Dural, took zydeco music mainstream

NEW ORLEANS — Musician Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr., who rose from a cotton-picking family in southwest Louisiana to introduce zydeco music to the world through his namesake band Buckwheat Zydeco, has died. He was 68.

His longtime manager Ted Fox said Dural died early Saturday. He had suffered from lung cancer.

Fox said the musician and accordionist died at 1:32 a.m. Louisiana time at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, La. He gained fame by introducing zydeco music of southwest Louisiana to the world.

“This is one of the world’s true genius musicians. A completely natural musician who could just fit in in any scenario,” Fox said.

Zydeco music was well known across southwest Louisiana where people would often drive for miles to small dance halls where zydeco bands featuring an accordion and a washboard would rock the crowds for hours.

But Dural took zydeco music mainstream, creating a major-label album — the Grammy-nominated On a Night Like

This — with Island Records in 1987. He went on to jam with musical greats like Eric Clapton, play at former President Bill Clinton’s inauguration and perform at the 1996 Olympics closing ceremony in Atlanta.

He jammed with Jimmy Fallon on the final episode of Late

Night with Jimmy Fallon. Fallon played the guitar backed up by the Roots while Buckwheat Zydeco rocked the accordion.

Born Nov. 14, 1947, in Lafayette, Dural was one of 13 children. His father played the accordion, but the younger Dural preferred listening to and playing rhythm and blues, and learned to play the organ, his obituary said.

By the late 1950s, he was backing up musicians and eventually formed his own band. It wasn’t until 1978 that he took up the accordion so closely associated with zydeco music and later formed his band called Buckwheat Zydeco.