2 2 L A L O U I S I A N E FA L L

Transcription

1 22 LA LOUISIANE FA L L

2 AT HOME WITH A MASTER BY PHOTO ILLUSTRATION TRAVIS GAUTHIER BY SARAH SPELL Make no mistake. This isn t MTV, VH-1 or even Austin City Limits. A new series of music CDs, Louisiana Folk Masters, may be packaged and polished but it s also an opportunity to eavesdrop on traditional southwest Louisiana culture. The series is a cooperative project involving UL Lafayette s Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore and a new record label, Louisiana Crossroads Records, launched by the Acadiana Arts Council and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. Louisiana native John Laudun is an assistant professor of English and associate director of the Center for Culture and Eco-Tourism. He held the reins of this project, which has been decades in the making. The idea has been in play for maybe 30 years, said Laudun. The archives contain Cajun and Creole storytelling, joke telling, oral histories and music performances. Barry Jean Ancelet, now head of Modern Languages, contributed significantly to the archives with his own field recordings, and by securing copies of important collections from the U.S. Library of Congress. Ancelet and Carl Brasseaux, the center s director, wanted to make the archives more accessible to scholars and to musicians. Todd Mouton, Louisiana Crossroads director, and Laudun served as executive producers. Michael Doucet of Beausoleil and David Greely of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys also worked on the project. The debut CD captures some of the magic of the late Varise Conner, a Cajun fiddler who influenced Doucet, Greely and many others, but whose music was never commercially recorded. LA LOUISIANE FALL

3 perhaps there is some irony in the fact that this hightech effort is being made to honor a distinctly low-tech tradition and a musician who never sought the spotlight. ELEMORE MORGAN, JR. Conner played with a delicacy and a style that harkens back to Cajun music s earliest days, before the more raucous accordion became a mainstay of the music. Louisiana Folk Masters: Varise Conner is comprised of interviews and field recordings made by Ancelet at Conner s Lake Arthur, La., home from 1975 to Sound engineer Tony Daigle of Dockside Studios gave the recordings professional polish. And designer Megan Barra, whose packaging for slide guitarist Sonny Landreth s CD was nominated for a Grammy in 2002, created the look of the series. The disc is comprised of 36 music tracks, including waltzes, two-steps, blues, a mazurka, a polka and Conner s own Lake Arthur Stomp still considered one of Cajun music s most challenging fiddle tunes. In addition to the music, the CD also features Conner reminiscing in French and English, providing fascinating insights into the roots of modern Cajun music. I think this CD will open people s eyes to the treasures of the archives, said Laudun. We put together 72 minutes of Varise Conner that s just a fraction of Conner s recordings and an even smaller portion of the archives as a whole. Future projects will draw from this deep well, which includes priceless recordings of Cajun and Creole musicians such as Dewey Balfa, Dennis McGee, Lionel Leleux and Canray Fontenot. Funding for the project was kicked off by fans of the Mamou Playboys, who responded generously when David Greely put out an appeal for donations on the band s web site. A formal fundraiser by Action Cadienne, a nonprofit association dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the French language and Cajun culture of Louisiana, also contributed to the project. The Grammy Foundation, provided a $30,000 grant to help cover the cost of digitizing the archives holdings. We re not doing away with the original recordings, Laudun emphasized. But the creation of high-quality digital versions of recorded materials was essential. Now ABOVE: BARRY ANCELET, CENTER, RECORDS VARISE CONNER, LEFT, AND MICHAEL DOUCET AT CONNER S LAKE ARTHUR, LA., HOME IN RIGHT: ERIK CHARPANTIER PREPARES TO TRANSFER MUSIC FROM A TAPE TO A DIGITAL FORMAT. TRAVIS GAUTHIER 24 LA LOUISIANE FALL 2004

4 we ll be able to better preserve what s in the archives and be prepared to take advantage of future technology. The CD is available online at the Louisiana Crossroads web site. Laudun hopes to eventually see Louisiana Folk Masters titles available on sites like amazon.com So perhaps there is some irony in the fact that this hightech effort is being made to honor a distinctly low-tech tradition and a musician who never sought the spotlight. Conner ran a sawmill in Lake Arthur, and like many excellent musicians, he played for his family and friends, not for audiences. We wanted to give the listener the feeling of being at home with Varise, listening to him play, Laudun explained. It s a different experience (from public performance) when people play music with the people they love, when they play for the joy of playing. Marc Savoy, another musician who learned from Conner, agrees. Savoy holds a jam session each Saturday at the Savoy Music Center in Eunice, La. These community gatherings are based on learning traditional music in a traditional way. Savoy was given his first accordian in 1952, and although he could already play the instrument well, there were clearly defined boundaries around when and where music should be made and by whom. I was not allowed to play when the old-timers got together, said Savoy. Not TRAVIS GAUTHIER one of them found it so cute that a 12- year-old kid could play almost as well as the old-timers. I had the right only to sit, listen and be quiet. And because of that social rule in those days, children should be seen and not heard, I learned a lot of technique from those old musicians. The last thing our indigenous music needs is another performance. This culture needs to be lived, not performed. Louisiana Folk Masters: Varise Conner is available at for $15, plus $2.50 shipping and handling in the United States. Its 28-page illustrated booklet features liner notes by Michael Doucet, David Greely, Carl Brasseaux and Barry Jean Ancelet. LEFT: DR. CARL BRASSEAUX IS DIRECTOR OF UL LAFAYETTE S CENTER FOR CULTURE AND ECO-TOURISM. HE AIMS TO MAKE THE UNIVERSITY S EXTENSIVE MUSIC ARCHIVES AVAILABLE TO SCHOLARS AND THE PUBLIC. Louisiana Folk Masters VARISE CONNER Ithink this CD will open people s eyes to the treasures of the archives...we put together 72 minutes of Varise Conner that s just a fraction of Conner s recordings and an even smaller portion of the archives as a whole. John Laudun LA LOUISIANE FALL

5 FILM STUDIES PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUG DUGAS The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. HENRY MILLER, AMERICAN AUTHOR UL LAFAYETTE S landscape is a mosaic of sorts. There are shards of beauty everywhere, treasures hidden in plain view if we only take the time to notice them. La Louisiane asked freelance photographer Doug Dugas, a 1982 USL graduate, to show us what he sees when he walks across campus. The images here and on subsequent pages are what he captured on film one fine October day. There is the graceful curve of a metal bench. A ray of sun washing over the Walk of Honor. Vines snaked across a window and the exquisite geometric pattern of palmetto fronds. Some images are particularly intriguing to those of us who traverse campus day after day. Yes, of course, there s the bas-relief above the doors of O.K. Allen. But that concrete urn, with its glorious curves that are so familiar... It s location is elusive, although we must have passed it a thousand times. Doug s work is to be savored for its purity. Anyone distracted by the desire for details, however, can turn to page 35 to learn where these photos were taken. 26 LA LOUISIANE FALL 2004

6 LA LOUISIANE FA L L

7 28 LA LOUISIANE FA L L

8 LA LOUISIANE FALL