Wardell Quezergue

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Wardell Quezergue
Quezergue greets Gatemouth Brown at Tower Records, New Orleans
Background information
Birth name	Wardell Quezergue
Born	1930
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana
Genre(s)	Jazz, Rhythm and blues, Blues
Occupation(s)	producer, arranger, conductor, band leader
Years active	1950 - present
Label(s)	NOLA, etc.

Wardell Quezergue (b 1930) is an American music arranger, producer and bandleader, known among New Orleans musicians as the “Creole Beethoven”. Wardell was born into a musical family with his father, Sidney Quezergue Sr., being a guitar player. Wardell is the second youngest of three brothers: Sidney Quezergue Jr., Leo Quezergue, and Alden Quezergue. His oldest two brothers, Sidney (Trumpet) and Leo (Drums), were jazz musicians as well.

1 Career
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Career

After playing with Dave Bartholomew’s band from the late 1940s and serving as an army musician in Korea, he emerged as a bandleader in his own right in the mid-1950s with his Royal Dukes of Rhythm. He also worked as an arranger with the cream of New Orleans musicians, including Professor Longhair and Fats Domino.

In 1964 he formed Nola Records, and Robert Parker’s “Barefootin’” from the label reached number 2 on the R&B chart. Other artists on the label include Eddie Bo, Willie Tee and Smokey Johnson. Later on he recorded King Floyd’s “Groove Me” and Jean Knight’s “Mr Big Stuff” and, when major labels including Stax and Atlantic initially rejected them as uncommercial, he took them to then-struggling Malaco Records, from where they became major national hits.

As a result of these successes, Quezergue’s skills as an arranger, and Malaco’s studios, became in demand in the 1970s, and were used by artists as diverse as Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, and B. B. King. He also worked with G.C. Cameron, former lead singer of The Spinners, who is presently a member of The Temptations.

He also produced and arranged the Grammy Award-winning Dr. John album “Goin' Back to New Orleans” in 1992. Already an award winning classical composer and conductor, in 2000 he created an extended composition entitled "A Creole Mass", drawing on his experiences in the Korean War.^[1]

In 2005, by now legally blind, he lost most of his belongings as a result of Hurricane Katrina.^[2] The following year, benefit concerts on his behalf were led by Dr John, with support including REM’s Mike Mills.^[3]