Southern Louisiana music, off the radio is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature. You’ll hear Cajun and New Orleans jazz from 1950s and 60 radio.

It is so good to be back in the studio to create a fresh non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted for you. My name,s Greg Poppleton, Greg Poppleton. I’ve been mixing The Phantom Dancer for you since June 1985 and this week is the first live mix since the latest Sydney Covid lockdown starting June this year.

LISTEN to this Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 28 September) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

This week, two musics from Sothern Louisiana…

CAJUN

Cajun music is relatively catchy with an infectious beat and a lot of forward drive, placing the accordion at the center. Besides the voices, only two melodic instruments are heard, the accordion and fiddle, but usually in the background can also be heard the high, clear tones of a metal triangle.

The harmonies of Cajun music are simple and the melodic range is just one octave, rising a fifth above the tonic and descending a fourth below. Because the Cajun accordion is a diatonic instrument (do-re-mi or natural major scale) it can only play tunes in a few keys.

For example, a “C” accordion is tuned such that the entire C scale is available on the ten buttons (over two octaves) and it can play a tune in the key of C with all the notes of the C scale available (C-D-E-F-G-A-B). A “C” accordion can also play a few Cajun songs in the key of F however the Bb note will be missing. Also it can play in the key of D with a bluesy sound since the F natural note becomes a flat third or minor third in the key of D.

However a skilled accordion player can play in these other keys and still make good music whereby the notes missing (because of the limitations of the diatonic tuning) are not needed by the melody.

Since an instrument must match the singer’s range, much Cajun singing is sung in the singer’s upper range. The accordionist gives the vocal melody greater energy by repeating most notes.

Dancehall Cajun, which we’ll hear today from a 1966 KEUN Mamou La recording of thier live ‘Fais-do-do’ radio show, is often known in South Louisiana as ‘Fais do-do’ music because it is commonly played at fais do-dos; this in turn comes from the local practice of couples bringing their children with them to the dance hall.

As bands moved from house dances to large halls, electrical amplification of instruments was introduced so as to cut through the noise of the crowd.

Typically in dancehall Cajun performances, the melody is played by the accordion followed by a bridge, a vocal verse, a leading line by the steel guitar, a leading line by the fiddle, then a leading line by the accordion player again followed by a bridge. This is followed by the next vocal verse, and so on. Lawrence Walker, Aldus Roger, Nathan Abshire, Iry LeJeune, and Sidney Brown are examples of this musical period.

JAZZ

Probably the single most famous style of music to originate in the city was New Orleans jazz, also known as Dixieland. It came into being around 1900.

Many with memories of the time say that the most important figure in the formation of the music was Papa Jack Laine who enlisted hundreds of musicians from all of the city’s diverse ethnic groups and social status. Most of these musicians became instrumental in forming jazz music including Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson and the members of Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

One of early rural blues, ragtime, and marching band music were combined with collective improvisation to create this new style of music.

At first, the music was known by various names such as “hot music”, “hot ragtime” and “ratty music”; the term “jazz” (early on often spelled “jass”) did not become common until the 1910s.

The early style was exemplified by the bands of such musicians as Freddie Keppard, Jelly Roll Morton, “King” Joe Oliver, Kid Ory. The next generation took the young art form into more daring and sophisticated directions, with such creative musical virtuosos as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Red Allen.

New Orleans was a regional Tin Pan Alley music composing and publishing center through the 1920s, and was also an important center of ragtime.

Louis Prima demonstrated the versatility of the New Orleans tradition, taking a style rooted in traditional New Orleans jazz into swinging hot music popular into the rock and roll era. He is buried in New Orleans.

Contemporary jazz has had a following in New Orleans with musicians such as Alvin Batiste and Ellis Marsalis. Some younger jazz virtuosos such as Wynton Marsalis and Nicholas Payton experiment with the avant garde while refusing to disregard the traditions of early jazz.

28 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST