The 2023 Amédé Ardoin Birthday Jam, led by Dexter Ardoin and Joe Hall, commemorates the enduring legacy of a biracial duo who defied segregation and continues to unite generations through their music
A biracial duo broke the rules in the 1920s and ‘30s in southern Louisiana. Creole accordionist Amédé Ardoin and Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee played music together when racial segregation was the law of the land.
Yet Ardoin and McGee were dancehall stars, performing music that, as Michael Tisserand described in his “Kingdom of Zydeco” book, made women cry and men stop fighting.
Ardoin recorded 34 French two-steps, waltzes and blues that poured the foundation for zydeco, Creole and Cajun music. Standards like the “Eunice Two-Step,” “Midland Two-Step,” “Lacassine Special,” “Co-Fe” and many more can be traced to Ardoin’s melodies, rhythms and lyrics.
But racism eventually caught up with Ardoin the night a white woman offered a handkerchief to wipe his sweaty face. He was beaten severely and eventually committed to the state mental hospital in Pineville, where he died and remains buried in an unmarked mass grave.
More than 75 years later, the tables were turned on the criminals. A statue honoring Ardoin was unveiled at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center, exit 23 on Interstate 49, near Opelousas, La. Using the lone-existing picture of Ardoin, artist Russell Whiting designed a 1,200-pound steel sculpture that musicians, fans and students take photos with today.
In the statue’s shadow, the 2023 Tribute to Amédé Ardoin at the Visitor Center was held on the musician’s birth date – March 11, 1898. In true Amédé fashion, musicians of various races, ages and backgrounds played in a jam session of his greatest hits.
Creole accordion master Dexter Ardoin, a member of the four generations of Ardoins following in Amédé foosteps, led the jam, with accordionist Joe Hall. Dexter’s late grandfather, Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin, was Amédé’s cousin.
“Bois Sec” earned a National Heritage Fellowship, America’s highest honor for folk artists, during his 60 years of playing Creole music.
Dexter’s father, Morris, was one of the Ardoin Brothers, a Creole music group popular in the zydeco dancehalls of the 1970s. Dexter is also cousins with contemporary zydeco icon Chris Ardoin and his brother Sean, a four-time Grammy nominee.
A student of Amédé, Joe Hall learned his Creole stylings through frequent visits with “Bois Sec.”
Ardoin and Hall shared stories of the Ardoin family of musicians before a packed house at the Visitor Center. The jam was part of the Zydeco Capital Jams, a series of jams held the second Saturday of each month.
