Louisiana Stomp: 1954-1960 Recordings

Clifton Chenier is one of those rare musicians who pretty much single-handedly created a new genre of music – zydeco. Chenier (1925-1987) was a French-speaking African-American accordion player who grew up in rural Louisiana where he inhaled the local Cajun music and acoustic blues. By the mid-1950s he was merging his rural roots with the sound of R&B, so creating an Afro-French fusion that would get tagged zydeco, a slang word for ‘salty beans.’ Chenier initially hoped to achieve prominence on the R&B scene. But his earthy, exotic sound lacked the kind of wide appeal that conventional blues singers possessed and it wasn't until a few years later, when Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records sought out Chenier and relaunched him on the folk/blues circuit, that he won a wide audience – and a white one. This fine compilation gathers all 29 of his 1950s recordings and is essential for anyone interested in how American vernacular music was taking shape in the middle of the 20th century. His accordion leads a band playing a Creole R&B that sounds like nobody else and remains as potent today as it was when first recorded. Superbly remastered and beautifully packaged, this CD is a stunning salute to a giant.