In 1946, Harry Choates, a Cajun fiddle virtuoso, changed the course of
American musical history when his recording of the so-called Cajun
national anthem "Jole Blon" reached number four on the national
Billboard charts. Cajun music became part of the American consciousness
for the first time thanks to the unprecedented success of this issue, as
the French tune crossed cultural, ethnic, racial, and socio-economic
boundaries. Country music stars Moon Mullican, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, and
Hank Snow rushed into the studio to record their own interpretations of
the waltz-followed years later by Waylon Jennings and Bruce
Springsteen. The cross-cultural musical legacy of this plaintive waltz
also paved the way for Hank Williams Sr.'s Cajun-influenced hit
"Jamabalaya."
Choates' "Jole Blon" represents the culmination of
a centuries-old dialogue between the Cajun community and the rest of
America. Joining into this dialogue is the most thoroughly researched
and broadly conceived history of Cajun music yet published, Cajun
Breakdown. Furthermore, the book examines the social and cultural roots
of Cajun music's development through 1950 by raising broad questions
about the ethnic experience in America and nature of indigenous American
music. Since its inception, the Cajun community constantly refashioned
influences from the American musical landscape despite the pressures of
marginalization, denigration, and poverty. European and North American
French songs, minstrel tunes, blues, jazz, hillbilly, Tin Pan Alley
melodies, and western swing all became part of the Cajun musical
equation. The idiom's synthetic nature suggests an extensive and
intensive dialogue with popular culture, extinguishing the myth that
Cajuns were an isolated folk group astray in the American South. Ryan
Andre Brasseaux's work constitutes a bold and innovative exploration of a
forgotten chapter in America's musical odyssey.
Muchas gracias egroj!
ReplyDeleteSaludos