Theoretically Speaking, S5:E7:What Makes Cajun and Zydeco, Cajun and Zydeco?

All four of my grandparents were French-Canadian.

My parents speak French fluently but they didn’t teach us kids.

There’s a prejudice against the French, still, in northern Maine and the Maritime provinces of Canada.

Which is odd because there are so many French people there. Due to that prejudice, parents don’t teach their children the language, and the French influence has been watered down to the point where people actually say things like, “I’m not French but my parents are.”

The settlers there were mostly from southwestern France. They got along well with the native Americans, especially the Mi’kmaq, and built dikes and dams to irrigate the farmland they developed. 

They wanted to live off the land, and not much more than that.

They tried to remain neutral as the French and English fought over who would rule the area. Again, it wasn’t worth taking up arms for. When they refused to sign loyalty pledges to England (because they wouldn’t have signed pledges of loyalty to anyone), the British expelled them. 

That’s the nice way of putting it.

It was ethnic cleansing.

From 1755 to 1764, the British deposited about 14,000 Acadians in France, England, the American colonies, and various Caribbean islands. Some escaped to French-speaking Quebec. The British broke them up into these smaller groups so they couldn’t band together and become a military or political force.

Conditions weren’t much better than on the slave ships of the day. About 3,500 died en route.

Some fought back, but since Acadia had no borders or army or much of a government, any acts of resistance were spontaneous and local.

When Beausoleil was released after the Seven Years War in 1764, he led a group of hundreds; first to Haiti,and then to Louisiana.

Louisiana’s climate is nothing like Acadia’s. So they had to relearn their farming techniques, and they adapted very well. Eventually, the word “Acadian” was shortened to “Cajun.”

Again, they befriended the locals, both native and immigrants. Creole people were already there, too.

It’s hard to get a concise history of Creole history. They are a loosely defined, multi-cultural mix of native people and the Europeans who colonized their regions.

In Louisiana, natives from North and Central America and the Caribbean intermarried with French and Africans. The Africans could be slaves, or free people of color. As such, Louisiana Creoles can be European pale or African dark, but they mostly check the “African American” box on government forms, as a matter of pride.

Creole languages are variants of the colonizers’ languages. Interestingly, the Creole spoken in Louisiana and the Caribbean is based on metropolitan French, but folks from France can’t understand it. However, the French and Cajuns can understand each other, and the Cajuns and the Creoles can understand each other.

We shouldn’t conflate Cajun and Creole. They are similar but distinct peoples, with different languages and cultures. 

Likewise, their music is similar – but not quite the same.

Both Cajun music, and the Creole music known as Zydeco are influenced by the cultures around them.

Over time, both have evolved and incorporated elements from various other genres, like African rhythms. Yet they still maintain their cultural roots, though Zydeco is more likely to adopt new contemporary trends.

Zydeco gets its name from “les haricots,” which is Creole French for “snapbeans.”

Both genres often utilize syncopated, energetic beats. Zydeco, in particular, has a strong influence from African and Creole rhythms. This influence is also present, though to a lesser extent, in Cajun music.

Zydeco tends to use staccato, or short, notes. Cajun music usually plays longer notes with fewer rests between them. When played at standard fast tempos, however, this difference gets pretty subtle.

Cajun lyrics are sometimes in English and Zydeco sometimes uses the Creole language, but French is prominent in both. Amédé Ardoin, for instance, was the first black Cajun recording artist, and he only spoke Cajun French.

Cajun songs are mostly about love, community, life in the country, and the struggles of the Acadian people. Zydeco lyrics cover a wider range of topics, including personal experiences, relationships, and partying.

And it’s always a party. Both genres are primarily dance music. The fun, upbeat rhythms are great for festivals, social gatherings, and dances.

The accordion is a main instrument, though Cajun tends to use the button accordion and Zydeco uses the piano accordion, meaning it has a piano-like keyboard. While the piano accordion can play in any key, button accordions are limited.

So if the instrument has only, say, the C major notes, it can play songs in C major, its relative minor key of A minor, and G major with a flattened seventh. To play in other keys without getting into jazz modes, the player would need a second accordion set to a different key.

Cajun instrumentation tends to be sparser and with fewer musicians. A trio might use button accordion, acoustic guitar, and triangle.

In a classical orchestra, the triangle is suspended on a string so it can ring for a long time. In Cajun music, it’s held in the hand. 

You’d be surprised how many different sounds you can get out of a triangle depending on where you hit it and how much pressure you use to mute it.

Zydeco bands, on the other hand, might have twice as many musicians: on piano accordion, fiddle, guitar, electric bass, a full drum set, and washboard. Washboard players will sometimes use an actual washboard but it’s more common to use a rubboard.

Chenier told the story that when was young and learning how to play the rubboard, he was rummaging around in a kitchen drawer, and his mother told him not to use her good spoons.

I don’t want to suggest that Cajun bands don’t use rubboards, or that Zydeco bands don’t use triangles. There’s a lot of overlap. Both use fiddle, for instance.

Cajun music maintains its cultural heritage while Zydeco has changed with the times.

Not only did it embrace the backbeat, it picked up R&B and blues and has recently started to include rap.

Southern Louisiana saw severe flooding in the 1920s and many people moved to what’s now called the Frenchtown section of Houston.

Both Cajun music and Zydeco are deeply tied to community and social gatherings.

Festivals and parties are a way for people to come together, celebrate their culture, and enjoy music, dance, and food. Cajun and Zydeco are crucial parts of Cajun and Creole culture from southwest Louisiana to Houston.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.

Suggested Listening – Full YouTube Playlist

Cajun

Zydeco

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