Amédé Ardoin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amédé Ardoin (March 11, 1898—1941 or 1950) was a black creole Louisiana musician, known for his high singing voice and virtuosity on the ten-button (diatonic or "Cajun") accordion. He is credited by Louisiana music scholars with laying the groundwork for Cajun music in the early 20th century.

Amédé Ardoin around 1912.

Ardoin, with fiddle player Dennis McGee, was one of the first artists to record the music of the Acadiana region of Louisiana. In December 1929, he and McGee recorded six songs for Columbia Records in New Orleans. In all, thirty-four recordings with Ardoin playing accordion are known to exist.

The date and place of his death is uncertain. Descendants of family members and musicians who knew Amédé tell a story, now well-known, about a racially motivated attack on Amédé in which he was severely beaten, probably between 1939-49, while walking home after playing at a house dance near Eunice, LA. The most common story says that some white men were angered when a white woman lent her handkerchief to Amédé to wipe the sweat from his face. Others consider the story apocryphal. Other versions say that Amédé was poisoned, not beaten, possibly by a jealous fellow musician.

The stories all lead to one conclusion: contemporaries said that Amédé suffered from impaired mental and musical capacities later in his life. He ended up in an asylum in Pineville, LA. Author Michael Tisserand in his book The Kingdom of Zydeco concludes that Amédé probably died in the asylum, though no definitive record of his death exists.