Zydeco!

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to zydeco music. Great photographs.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to zydeco music. Great photographs.
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: One bursting boudin of a book
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: authentic, in-depth, captures the real zydeco
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: authentic, in-depth, captures the real zydeco
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Clifton would be proud
Review: 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.