Beausoleil
Encyclopedia
BeauSoleil is an American
musical group specializing in Cajun music
. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana
, the group members are brothers Michael Doucet
(fiddle, vocals) and David Doucet (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Breaux (accordion), Billy Ware (percussion), Tommy Alesi (percussion), and Mitchell Reed (bass, fiddle).
. BeauSoleil tours extensively in the U.S. and internationally. While its repertoire includes hundreds of traditional Cajun
and zydeco
songs, BeauSoleil has also pushed past constraints of purely traditional instrumentation, rhythm, and lyrics of Louisiana folk music, incorporating elements of rock-and-roll, jazz, blues, calypso
, and other genres in original compositions and reworkings of traditional tunes. Lyrics on BeauSoleil recordings are sung in English or Cajun French
(and sometimes both in one song).
According to the band's web site, BeauSoleil's musicians "take the rich Cajun traditions of Louisiana and artfully blend elements of zydeco, New Orleans jazz, Tex-Mex
, country
, blues
and more into a satisfying musical recipe."
The band's name is a tribute to Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil
, the leader of the Acadian
resistance to British deportation efforts beginning in 1755. Broussard led the attack against Dartmouth Nova Scotia, in what would become known as the "Dartmouth Massacre". Beausoleil was eventually captured, but following his imprisonment managed to lead 193 exiles to Louisiana before he died in 1765.
BeauSoleil has appeared on soundtracks to films The Big Easy
, Passion Fish
and Belizaire the Cajun
. The group plays at jazz and folk festivals and has appeared on numerous television shows, including CNN
's Showbiz Today, Austin City Limits
, Late Night with Conan O'Brien
, and Emeril Live
. BeauSoleil appears regularly on Garrison Keillor
's Prairie Home Companion radio show. Keillor has hailed the group as the "best Cajun band in the world". BeauSoleil has also performed in concert with Mary Chapin Carpenter
and opened for the Grateful Dead
.
Although Michael Doucet did not originally intend to pursue performing Cajun music, a turning point came when Doucet was awarded a Folk Arts Apprenticeship by the National Endowment for the Arts
. "I had planned to go to graduate school in New Mexico to study the Romantic poets," he recalls on the Vanguard Records
web site. "Instead I traded William Blake
for Dewey Balfa
." Doucet sought out every surviving Cajun musician, including Balfa, Dennis McGee
, Sady Courville
, Luderin Darbone, Varise Connor, Canray Fontenot
, Freeman Fontenot and others. He studied their techniques and songs and encouraged some to resume public performances.
. L'Amour Ou La Folie (Love Or Folly), recorded in 1996 and released on Rhino Records, earned the 1997 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. In a review on Amazon.com
, Richard Gehr wrote, "By now the sextet transcends the dancehall, possessing the ability to transform nearly any traditional Cajun, Creole, or French tune into high art while preserving a clear sonic bloodline back to its roots."
In 2005, BeauSoleil’s Gitane Cajun, released on Vanguard Records, earned the group its tenth Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Folk Album. A reflection of its versatility is that BeauSoleil has also earned a Grammy nomination in the Contemporary Folk category, for the 1999 album Cajunization ,with songs that effortlessly span Cajun, Calypso, French ballad, blues and other musical styles.
In 2005, BeauSoleil won the Big Easy Entertainment Award for Best Cajun Band, the tenth time the band was honored in the 18-year history of the awards presented by the New Orleans music and entertainment publication Gambit Weekly.
In 2005, BeauSoleil founder Michael Doucet was one of 12 artists awarded a National Heritage Fellowship
by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2009, BeauSoleil won another Grammy in the then newly created Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album
category for the album Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musical group specializing in Cajun music
Cajun music
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...
. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
, the group members are brothers Michael Doucet
Michael Doucet
Michael Doucet is a Cajun fiddler, singer and songwriter who founded the Cajun band BeauSoleil from Lafayette, Louisiana.In 2005 Doucet was one of 12 recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA award, which recognizes artistic excellence, cultural...
(fiddle, vocals) and David Doucet (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Breaux (accordion), Billy Ware (percussion), Tommy Alesi (percussion), and Mitchell Reed (bass, fiddle).
Band history
Founded in 1975, BeauSoleil (often billed as "BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet") released its first album in 1977 and became one of the most well-known bands performing traditional and original music rooted in the folk tunes of the creole and Cajun people of LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. BeauSoleil tours extensively in the U.S. and internationally. While its repertoire includes hundreds of traditional Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
and zydeco
Zydeco
Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...
songs, BeauSoleil has also pushed past constraints of purely traditional instrumentation, rhythm, and lyrics of Louisiana folk music, incorporating elements of rock-and-roll, jazz, blues, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, and other genres in original compositions and reworkings of traditional tunes. Lyrics on BeauSoleil recordings are sung in English or Cajun French
Cajun French
Cajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....
(and sometimes both in one song).
According to the band's web site, BeauSoleil's musicians "take the rich Cajun traditions of Louisiana and artfully blend elements of zydeco, New Orleans jazz, Tex-Mex
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and more into a satisfying musical recipe."
The band's name is a tribute to Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil
Joseph Broussard
Joseph Gaurhept Broussard , also known as Beausoleil, was a leader of the Acadian people in Acadia; later Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Broussard organized a resistance movement against the forced Expulsion of the Acadians...
, the leader of the Acadian
Acadian
The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...
resistance to British deportation efforts beginning in 1755. Broussard led the attack against Dartmouth Nova Scotia, in what would become known as the "Dartmouth Massacre". Beausoleil was eventually captured, but following his imprisonment managed to lead 193 exiles to Louisiana before he died in 1765.
BeauSoleil has appeared on soundtracks to films The Big Easy
The Big Easy (1987 film)
The Big Easy is a 1987 American neo-noir crime film directed by Jim McBride and written by Daniel Petrie Jr. The executive producer of the motion picture was Mort Engelberg and the cinematographer was Affonso Beato...
, Passion Fish
Passion Fish
Passion Fish is a 1992 American film written and directed by John Sayles. The film stars Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Vondie Curtis-Hall, David Strathairn, Leo Burmester, and Angela Bassett....
and Belizaire the Cajun
Belizaire the Cajun
Belizaire the Cajun is a 1986 film directed by Glen Pitre and starring Armand Assante. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival....
. The group plays at jazz and folk festivals and has appeared on numerous television shows, including CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Showbiz Today, Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...
, Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
, and Emeril Live
Emeril Live
Emeril Live is a program on The Cooking Channel hosted by Emeril Lagasse. It formerly aired on Food Network and Fine Living.Emeril Live features many of the same elements as Emeril's other program, Essence of Emeril, and often has a Creole theme...
. BeauSoleil appears regularly on Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
's Prairie Home Companion radio show. Keillor has hailed the group as the "best Cajun band in the world". BeauSoleil has also performed in concert with Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer...
and opened for the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
.
Although Michael Doucet did not originally intend to pursue performing Cajun music, a turning point came when Doucet was awarded a Folk Arts Apprenticeship by the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. "I had planned to go to graduate school in New Mexico to study the Romantic poets," he recalls on the Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
web site. "Instead I traded William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
for Dewey Balfa
Dewey Balfa
Dewey Balfa was an American Cajun fiddler and singer who contributed significantly to the popularity of Cajun music. Balfa was born near Mamou, Louisiana...
." Doucet sought out every surviving Cajun musician, including Balfa, Dennis McGee
Dennis McGee
Dennis McGee was one of the earliest recorded Cajun musicians.A fiddle player, he recorded and performed with black Creole accordionist and vocalist Amédé Ardoin, with accordionist Angelas LeJeune, and with fiddlers Sady Courville and Ernest Frugé...
, Sady Courville
Sady Courville
Sady D. Courville was a Cajun fiddler noted for his extensive collaboration with Dennis McGee.-Early life:...
, Luderin Darbone, Varise Connor, Canray Fontenot
Canray Fontenot
Canray Fontenot was an American Creole fiddle player, who has been described as "the greatest black Louisiana French fiddler of our time."-Early life:...
, Freeman Fontenot and others. He studied their techniques and songs and encouraged some to resume public performances.
Recognition
BeauSoleil is one of a few groups performing traditional Louisiana music to win a Grammy AwardGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. L'Amour Ou La Folie (Love Or Folly), recorded in 1996 and released on Rhino Records, earned the 1997 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. In a review on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Richard Gehr wrote, "By now the sextet transcends the dancehall, possessing the ability to transform nearly any traditional Cajun, Creole, or French tune into high art while preserving a clear sonic bloodline back to its roots."
In 2005, BeauSoleil’s Gitane Cajun, released on Vanguard Records, earned the group its tenth Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Folk Album. A reflection of its versatility is that BeauSoleil has also earned a Grammy nomination in the Contemporary Folk category, for the 1999 album Cajunization ,with songs that effortlessly span Cajun, Calypso, French ballad, blues and other musical styles.
In 2005, BeauSoleil won the Big Easy Entertainment Award for Best Cajun Band, the tenth time the band was honored in the 18-year history of the awards presented by the New Orleans music and entertainment publication Gambit Weekly.
In 2005, BeauSoleil founder Michael Doucet was one of 12 artists awarded a National Heritage Fellowship
National Heritage Fellowship
The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts...
by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2009, BeauSoleil won another Grammy in the then newly created Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists at the 50th, 51st, 52nd and 53rd Grammy Awards for quality zydeco or cajun music albums...
category for the album Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is a live album by BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, released in 2009 through MunckMix Records. In 2010, the album earned BeauSoleil the Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album.-Track listing:...
.
Albums
- 1977 The Spirit of Cajun Music (Swallow)
- 1984 Michael Doucet with BeauSoleil (Arhoolie)
- 1984 Parlez-Nous a Boire (Arhoolie)
- 1986 Allons a Lafayette (Arhoolie) with Canray Fontenot
- 1986 Belizaire the Cajun [Original Soundtrack] (Arhoolie)
- 1987 Bayou Boogie (Rounder)
- 1988 Hot Chili Mama (Arhoolie)
- 1989 Bayou Cadillac (Rounder)
- 1989 Zydeco Gris Gris (Swallow)
- 1989 Live from the Left Coast (Rounder)
- 1991 Cajun Conja (Rhino)
- 1991 Déjá Vu (Swallow)
- 1993 La Danse de la Vie (Forward)
- 1994 Cajun & Creole Music (Music of the WorldMusic of the WorldMusic of the World was a World music record label active during the 1990s. Nomad-World Jazz and Latitudes were imprint labels.Albums released on the label are available to purchase through the New York City organization .-Artists:*BeauSoleil...
) - 1994 L' Echo (Rhino/Forward)
- 1997 L' Amour Ou la Folie (Rhino)
- 1997 Arc de Triomphe Two-Step (Hemisphere)
- 2001 Looking Back Tomorrow: Beausoleil Live! (Rhino)
- 2004 Gitane Cajun (Vanguard)
- 2006 Live in Louisiana (Way Down in Louisiana)
- 2008 Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival BeauSoleil & Michael Doucet (MunckMix)
- 2009 Alligator Purse (Yep Roc)
Compilation albums
- 1997 The Best of BeauSoleil (Arhoolie)
- 1999 Cajunization (Rhino)
- 2001 Best of Crawfish Years 1985 - 1991 (Rounder)
- 2003 Their Swallow Years (Ace)
- 2003 Encore, Encore!! The Best of BeauSoleil 1991 - 2001 (Rhino)