Zydeco-music pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award-winner Clifton Chenier’s centennial was celebrated a year early Friday night at San DIego’s 21st annual Gator by the Bay, but who’s counting?
“This was supposed to happen in 2025,” Chenier’s son, C.J. Chenier, told the cheering audience at Spanish Landing Park. “But here we are, so, yeah!”
Happily, the consistently rousing concert by the younger Chenier and his aptly named Red Hot Louisiana Band seemed perfectly timed for any year. Their exuberant performance — which featured set-long guest spots by fellow Pelican State natives Sonny Landreth on slide guitar and vocals and Marcia Ball on piano and vocals — was doubly celebratory. It served as a tribute to Clifton Chenier, who died in died in 1987 at the age of 62, and to zydeco itself.
A propulsive musical gumbo of traditional Louisiana Acadian styles with rock, blues, waltzes, swing, boogie-woogie, country, soul and more, zydeco was pioneered by Clifton Chenier in the 1950s. His subsequent national and international concert tours introduced the music to a broad audience that seized the opportunity to dance and revel in an earthy music that is rarely less than galvanizing.
But the transformation of zydeco — which began as a homegrown roots-music style with a small regional audience in Louisiana and Texas — into an internationally acclaimed genre was long and daunting. C.J. Chenier stressed that point after the eighth selection of his set, an incendiary version of his father’s classic “Hot Tamale Baby” that featured rousing lead vocals by Ball.
“Mr. Clifton Chenier traveled a hard road,” said the younger Chenier, who is 66 and has led his late father’s band since 1987.
“When he first started playing zydeco, people asked: ‘What’s zydaayco?’ You have to understand : A Black man leaving Louisiana and playing accordion and singing, in French, and driving in the United States — in the 1950s — (was very challenging).”
The younger Chenier also acknowledged the fact that at least two generations have come of age since his father’s death, and that they may have little or no familiarity with zydeco or its origins.
Friday’s performance with Ball and Landreth celebrating his dad’s legacy was billed as Bayou Boogie. Under any name, it was an irresistible delight that saw the nearly block-long dance floor in front of the stage fill with dancers less than a minute after the opening number, “Chenier’s Boogie,” had kicked off.
The 79-minute performance that followed found C.J. Chenier performing on his father’s accordion, rather than on his own. He and his band, which now features former San Diego guitar ace Billy Thompson, kept the Gator dance floor at Spanish Landing Park packed throughout their performance.
Highlights abounded, from the heartfelt blues of “I’m Coming Home” and the uproarious “Ettifi” to the infectious, two-stepping bounce of “Toule Ton Son Ton (Every Now and Then),” which may well have inspired Fats Domino’s 1960 song, “Hello Josephine” — or vice versa.
The two concluding numbers — the 1946 Louis Jordan gem, “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie,” and the encore of Ray Charles’ 1954 classic, “I Got a Woman” — were so revved up one almost expected the dancing audience, if not the stage, to elevate.
Chenier sang and played with soulful verve and impressive instrumental fluidity throughout, while Landreth’s ebullient slide-guitar solos approached a level of musical ecstasy. Ball shined on piano, while the rock-solid rhythm section of drummer Tony “Young Buck” Stewert and bassist Sean Allen skillfully anchored and propelled the music.
Metal rub-board player Ruben Morena very ably subbed for Red Hot Louisiana Band mainstay Steve Nash. And, in the several instances in which he was featured, former San Diego blues guitar favorite Thompson delivered wonderfully fluid solos that further elevated the music at hand.
Chenier and his band were scheduled to perform again at Gator by the Bay on Saturday, but without Landreth and Ball, who were set to play there Saturday with their respective groups. With a four-day lineup that includes more than 80 bands and solo artists from near and far, this earthy, homegrown San Diego festival is an annual treat. Here’s to its next 21 years.
21st annual Gator by the Bay festival
When: 10:30 a.m. to 8:20 p.m. Saturday, , followed by 9 p.m. to midnight dance concert; 10:30 a.m. to 7:40 p.m. Sunday, May 12.
Where: Spanish Landing Park, 3900 North Harbor Drive, across from San Diego International Airport
Tickets: Kids 17 and under are admitted free with a paying adult. $65-$80 per day; patron/VIP passes are $195 for Saturday or Sunday, and $350 for both days. Tickets for the Saturday night dance concert at the adjacent Sheraton Harbor Island Bay Tower Bel Aire Ballroom are $25. Discounted tickets are available for active-duty military members with ID.
Phone: (619) 234-8612
Online: gatorbythebay.com