Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides information about Louisiana's Creole fiddle music and showcases the Creole/Cajun composition "Blues à Bébé". Information about that song is included in this post as is information about Bébé Carrière who popularized this tune and who is honored by the lyrics to this song which were composed by Michael Doucet of the Cajun band Beausoleil. This post also includes Cajun lyrics for this song and their English translation that are found in a YouTube discussion thread.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic reasons.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Bébé Carrière and to BeauSoleil for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are featured in this sound file and this video, the publishers of these examples, and all those who are quoted in this post.
Note: This is one of several pancocojams posts that focus on the Louisiana Creole & Cajun use of the French word (English translation "baby"). My guess is that the word "bébé" and its use as a Creole/Cajun nickname at least partially influenced the creation of the contemporary African American Vernacular English word "bae" (pronounced "bay") which means "baby"/"babe". Read more of my comments and others comments about the word "bae" in http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-english-word-bae-really-means.html.
Other pancocojams posts that feature songs that include the word "bébé" can be found by clicking that tag below.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT LOUISIANA CREOLE FIDDLE MUSIC
From http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creoleroots.html "The Musical and Cultural Roots of Louisiana Creole and Zydeco Fiddle Tradition" By D ‘Jalma Garnier
..."Unfortunately for our modern understanding, whenever Creole fiddle is brought up, it is too often within the context of the contemporary musics we know so well, Cajun and zydeco. This association obscures Creole fiddle‘s unique musical and cultural history. The Creole fiddle, and its contemporary moniker zydeco fiddle, arrived in South Louisiana in the seventeenth century, coming ashore with French-speaking Africans from Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. As both slaves and free people of color, African Americans contributed melodically and formally to American music. Some traditions, like jazz and blues and zydeco, have thrived in changing times and others seem to have come and gone, like ragtime. Creole fiddle would seem to be one of the eclipsed musics, but no one should mistake its current lack of prominence for its demise. The advent and commercialization in the fifties and sixties of zydeco focused on the big sound produced by the accordion. The fiddle has not, however, been left behind by African American musicians like the banjo, which has been passed on to bluegrass and old-time musicians. Instead, it is simply another instrument within zydeco and an essential instrument in Creole music ensembles. While zydeco has gotten the lion‘s share of attention, like its twin Cajun music, because it has so often been recorded, Creole music as a distinct genre continues to be played in homes and clubs in Louisiana. Creole fiddle has survived the recording industry, arguably better than other folk cultural forms in the face of mass culture...
Africans also brought with them a distinct musical aesthetic, which places a high value on timbre and the willingness to "bend" notes, a kind of sliding up or down a pitch achieved differently on various instruments. This aesthetic can be found in early hollers that are the roots of gospel music and the blues, and in the many finger glissandos of Creole fiddling.
This mixing of African musical approaches and European repertoires eventually led to the birth of one of America‘s grandest contributions to the world of art, jazz. Yet, like much of the rhythms and phrasing that we take for granted in early jazz, Creole fiddle takes a lot of its cues from the African banjo music of the Americas—it is not African strictly speaking, it is American. Louisiana Creole fiddlers Canray Fontenot and Calvin Carrière were very familiar with four-string tenor (jazz) and five string banjo music. Much of the syncopated rhythm and short staccato phrases in American fiddling is basic to banjo technique and came from African dance melodies. Most violin music is played with a smooth legato bowing. The "slurring" of many notes in one bowstroke is often the norm. It is uncommon to play one note per bowstroke up and down all the way through like in most American fiddle tunes. The choppiness of American black fiddle music like Creole, black string band, and rag is difficult to learn. Though Bébé Carrière plays tunes that are melodically simple, his bow technique can take a lot of unlearning for classically trained violinists: it matches perfectly with the short attack of the banjo."...
-snip-
D‘Jalma Garnier is a musician who researches Louisiana Creole music. This article originally appeared in Louisiana Folk Roots‘ publication, Routes to Roots, Volume 2 in 2007.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT "BLUES A BEBE"
From http://www.gumbopages.com/music/beau-notes.html
BAYOU DELUXE: THE BEST OF BEAUSOLEIL Liner Notes by Chuck Taggart (Producer-host, "Gumbo"
KCRW-FM, Santa Monica, CA)
...“"Blues à Bébé" [is] a wonderful blues number from the playing of Creole fiddler "Bébé" Carrière of Lawtell, Louisiana. The melody of "Blues à Bébé" comes from the playing of Bébé and his brother, accordionist Eraste Carrière, to which Michael [Doucet] has added lyrics in tribute to this "grand musicien".
-snip-
Read more about "Blues à Bébé" in the following entry about Bébé Carrière.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT BEBE CARRIERE
From http://www.hechicero.com/louisiana/carriere.html The Carrières Brothers by Ron and Fay Stanford
...”Until about twenty years ago, Bébé and Eraste Carrière played house dances regularly, not just around Lawtell, but as far away as Lake Charles, sometimes together, often with other musicians, and even alone (Eraste played many dances by himself). They have performed for countless audiences, both black and white, at innumerable, forgotten parties and dances, the likes of which are only a memory in Louisiana.
In the days before the many taverns and dance halls of today, people had dances in their homes, as Joseph describes: "They'd take out all the furniture of the biggest room – sometime you'd have to clean two room 'cause the crowd was too big. It was like that."...
Bébé's Blues, the other of the Carrière's songs on this record, is a fiddle number which Bébé says he learned from a record long ago; he can't remember either the original title or the lyrics, which he recalls were in English. The song, both men say, was extremely popular when Bébé played it at the old dances. "I made many people dance off of that song," he reminisces. When I played that tune they cut up the floor. Many time I had to play it twice, you know, clapping their hands like that, I'd have to go back and play the same thing again."...
The musical trading between blacks (Creoles, as they call themselves) and whites (Cajuns or Coonasses) has gone on for so long in south Louisiana that it is often difficult to determine the original owner of a given tune or musical quality. While the Carrières have drawn heavily on white traditions, and for that matter have played for white audiences with white musicians, their music remains, primarily because of rhythmical and vocal subtleties, unmistakably black. That, however, has never been much of a concern of' Bébé or Eraste – they have simply been playing music for people to dance to. Eraste told me that in the old days they might play a single tune for over a half-hour without stopping, and there would be hardly any pause before they went into the next one."...
****
From http://www.hechicero.com/louisiana/carriere.html "The Carrières Brothers" by Ron and Fay Stanford
...”Until about twenty years ago, Bébé and Eraste Carrière played house dances regularly, not just around Lawtell, but as far away as Lake Charles, sometimes together, often with other musicians, and even alone (Eraste played many dances by himself). They have performed for countless audiences, both black and white, at innumerable, forgotten parties and dances, the likes of which are only a memory in Louisiana.
In the days before the many taverns and dance halls of today, people had dances in their homes, as Joseph describes: "They'd take out all the furniture of the biggest room – sometime you'd have to clean two room 'cause the crowd was too big. It was like that."...
Bébé's Blues, the other of the Carrière's songs on this record, is a fiddle number which Bébé says he learned from a record long ago; he can't remember either the original title or the lyrics, which he recalls were in English. The song, both men say, was extremely popular when Bébé played it at the old dances. "I made many people dance off of that song," he reminisces. When I played that tune they cut up the floor. Many time I had to play it twice, you know, clapping their hands like that, I'd have to go back and play the same thing again."...
The musical trading between blacks (Creoles, as they call themselves) and whites (Cajuns or Coonasses) has gone on for so long in south Louisiana that it is often difficult to determine the original owner of a given tune or musical quality. While the Carrières have drawn heavily on white traditions, and for that matter have played for white audiences with white musicians, their music remains, primarily because of rhythmical and vocal subtleties, unmistakably black. That, however, has never been much of a concern of' Bébé or Eraste – they have simply been playing music for people to dance to. Eraste told me that in the old days they might play a single tune for over a half-hour without stopping, and there would be hardly any pause before they went into the next one."...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT BEAUSOLEIL
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeauSoleil
"BeauSoleil (French, beautiful sun) is a US musical group specialising in Creole music. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, the group members are brothers Michael Doucet (fiddle, vocals) and David Doucet (guitar, vocals), Billy Ware (percussion), Tommy Alesi (percussion), and Mitchell Reed (bass, fiddle)...
Founded in 1975, BeauSoleil (often billed as "BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet") released its first album in 1977 and became one of the most well-known bands performing traditional and original music rooted in the folk tunes of the Creole of Louisiana. BeauSoleil tours extensively in the U.S. and internationally. While its repertoire includes hundreds of traditional Cajun, Creole and zydeco songs, BeauSoleil has also pushed past constraints of purely traditional instrumentation, rhythm, and lyrics of Louisiana folk music, incorporating elements of rock and roll, jazz, blues, calypso, and other genres in original compositions and reworkings of traditional tunes. Lyrics on BeauSoleil recordings are sung in English or Louisiana Colonial French (and sometimes both in one song)."...
****
FEATURED EXAMPLES
Example #1: Zydeco: Creole Music and Culture in Rural Louisiana
.
folkstreamer, Uploaded on Jun 3, 2009
1986 Nick Spitzer film on African American dance-hall music in French-speaking southwest Louisiana, with Dolon Carriere, Armand Ardoin, and Alphonse Bois Sec Ardoin.
-snip-
The sub-titles identifies the second song in this clip as “Blues a Bebe”.
****
Example #2: beausoleil - blues a bebe
skald17Uploaded on May 14, 2011
my favourite beausoleil song.
Music : "Blues a Bebe" by Michael Doucet, Beausoleil
****
LYRICS
[These Cajun and English lyrics were given as comments in the discussion thread for the sound file that is given above as Example #2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAHHnzMxqd0 ] I don't know if these lyrics and their translation are accurate.
rxguerin7, 2011
Oh! le blues à bébé, bébé, cadien
Ces grands musiciens qui restent à l’hôtel
Pour prendre son violon et puis l’et son archet
Seulement pour rien faire que fait à danser
Oh! le blues à bébé, bébé, cadien
C’est ça que tu attends dans le bar à l’hôtel
Oh! le blues à bébé, c’est pour toi et moi
seulement, qui connait la pauvre Marie-Lou
tom periou , 2011
the blues of Bebe' Bebe Carrier
a grand musician that lives in Lawtell
when he takes up his violin and strings his bow
the people can't do anything but dance
the blues of Bebe' Bebe Carrier
that's what you will hear in the bars of Lawtell
Oh, the blues of Bebe'
Are for you and I
the people who know the
meaning of " miserable" love.
repeat last line" It's for you and me my little love."
-snip-
Bebe Carrier= Louisiana Creole fiddler Bébé Carrière
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post provides information about Louisiana's Creole fiddle music and showcases the Creole/Cajun composition "Blues à Bébé". Information about that song is included in this post as is information about Bébé Carrière who popularized this tune and who is honored by the lyrics to this song which were composed by Michael Doucet of the Cajun band Beausoleil. This post also includes Cajun lyrics for this song and their English translation that are found in a YouTube discussion thread.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic reasons.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Bébé Carrière and to BeauSoleil for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are featured in this sound file and this video, the publishers of these examples, and all those who are quoted in this post.
Note: This is one of several pancocojams posts that focus on the Louisiana Creole & Cajun use of the French word (English translation "baby"). My guess is that the word "bébé" and its use as a Creole/Cajun nickname at least partially influenced the creation of the contemporary African American Vernacular English word "bae" (pronounced "bay") which means "baby"/"babe". Read more of my comments and others comments about the word "bae" in http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-english-word-bae-really-means.html.
Other pancocojams posts that feature songs that include the word "bébé" can be found by clicking that tag below.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT LOUISIANA CREOLE FIDDLE MUSIC
From http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creoleroots.html "The Musical and Cultural Roots of Louisiana Creole and Zydeco Fiddle Tradition" By D ‘Jalma Garnier
..."Unfortunately for our modern understanding, whenever Creole fiddle is brought up, it is too often within the context of the contemporary musics we know so well, Cajun and zydeco. This association obscures Creole fiddle‘s unique musical and cultural history. The Creole fiddle, and its contemporary moniker zydeco fiddle, arrived in South Louisiana in the seventeenth century, coming ashore with French-speaking Africans from Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. As both slaves and free people of color, African Americans contributed melodically and formally to American music. Some traditions, like jazz and blues and zydeco, have thrived in changing times and others seem to have come and gone, like ragtime. Creole fiddle would seem to be one of the eclipsed musics, but no one should mistake its current lack of prominence for its demise. The advent and commercialization in the fifties and sixties of zydeco focused on the big sound produced by the accordion. The fiddle has not, however, been left behind by African American musicians like the banjo, which has been passed on to bluegrass and old-time musicians. Instead, it is simply another instrument within zydeco and an essential instrument in Creole music ensembles. While zydeco has gotten the lion‘s share of attention, like its twin Cajun music, because it has so often been recorded, Creole music as a distinct genre continues to be played in homes and clubs in Louisiana. Creole fiddle has survived the recording industry, arguably better than other folk cultural forms in the face of mass culture...
Africans also brought with them a distinct musical aesthetic, which places a high value on timbre and the willingness to "bend" notes, a kind of sliding up or down a pitch achieved differently on various instruments. This aesthetic can be found in early hollers that are the roots of gospel music and the blues, and in the many finger glissandos of Creole fiddling.
This mixing of African musical approaches and European repertoires eventually led to the birth of one of America‘s grandest contributions to the world of art, jazz. Yet, like much of the rhythms and phrasing that we take for granted in early jazz, Creole fiddle takes a lot of its cues from the African banjo music of the Americas—it is not African strictly speaking, it is American. Louisiana Creole fiddlers Canray Fontenot and Calvin Carrière were very familiar with four-string tenor (jazz) and five string banjo music. Much of the syncopated rhythm and short staccato phrases in American fiddling is basic to banjo technique and came from African dance melodies. Most violin music is played with a smooth legato bowing. The "slurring" of many notes in one bowstroke is often the norm. It is uncommon to play one note per bowstroke up and down all the way through like in most American fiddle tunes. The choppiness of American black fiddle music like Creole, black string band, and rag is difficult to learn. Though Bébé Carrière plays tunes that are melodically simple, his bow technique can take a lot of unlearning for classically trained violinists: it matches perfectly with the short attack of the banjo."...
-snip-
D‘Jalma Garnier is a musician who researches Louisiana Creole music. This article originally appeared in Louisiana Folk Roots‘ publication, Routes to Roots, Volume 2 in 2007.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT "BLUES A BEBE"
From http://www.gumbopages.com/music/beau-notes.html
BAYOU DELUXE: THE BEST OF BEAUSOLEIL Liner Notes by Chuck Taggart (Producer-host, "Gumbo"
KCRW-FM, Santa Monica, CA)
...“"Blues à Bébé" [is] a wonderful blues number from the playing of Creole fiddler "Bébé" Carrière of Lawtell, Louisiana. The melody of "Blues à Bébé" comes from the playing of Bébé and his brother, accordionist Eraste Carrière, to which Michael [Doucet] has added lyrics in tribute to this "grand musicien".
-snip-
Read more about "Blues à Bébé" in the following entry about Bébé Carrière.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT BEBE CARRIERE
From http://www.hechicero.com/louisiana/carriere.html The Carrières Brothers by Ron and Fay Stanford
...”Until about twenty years ago, Bébé and Eraste Carrière played house dances regularly, not just around Lawtell, but as far away as Lake Charles, sometimes together, often with other musicians, and even alone (Eraste played many dances by himself). They have performed for countless audiences, both black and white, at innumerable, forgotten parties and dances, the likes of which are only a memory in Louisiana.
In the days before the many taverns and dance halls of today, people had dances in their homes, as Joseph describes: "They'd take out all the furniture of the biggest room – sometime you'd have to clean two room 'cause the crowd was too big. It was like that."...
Bébé's Blues, the other of the Carrière's songs on this record, is a fiddle number which Bébé says he learned from a record long ago; he can't remember either the original title or the lyrics, which he recalls were in English. The song, both men say, was extremely popular when Bébé played it at the old dances. "I made many people dance off of that song," he reminisces. When I played that tune they cut up the floor. Many time I had to play it twice, you know, clapping their hands like that, I'd have to go back and play the same thing again."...
The musical trading between blacks (Creoles, as they call themselves) and whites (Cajuns or Coonasses) has gone on for so long in south Louisiana that it is often difficult to determine the original owner of a given tune or musical quality. While the Carrières have drawn heavily on white traditions, and for that matter have played for white audiences with white musicians, their music remains, primarily because of rhythmical and vocal subtleties, unmistakably black. That, however, has never been much of a concern of' Bébé or Eraste – they have simply been playing music for people to dance to. Eraste told me that in the old days they might play a single tune for over a half-hour without stopping, and there would be hardly any pause before they went into the next one."...
****
From http://www.hechicero.com/louisiana/carriere.html "The Carrières Brothers" by Ron and Fay Stanford
...”Until about twenty years ago, Bébé and Eraste Carrière played house dances regularly, not just around Lawtell, but as far away as Lake Charles, sometimes together, often with other musicians, and even alone (Eraste played many dances by himself). They have performed for countless audiences, both black and white, at innumerable, forgotten parties and dances, the likes of which are only a memory in Louisiana.
In the days before the many taverns and dance halls of today, people had dances in their homes, as Joseph describes: "They'd take out all the furniture of the biggest room – sometime you'd have to clean two room 'cause the crowd was too big. It was like that."...
Bébé's Blues, the other of the Carrière's songs on this record, is a fiddle number which Bébé says he learned from a record long ago; he can't remember either the original title or the lyrics, which he recalls were in English. The song, both men say, was extremely popular when Bébé played it at the old dances. "I made many people dance off of that song," he reminisces. When I played that tune they cut up the floor. Many time I had to play it twice, you know, clapping their hands like that, I'd have to go back and play the same thing again."...
The musical trading between blacks (Creoles, as they call themselves) and whites (Cajuns or Coonasses) has gone on for so long in south Louisiana that it is often difficult to determine the original owner of a given tune or musical quality. While the Carrières have drawn heavily on white traditions, and for that matter have played for white audiences with white musicians, their music remains, primarily because of rhythmical and vocal subtleties, unmistakably black. That, however, has never been much of a concern of' Bébé or Eraste – they have simply been playing music for people to dance to. Eraste told me that in the old days they might play a single tune for over a half-hour without stopping, and there would be hardly any pause before they went into the next one."...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT BEAUSOLEIL
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeauSoleil
"BeauSoleil (French, beautiful sun) is a US musical group specialising in Creole music. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, the group members are brothers Michael Doucet (fiddle, vocals) and David Doucet (guitar, vocals), Billy Ware (percussion), Tommy Alesi (percussion), and Mitchell Reed (bass, fiddle)...
Founded in 1975, BeauSoleil (often billed as "BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet") released its first album in 1977 and became one of the most well-known bands performing traditional and original music rooted in the folk tunes of the Creole of Louisiana. BeauSoleil tours extensively in the U.S. and internationally. While its repertoire includes hundreds of traditional Cajun, Creole and zydeco songs, BeauSoleil has also pushed past constraints of purely traditional instrumentation, rhythm, and lyrics of Louisiana folk music, incorporating elements of rock and roll, jazz, blues, calypso, and other genres in original compositions and reworkings of traditional tunes. Lyrics on BeauSoleil recordings are sung in English or Louisiana Colonial French (and sometimes both in one song)."...
****
FEATURED EXAMPLES
Example #1: Zydeco: Creole Music and Culture in Rural Louisiana
.
folkstreamer, Uploaded on Jun 3, 2009
1986 Nick Spitzer film on African American dance-hall music in French-speaking southwest Louisiana, with Dolon Carriere, Armand Ardoin, and Alphonse Bois Sec Ardoin.
-snip-
The sub-titles identifies the second song in this clip as “Blues a Bebe”.
****
Example #2: beausoleil - blues a bebe
skald17Uploaded on May 14, 2011
my favourite beausoleil song.
Music : "Blues a Bebe" by Michael Doucet, Beausoleil
****
LYRICS
[These Cajun and English lyrics were given as comments in the discussion thread for the sound file that is given above as Example #2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAHHnzMxqd0 ] I don't know if these lyrics and their translation are accurate.
rxguerin7, 2011
Oh! le blues à bébé, bébé, cadien
Ces grands musiciens qui restent à l’hôtel
Pour prendre son violon et puis l’et son archet
Seulement pour rien faire que fait à danser
Oh! le blues à bébé, bébé, cadien
C’est ça que tu attends dans le bar à l’hôtel
Oh! le blues à bébé, c’est pour toi et moi
seulement, qui connait la pauvre Marie-Lou
tom periou , 2011
the blues of Bebe' Bebe Carrier
a grand musician that lives in Lawtell
when he takes up his violin and strings his bow
the people can't do anything but dance
the blues of Bebe' Bebe Carrier
that's what you will hear in the bars of Lawtell
Oh, the blues of Bebe'
Are for you and I
the people who know the
meaning of " miserable" love.
repeat last line" It's for you and me my little love."
-snip-
Bebe Carrier= Louisiana Creole fiddler Bébé Carrière
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
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