Nonstop dancing in Cajun country
Un air de fête dans “l’Amérique française”.
Se réveiller à l’aube pour aller danser ? Rien de plus normal en pays Cajun. Dans ce petit bout d’Amérique « française » au sud de la Louisiane, les habitants cultivent leurs traditions et leur légendaire sens de la fête, au son de l’accordéon et des violons. Rendez-vous sur le dancefloor…
As 8 a.m. approached on a spring Saturday, a crowd of 70 to 80 patiently waited outside the front door of a cafe in the hamlet of Breaux Bridge in the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun country. Inside, Cedryl Ballou & the Zydeco Trendsetters were finishing their 1. crowd foule, groupe / hamlet hameau / trendsetter lanceur de modes /
sound-check as bartenders filled cups with Bloody Mary and mimosa mixers.
2.The dance floor began to fill with the first accordion runs and was packed by the start of the second tune. Many of the dancers had begun lining up outside as early as 6:30 a.m.
3.Eggs, zydeco and dancing are a year-round Saturday morning tradition in Breaux Bridge, but on this particular morning, the crowd also included a smattering of partyers from the Festival International de Louisiane in nearby Lafayette, including a group from the Frenchspeaking Caribbean island of Martinique.
4.The breakfast crowd is a microcosm of Louisiana’s culture, both Creole and Cajun, a culture heavily seasoned with zydeco music. And that is what the festival, which began in 1987, is about. Lafayette welcomes 300,000 revelers over five days. The music includes zydeco along sound-check balance (des sons) / bartender barman/barmaid / mimosa cocktail à base de champagne et de jus d'agrumes frais / mixer (cocktails) boisson servant à couper un alcool. 2. dance floor piste de danse / run air, morceau / packed bondé / tune air, chanson / to line up faire la queue. 3. zydeco (ou zarico) genre musical apparu dans les années 1930 en Louisiane, incluant de nombreuses influences blues et rhythm and blues / year-round toute l’année / smattering poignée / partyer fêtard / nearby tout proche, voisin. 4. heavily seasoned with fortement imprégné de / reveler (US) = reveller (GB) fêtard. with its antecedents and influences from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Southeast Asia.
SATURDAY MORNING FEVER
5. So maybe the “let’s dance” mind-set is in the blood of Louisiana, a state with a long tradition of music and partying. The breakfast I witnessed was at the tiny Café des Amis, which closed late last year for renovations. So Buck & Johnny’s, a block or so away, quickly stepped up to host the breakfast every Saturday morning, year round.
6.“It was important to Breaux Bridge that we keep the tradition going,” said Coatney Raymond, the managing partner of Buck & Johnny’s. “We weren’t doing breakfast before, so we had to develop a menu, and it’s turned out to be really popular… Zydeco is part of our culture, and we want to make sure everyone who comes in has a great time,” she said.
7.Having a good time was certainly the theme when I attended, whether the dancer was young or old, native Cajun or Creole, tourist or Gulf oil-rig worker maximizing shore leave.
5. mind-set état d'esprit / to witness assister à / tiny minuscule / block immeuble, pâté de maisons / to step up ici, se proposer / to host accueillir. 6. managing associate associé gérant / to turn out to be s'avérer, se révéler. 7. to attend assister à / gulf ici, golfe du Mexique / oil-rig plate-forme pétrolière / shore leave permission à terre.
8. Andy Miles, an oil worker who said he was “Cajun, Creole, Indian, Yankee, Italian and West Indian,” was visiting for the third time. Recognizing several other regulars, he ordered a double bourbon before joining them on the dance floor. Matt and Dana Segraves of New Orleans brought their daughter, Louisa, to her first zydeco breakfast. Only 18 months old, she, too, soon joined the dancing.
MUSICAL MELTING POT
9. Louisiana has long had a reputation for great music, starting with the ragtime and jazz of the late 1800s, all of it heavily influenced by Acadian and Creole backgrounds. Acadian — Cajun — brought in the European accordion, a frequent element of the emotion-laden French chanson, or song. The Creole contribution included blues and its call-and-response tradition from Africa.
10. The party tradition goes back about a century, as the Creole people living in rural Louisiana
8. Yankee Américain des États du Nord / regular habitué. 9. melting pot creuset, résultat d'un brassage des cultures / ragtime musique pour piano, syncopée et rapide, apparue à la fin du XIXe siècle, qui allie au folklore négro-américain des airs de danse en usage chez les Blancs / Acadian habitant de l'Acadie (région nord-américaine comprenant une partie du Canada) / background origines, culture / emotion-laden chargé d'émotion / call-and-response chanson à répondre (conçue de telle sorte que les auditeurs répètent en choeur certaines phrases du chanteur). set up “house dances” on Friday and Saturday nights. Furniture would be moved back and a two-person band — accordion and washboard — would be recruited to provide the music. The dancing would often go until daybreak.
11. Everything came together with American make-do spirit, perhaps best exemplified by the frottoir, a Creole invention developed from the corrugated-metal washboard, and the primary rhythm instrument in zydeco.
12. Herman Fuselier, who writes about entertainment and hosts a Saturday afternoon radio show called “Zydeco Stomp” on the local NPR affiliate, KRVS, points out that the instrumentation strikes many as unusual. “It takes a lot of people by surprise — an accordion used in music that sounds like blues, soul, rhythm and blues, even rap these days,” he said. “But it’s a big part of the music around here now.”
THE FOOD CONNECTION
13. Mr. Fuselier grew up in nearby Opelousas in an environment rich with music from Sinatra to zydeco. “Only my close friends knew I listened to zydeco; it was something just for old folks. But even the young musicians are into it now.”
14. The New York writer and music producer Ted Fox agrees. “It’s always been a hybrid music,” he said, tracing his own introduction to Clifton Chenier, who is credited with spreading the music beyond Louisiana and East 10. to set, set, set up créer, instaurer / furniture (inv.) meubles / band groupe (musiciens) / washboard planche à laver (ici, détournée de sa fonction originelle et utilisée comme instrument de musique) / daybreak lever du jour, aube. 11. make-do spirit esprit de débrouillardise / to exemplify incarner / corrugated-metal en métal ondulé / primary ici, principal. 12. entertainment diversissement(s), loisir(s) / to host animer (émission) / NPR = National Public Radio / affiliate ici, antenne / to point out faire remarquer / unusual inhabituel. 13. folk personnes / [they] are into it now [ils] s'y sont mis. 14. to credit sb with sth reconnaître à qqn le mérite de qqch / to spread, spread, spread diffuser / Texas. “I had been listening to rhythm and blues, but it sort of clicked when I first saw Clifton and how dynamic a performer he was.”
15. But it was a sausage that brought Mr. Fox to Chenier and zydeco. He was traveling around the country in 1983, he said, writing about food, when he visited the area to sample boudin, the local rice and pork specialty. The food connection makes sense — zydeco itself is a corruption of the French term for snap beans: haricots.
to click “accrocher” immédiatement, faire tilt / performer artiste (sur scène), interprète. 15. sausage saucisse / to sample goûter (à) / to make, made, made sense prendre tout son sens / corruption déformation / snap bean haricot mange-tout (variété de haricot vert).