Bayou Meets Mountain

Cajun zydeco music and dance invade Arvada.

A A A Comments By Elena Brown Thursday, Jan 1 2009

Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble, one of Louisiana’s premier zydeco bands, gets a mile high tonight at the D Note, 7519 Grandview Avenue in Arvada.

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The five-piece band includes the piano accordion plus musical arrangements drawing on R&B, soul and urban blues. “When the music was first recorded, it was called LaLa music, and it’s much different compared to now. But I sing about love, because everybody knows about that,” says Curley Taylor.

Zydeco has a long and rich history, with roots in Louisiana. After harvest time, the Creole community would gather and have a bouchère (hog-butchering). Once the cooking was finished, people would celebrate and entertain themselves with a “LaLa” (Creole/French for house dance). Some of the instruments used to create LaLa music were the rub-board (frottoir), spoons, triangles (ti-fers) and accordion.

“Like my drummer says, ‘If you don’t move or tap your feet, somebody call the coroner, because you must be dead,’” Taylor jokes. “It’s party music — you gotta dance or jump up, whatever the music do to you.”

To help you out with the dance part, there’s a complimentary lesson with the $12 admission.

So go on down and celebrate the new year, crawfish style: We dare you to try and not tap or snap along to the beat-riddled music.

For more information, contact 303-745-9577 or visit the band online at www.curleytaylor.com.
Sat., Jan. 3, 8 p.m., 2009

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