Music & Dance
CEDRIC WATSON & BIJOU CREOLE
Layfayette, Louisiana
Creole/Zydeco
Born in 1983, Grammy-nominated Cedric Watson grew up in San Felipe, Texas. Although surrounded by the sounds of blues, old soul, country and Zydeco, Cedric was drawn to the old-style French songs of Southwest Louisiana and the greater Houston area. He soon made his way to Lafayette, Louisiana, where he was enthusiastically accepted into the musical community and immediately recognized as an important participant in the continuity of Creole music.
Cedric has revived the old Creole fiddling styles of Canray Fontenot and Bebe Carrier and injected into them a healthy dose of his own personality and ingenuity. With Bijou Creole, Cedric continues to explore the roots of Louisiana’s Creole music. This ensemble of talented musicians plays a variety of old-school Zydeco styles and original material and Creole traditional tunes. Cedric has a keen interest in connecting Louisiana Creole music back to its homelands and the polyrhythmic and syncopated sounds of Africa and the Caribbean in this group’s music are unmistakable.
Cedric has played with—and—learned from some of the great family names in Creole music, including Dexter Ardoin and the Creole Ramblers and Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys. With the Pine Leaf Boys, Cedric expanded his repertoire of Cajun songs while adding his Creole and zydeco foundation to the band's Southwest Louisiana sound. In Les Amis Creole, he also plays old La-La French music (traditional Creole music) in a trio of accordion, fiddle, and guitar with his two musical godfathers, Edward Poullard and James Adams.
According to C. Ray Brasseur, assistant professor of anthropology at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Cedric “demonstrates how the special talent and personality of one individual can affect an entire genre of traditional music. Cedric has re-established and elevated the fiddle as a central instrument in Creole and Zydeco music. His masterful performances, in French Creole language, of vintage ballads, jure, and La-La has turned a young generation onto the greatest elements of their heritage. Cedric did not instigate the rise in popularity of Zydeco music, but he is powerfully altering its course with superior talent, respect for tradition, and surprising creativity.
Links
http://cedricwatson.com
http://www.eyefortalent.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/artist.detail/artist_id/134
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