C. J. Chenier
(born Clayton Joseph Thompson
, September 28, 1957, Port Arthur, Texas) is the Creole son of the Grammy Award winning "King of Zydeco", Louisiana musician, Clifton Chenier. In 1987 Chenier followed in his father's footsteps, and led his father's band as an accordion performer of Zydeco, a blend of Cajun and Creole music. With five previous albums to his credit, by 1994, Chenier began to record on his father's Alligator label.
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C.J. CHENIER TICKETS
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Career
Chenier grew up away from his father in the 1960s, in the housing projects of his native Port Arthur, Texas.
[1] There, Chenier was aware of, but not exposed to his father's music as a young child, and had not heard the word Zydeco until later in his
youth. Instead, Chenier developed tastes in the 1970s
soul,
funk and
jazz music of
James Brown,
Funkadelic,
John Coltrane and
Miles Davis.
Upon first listening to his father's music, Chenier thought all the songs sounded the same. But he eventually began to appreciate and master the zydeco style, as he later joined and then took over his father's band and career. The first
instrument Chenier learned to play was the
saxophone. As a teenager in the early 1970s he played in
black Top 40 bands in Port Arthur. By the mid 1970s Chenier went to
college to study music.
In 1978 his father invited Chenier to play his saxophone with The Red Hot Louisiana Band, whose members also included his Uncle, Cleveland Chenier, on
washboard.
[2] By 1985, as his father was growing ill from
diabetes, he invited Chenier to start playing the
accordion in a larger role with the band, and to open the
shows.
In 1987, the year his father died, Chenier continued his own musical career where his father left off. He has since played such venues as the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival,
San Diego's
Street Scene and
Milwaukee's
Summerfest.
Paul Simon first heard Chenier in 1990, and featured him on the
The Rhythm of the Saints
album, and that year's 'Born At The Right Time'
tour. In 1992 Chenier played accordion on "Cajun Song", a track on the
Gin Blossoms' album,
New Miserable Experience
.
1992 saw Chenier featured with the Red Hot Louisiana Band on the
PBS music television program
Austin City Limits
.
[3]
By October 1994 Chenier was signed by Alligator. His debut release there was
Too Much Fun
, named the next year as best zydeco album of 1995 by
Living Blues Magazine
. In 1995, Chenier gained his widest audience to date with television appearances on the
Jon Stewart Show and
CNN. His 1996 appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was featured in a segment by the
VH1 cable music television network, as well as by
Entertainment Weekly
.
Chenier and the band also appeared that year at the
Austin,
Texas 1996
SxSW Music Conference, a special event for Alligator Records 25th Anniversary.
Chenier won the 1997 Living Blues' Critics' Poll Award and also an
AFIM Indie Award for best zydeco album, for his next release,
The Big Squeeze
. In 2001, Chenier played in front of 60,000 fans at the
Chicago Blues Festival.
2004 saw his latest release,
Step It Up!
, recorded at Dockside Studios in
Maurice,
Louisiana.
Discography
- Too Much Fun
, (Alligator Records), 1994
- The Big Squeeze
, (Alligator Records), 1997
- Step It Up!
, (Aligator Records), 2004
See also
- List of Austin City Limits performers
References
- C. J. Chenier biography @ cvsmusic.org
- Doug Kershaw followed by Clifton Chenier, Austin City Limits, 1979
- Los Lobos followed by C.J. Chenier, Austin City Limits, 1992