In the rural parishes west of New Orleans, musicians keep dancers moving late into the night playing zydeco, an up-tempo style that evolved from music developed by Creoles in the area nearly a century ago. Performed by a band with an accordion, an electric guitar, and a frottoir (a percussion instrument resembling a wearable washboard), the music is hard-rocking and high-spirited. C. J. Chenier (pictured above) is the son of the legendary accordionist Clifton Chenier (1925-1987), who solidified the genre’s name with his 1965 recording of the anthem “Zydeco Sont Pas Salé.” On March 2, two days before Mardi Gras, he brings his Red Hot Louisiana Band to a “Let’s Zydeco!” party at Connolly’s, an Irish bar in midtown that will be hard to distinguish from a Louisiana roadhouse.
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