C. J. Chenier
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C. J. Chenier (born Clayton Joseph Thompson, 28 September 1957, Port Arthur, Texas) is the Creole son of the Grammy Award winning "King of Zydeco", Louisiana musician, Clifton Chenier.
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[edit] Career
In 1987 C. J. followed in his father's footsteps, and led his father's band as a top accordion performer of Zydeco, a blend of Cajun and Creole music. With five previous albums to his credit, by 1994, C. J. began to record on his father's Alligator Records label.
C. J. grew up away from his Louisiana bayou father in the 1960s, in the housing projects of his native Port Arthur, Texas.[1] There, C.J. 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, C. J. 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, C. J. 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 C. J. 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 C. J. went to college to study jazz and funk music.
In 1978 his father invited C. J. to play his saxophone with The Red Hot Louisiana Band, whose members also included C. J.'s uncle, Cleveland Chenier, on washboard.[2] By 1985, as his father was growing ill from diabetes, he invited C. J. to start playing the accordion in a larger role with the band, and to open the shows.
In 1987, the year his father died, C. J. 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 C. J. 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 C. J. played accordion on "Cajun Song", a track on the Gin Blossoms' breakthrough album, New Miserable Experience.
1992 saw C. J. featured with his father's Red Hot Louisiana Band on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits. [3]
By October 1994 C. J. 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, C. J. 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.
C. J. and the band also appeared that year at the Austin, Texas 1996 SxSW Music Conference, a special event for Alligator Records 25th Anniversary.
C. J. 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.
[edit] Discography
- Too Much Fun, (Alligator Records), 1994
- The Big Squeeze, (Alligator Records), 1997
- Step It Up!, (Aligator Records), 2004
