Music, magic, Zydeco: celebrating Mardi Gras with Andre Thierry

With Mardi Gras around the corner, more and more clubs are playing Zydeco. Zydeco was first developed in the early 19th century in Louisiana by French Creoles. When a huge wave of African Americans migrated to California in the 1940's and 1950's to escape racism in the South, they brought their Creole and Cajun music with them.

Today, the Bay Area has a vibrant Zydeco scene lead by the grandchildren of the migrants. And that has musicians like Andre Thierry gearing up for this year’s Mardi Gras season here in the Bay. April Dembosky went to his studio in Richmond to see what’s on this year’s playlist.

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Andre Thierry likes a tough crowd.

ANDRE THIERRY: I rather play for crowds that stereotype you. Once you walk on, I can see people snickering cause I got an accordion. But once they hear the music…

I played in Norfolk Virginia, a year ago. I was the first Zydeco band ever. Before the first set was over, everybody was dancing.

When Thierry was growing up in Richmond, his grandparents were always inviting musicians from their native Louisiana to play Zydeco music at their church. Thierry’s grandmother started hosting parties for Louisiana expats in the early 1960s.

THIERRY: They would draw, shoot, depending on the band, there would be five or six hundred people.

And Zydeco’s popularity in the Bay Area only grew from there.

THIERRY: In ‘60s and ‘70s then, she said like young hippie kids got into it and it branched off to where everybody could start learning about it outside of just people from Louisiana.

Thierry grew up humming the songs he heard around him. His father tried to teach him to play the piano accordion when he was nine. But Thierry wasn’t into it.

THIERRY: I felt like I was being forced to play. So I learned a few songs so he would leave me alone.

And he did. But by the time Thierry was 11 years old, he came around on his own.

THIERRY: I got infatuated with the accordion. My grandmother had a little single-note little accordion she had in her closet. She said it was for my cousin. But I would sneak and go play it. I would teach myself. By the time they found out what I was doing I had learned a bunch of songs.

By age 13, Thierry had his own band. He named it Andre Thierry and Zydeco Magic. Today, the band tours the country and plays regularly at dance clubs throughout the Bay Area.

Thierry plays four different types of accordion, not to mention guitar, bass and drums. But his first love was the single row accordion.

THIERRY: These have 10 buttons and it’s diatonic, meaning on the pull it’s one note, on the push it’s another note. These are based on keys, they’re like a harmonica. This is a C accordion. So I can play like C, G, F...

When he plays for dancers, he doesn’t only play Zydeco. He also plays the blues, then he’ll throw in some waltz and then swing.

Thierry has produced three albums so far and is working on three more. He likes to keep up traditional Zydeco songs that use just accordion, drums and washboard. But he’ll also add bass, guitar and keyboard. Sometimes he draws from popular music forms like R&B, hip-hop or rock, including a Jimi Hendrix riff. And he writes his own original songs.

Now at age 31, Thierry says he’s among the older generation of Zydeco musicians. He says he’ll do what he can to make sure the tradition gets passed on.

THIERRY: My main goal right now is trying to get more young people involved, because the crowd is getting older. Just to keep it going.

His first convert is his infant son, Amede, named for veteran Louisiana accordion player Amede Ardoin. The little one’s not even two years old, and he's already got three toy accordions.

In Richmond, I’m April Dembosky for Crosscurrents.

You can hear Zydeco musician Andre Thierry play live at the Capri Lounge in Oakland this Thursday, March 10. For more shows, visit Andre’s events page.