Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press Officials mark the opening of the Santa Monica Visitors Information Center on Wednesday at their new location on 1920 Main Street. Mayor Mayor Pam O’Connor (cutting the ribbon) is flanked by (left to right) Tim Kittleson, chairman of the center’s board of directors, Debbie Lee Nyguyen, VP of business development, City Manager Susan McCarthy, and Misti Kerns, CEO of the Visitors Center. Bebop meets hip-hop at Twilight Concert
By Daily Press staff
SM PIER — Concertgoers can expect to get funked up tonight with what’s been dubbed as the “world’s greatest party band.”
Buckwheat Zydeco will headline tonight’s Twilight Dance Series free summer concerts at the Santa Monica Pier, with the jazz of Kermit Ruffins’ Barbeque Swingers starting off the evening.
Buckwheat Zydeco has been called the most successful zydeco band ever. Playing a slightly modernized brand of accordion-led zyde-co, Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural’s funk-and rhythm-and-blues-influenced music has won him several Grammy nominations and inclusion in numerous soundtracks.
Sneaking into jazz bars and clubs as early as 9 years old, Dural knew music would be his life. He’d been dubbed “Buckwheat” by his pal Eddie Taylor because his hair looked like that of the Little Rascals’ character. The name stuck.
Dural’s father was an accomplished accordion player who played the old-time music of the black French-speaking Creoles of southwestern Louisiana. Some called it “la la” music or “zydeco.”
Though Dural rejected zydeco early on in favor of rhythm and blues, and funk, hearing Clifton Chenier’s accordion-led zydeco band changed his mind about the genre, officials said. Already an accomplished keyboardist, he took up the accordion and formed Buckwheat Zydeco and the Ills Sont Partis Band in 1979. Twenty years later, Buckwheat Zydeco infuses indigenous Louisiana folk music with elements of rock, pop and soul. He has collaborated with a diverse range of talented musicians, including Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, David Hidalgo, Robert Plant, Ringo Starr, Greg Allman and Neil Young.
Dural never uses a set list, improvises as needed and never plays the same type of music in one performance.
Ruffins, a jazz trumpeter and vocalist, and his quintet, the Barbeque Swingers, mix the New Orleans’ brass-band jazz with bebop and hip-hop for a sound that’s been described as a “little black tie, a little Bermuda shorts.” Special guest Topsy Chapman from the off- Broadway hit “One Mo’ Time” will be a featured vocalist tonight before Buckwheat Zydeco takes the stage.
The Barbeque Swingers consists of Corey Henry, trombone; Emile Vinette, piano; Kevin Morris, upright bass, and drummers Shannon Powell and Jerry Anderson.
Concerts start at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday on the Santa Monica Pier’s west parking deck. For more information, visit www.twlightdance.org, or www.santa-monicapier.org. You also can call the pier information line at (310) 458-8900. For bus information, visit bigbluebus.com or call (310) 451-5444, or visit www.mta.net.
Pier officials strongly recommend walking, biking and using mass transit to get to the concerts, as parking is limited. Parking is available in beach parking lots located at 2330 Barnard Way, located south of the pier, and 1550 PCH, just north of the pier.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 25, 2005. Read the original PDF.