may either do a shuffle backing, play the melody an octave down, or play harmony.
Cajun fiddle repertoire
The Cajun repertoire is made up of lively 2-steps
(sometimes called Specials) and waltzes; at a dance these will
strictly alternate throughout the night. Essential for any cajun
band is the waltz Jolie Blonde, first recorded by Amadée
Breux in 1929, but covered by just about everybody since. Another
fine waltz is La Valse du Pont D'Amour (Lovebridge Waltz)
from Iry LeJeune.
Typically the words to these songs can be attributed to particular
singers, whilst the tunes, which are usually very simple, may
go back centuries. Lafayette, a 2-step, was the first cajun
song ever recorded, by Joseph and Cleoma Falcon in 1928. Lacassin
Special is another from Iry Lejeune, while two of the most
famous songs of all are The Back Door by DL Menard and
the cajun-country hit for Hank Williams, Jambalaya.
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