Alligator Zydeco Band 

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Electric Factory Concert Promo for 2003 "Jam on the River"

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Speaking of samples- The AZB just completed a new CD which is the topic of this feature. It’s the first recording effort since 1996 and the CD is titled "White Hot BYUZ Music". The disk contains: 6 popular Zydeco dance covers, 1 "Zydecated contemporary number and 6 BYUZ songs as well as original artwork on the cover by the Snakeman. Tee shirts are also available that feature the muscular alligator playing a Cajun accordion on the CD cover.

White Hot B.Y.U.Z Music -The Alligator Zydeco Band 2002

1. B.Y.U.Z. Music (G. Troiano) Acronym for Basic Yankee Urban Zydeco-pronounced "bayous". I feel that it’s an accurate description/category of our original music for several reasons. The band is native to the mid-Atlantic region of the USA and the song is definitely Zydeco dance music. I utilized an old style accordion technique shown to me by the great Roy Carrier, that he refers to as "cross row style" on my Triple row diatonic accordion. This form of playing is seldomly used by the majority of current Zydeco artists. For this song I used 2 sets of reeds on the treble side and 5 sets on the bass side. The beat is similar to Clifton’s "Zydeco Son Pas Sales" so it pushes the dancers a bit. There are 2 breakdowns with some nice inter-play between the rubboards & accordion. From the last verse- " B Y U Z was made for joie de vie"(the joy of life) and it was.
2. Fraught With Anticipation (G. Troiano) Written in 1999, this simple song was made more for listening than dancing. It reminds me of early Rosie Ledet with its basic melody on the Cajun Accordion. The guitar lead is also very spare and beautiful. Mark played in an open tuning that sounds like Lindsey Buckingham’s (Fleetwood Mac) guitar work. For this piece we utilized a studio trick to double the vocals at the end of the song. I wrote this song after I received confirmation that I would be part of the line up for the Jam on the River in ’99. This event, produced by Electric Factory Concerts, is a major festival in my region. I had attended this festival for 12 consecutive years prior to being part of it. For the first 10 years it was known as the "Jambalaya Jam" and it was pretty much, the only source for live Cajun, Zydeco and other Louisiana styles of music as well as the cuisine that goes with it that was within driving distance from my home.

   My passion for the music compelled me to keep going back year after year, usually attending every hour of the 3-day event. It goes back so far, in my history, that I used to carry my daughter Laura for the first 4 years. I was working 12-14 hrs a day back then doing landscaping or hanging cable with a business on the side making meteorite jewelry. I mention this because it was probably my lack of free time to do research, but the way I remember it there was no source for Zydeco other than this annual event for me. It was more than 10 years before I ever accessed a computer and the only thing any music store could find for me was either Queen Ida, Buckwheat Zydeco or Zachary Richard’s music. To sum it up- this festival fueled my passion for Zydeco and provided my only influences for the music I now play as my profession, for a period of maybe 5 years. When you listen to the song you can still hear the great pleasure and pride I felt when I wrote it. The AZB is still the only Zydeco band, outside of Louisiana, that has been included in this Festival. I performed this song this year at the Jam on the River for the first time and it went over very well. Many people, both fans of Zydeco and otherwise have told me that this song is their favorite on the CD.

3. Playin’ Like I’m Tryin’ to Forget (G. Troiano) This song was done on my little 12 bass, 2 reed piano accordion that my wife gave me in 1985. I utilize a method of bellow shaking, I originated, that makes a piano accordion sound similar to the percussive button accordion with "fiddle like" effects mixed in. These effects would be more apparent if I hadn’t actually used a fiddler on this tune. This song is arranged like a Cajun tune, with rides, but set to a Zydeco beat. Dennis Hertzog was at the studio to add fiddle for the waltz (described later) and I asked him to try a support part for this song. I loved what he did so I kept it. Fiddle in Zydeco? Sounds great in the appropriate song. Due to the influences discussed earlier, I had a fiddler for the first couple of years I played. During those years we played some Cajun music as well. Dennis was one of the fiddlers that played with us. I still use a fiddler when I headline Bluegrass Festivals or some weddings. They just play percussion when the fiddle doesn’t fit the song. This song comes from a practice pattern I made before I got my first button accordion. I wanted that percussive button attack so I experimented until I got as close as I could get. I would go into a "zone" where I would play this pattern over & over. The title comes from a phrase that is used to describe what some people do to try and get past traumatic events. In certain cases a person will take 3 jobs or work every working hour to distract them from their personal agony. They say a person is working like their trying to forget something. Besides the beautiful aspect of music when life would become overbearing for me I would retreat to my zone and play this song mindlessly for hours. When you hear me yell "music save me now-please….." I mean it. My dance consultant, Karen, tells me this tempo is good for "tornado" style Zydeco dancing. A good song unique to our band.
4. Watch That Dog (Alvin Cormier) Our arrangement of this popular medium speed dance tune is closest to Roy Carrier’s version. Mixed audiences request it often. Some places the folks go wild with the "barking". And I’ve had so many people request our version on CD that I had to comply.
5. Going Up The Country (Alan C. Wilson) "Zydecated contemporary" music. How’s that? We add some contemporary music to our performances and change the beat so you can dance Zydeco steps. Works well with mixed audiences as well as Zydeco dancers. Dan Cole sings and plays drums on this one. He played Zydeco with me from 1986 until his job forced him to leave the band last fall. Good dance beat on a classic tune.
6. Steppin’ Out (Step Rideau) Used an echoplex for the intro and few spoken parts. Our closely related arrangement of Step Rideau’s song "Steppin’ In" that I, along with other people, mistakenly call by their CD title "Steppin’ Out". I don’t have the CD-so I just play it the way I remember hearing it. Close enough to be recognizable and set with a tempo great for dancing.
7. Valse de Suzanne (G. Troiano) " Beautiful song for a beautiful woman" is the way I introduce it when I perform. It’s a song that I wrote for my wife. Nice lively waltz that features the talents of Dennis Hertzog on the fiddle. I’m a little sorry that I used the French musette on the re-occurring bridge because it is slightly discordant with Dennis’s precise fiddle passages. It’s still a lovely song. Mark added some nice guitar lead and the song was played on the 3 row diatonic accordion.
8. Old Tyme Zydeco (J. R. Carrier Jr.) Fast and short, this song was done on the 3 row diatonic accordion with just me, the Zydeco Girl on scrub and Dan Cole on the drums. Same way we’ve done it for years. Pretty darn close to Chubby Carrier’s version. Nice way to round out the CD.
9. Back Bone Zydeco (Roy Carrier) Originally I wanted to make a CD that contained only original material. I was swayed by the advice of my peers to cover and replicate, to the best of my ability, at least one well known Zydeco tune by a well-known Louisiana band, so that, people interested in hiring the band could have a familiar piece, to assess my ability to the play music, that they were familiar with. So I chose this song. The other covers on the CD are re arrangements. Roy is the only person that ever showed me anything on the accordion. I’ve sat in with his band numerous times and watched him dance to his own songs while I played. So this is my best effort at playing Roy’s "cross row" method on the triple note accordion. Complete with breakdowns and with attention to detail with Seymour Plaugher even duplicating some of those Louisiana drum "telegraphs"- even the one where it sounds like Roy’s drummer started too early on a change but comes up with one of those amazing recoveries. It’s a "Zydeco thing". Great dance tune.
10. All the Pretty Girls (G. Troiano) Part of the "Stripper" in this unique AZB original complete with the "wolf whistle" done on a piano accordion. Be careful trying this one at home! I’ve cut my hand and wrist several times doing that whistle. But blood, sweat & tears are just part of the show. Neat tune with a medium tempo dance groove. Dan Cole adds the spirited background responses that I’m certain will bring a smile to your face everytime you hear the song. My favorite is his part "I better drop and roll". Can you laugh and dance?
11. Baltimore (G. Troiano) Sometime in the future this song will have lyrics. The people in Baltimore, MD liked songs that had this beat so I created this tune to give them yet another one to dance to. Mark does some rockin’ guitar leads on this song. For live performances we usually have Karen and Laura give a dance demonstration so it’s kind of nice to hear the double rubboards adding those rattlesnake rhythms to this piece. Perhaps it was the adrenaline in the studio, but for some reason Baltimore is a bit faster than we usually play it live. It’s a good, dynamic dance vehicle though.
12. Why You Wanna Make Me Cry (Leo Thomas) Great tune that we arranged without the shuffle. Our version is straight-ahead zydeco, at a good clip, featuring that special bellow-shake method that I described earlier on my little red piano accordion. For those of you that know and love this song be aware that I don’t have the original version in my collection so I sing the lyrics from memory. I had it pointed out to me that I rarely ever sing the same words the same way at any given show. Great dance tempo and yet another version of this very popular song that has been covered by so many artists.
13. ‘tit Fille (Stanley Dural Jr.) I’m not sure where I heard this version of ‘tit Fille. Live we usually start this with a Reggae feel and end with our CD arrangement. This version rocks out but with a great Zydeco tempo for dancing. It also features solos by all the band members so that you can appreciate their respective skills on each instrument. And the best effect of this song is that it makes you want to play the CD again.

Notes from the Snakeman:

My passion for Zydeco music started in 1985 when I saw Queen Ida perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Before this time I did not know the music even existed. I was forever changed by that show and performing Zydeco music has been my soul profession for over seven years now. I mention this because I would like you to know that I share the passion of the people that love Zydeco music.

I am a multi-instrumentalist and I have played music professionally, semi-professionally, as a hobby and mostly because I just love to play. Since I started with music in 1975, I have played harmonica, electric & acoustic guitars; mandolin, tenor banjo, charango, various rhythm instruments and I have even done fill-in spots on drums and bass guitar. The types of music I have played were: rock/fusion, bluegrass, folk & swing prior to performing Zydeco. Part of the reason I love this music so much is because it contains a bit of every type of music I have played and yet has its own unique sound.

Like many of the traditional Zydeco musicians, I worked for years doing hard manual labor. So playing music, for me, was like an escape or a way to celebrate time off. I loved to dance before I ever learned how to play music. Now that I can no longer dance, due to injuries from working, I do my best to make others dance. Another similarity is that I include family members with my band. My daughter, Laura has been playing with me for eight years and for a while I had my nephew playing with me. We all started out playing in our homes or for small get togethers just for the fun of it. My daughters, wife, and friends have all learned to dance to Zydeco music and for the past few years we have learned how to cook many of the ethnic foods that go along with this music. The way I understand it Zydeco music is about celebrating "joie de vie" (the joy of life) and to do that properly you need good lively music, food, and especially dancing. These ingredients are part of many of the jobs I do now and the events that we put on ourselves.

Notice that when I was describing the instruments above, I did not mention accordion. I never really gave it much thought until I saw Zydeco for the first time. That music gave it a whole new meaning. My wife noticed my passion for this new music and gave me a little red accordion for Christmas in 1985. I still have that accordion and it's featured on several of the songs on my new CD. After I got that little accordion, I decided to devote my time to learning how to play it properly and I basically gave up the other instruments. But then I couldn't help myself so I ended up playing all three of the types of accordion used in Zydeco music (Cajun, Three-row Diatonic, and Piano accordions) I learned my playing techniques from recorded music and live performances. Other than the gracious Roy Carrier teaching me a little of his style on the Triple-row, I have had no training on any of the accordions. To be fair - if you like what I play on the Triple-row, I give Roy the credit and if you don't I'll take the blame. In keeping with what I know about some of the Zydeco musicians, I play, many times, what I hear my own way and sing songs the way that I remember them as opposed to studying recorded music and trying to copy it. Some day I will go and seek some formal way of learning these three instruments, but I have purposely held out until this time to keep my own music and my covers stylistically pure. That is, my renditions are done my own way.

My reason for writing this is to give you a little more insight into my music, where it comes from and why it sounds like it does. I have played Zydeco music from a time before it received national/international attention and its cult following. I like the people that I share my passion with because in this modern world of instant self-gratification these folks, for the most part, are self-motivated and will go to great lengths to get out of the house and support live music. Yeah, they like to go out and dance and celebrate the joy of life.

I made this music for you. Dance and enjoy!!

Greg Troiano - the Snakeman

The price of the CD is $13.00. A dollar a song, you can't go wrong! I have also created a Tee Shirt that is a slightly modified version of the CD cover. These are 100% cotton shirts and I am as proud of the design as I am with the CD. The price of the Tee Shirts is $13.00. As a combo, you can purchase a CD and Tee Shirt together for $25.00.

I do not at this time have credit card capabilities, so all orders must be by check or money order. For shipping and handling, I send all requests by second day mailing through the United States Post Office with a return receipt of confirmation. So Shipping and handling come to $4.00 for either item alone or the combo together for mailing within the United States. For out of the country, shipping, I will charge approximately 50 cents over the actual cost.

For orders contact the AZB at ALLIGATORZYDECO.COM or E-mail 

Greg at Gatr522@AOL.COM  

or call 215-514-9836

I wish to thank Gary Hayman for featuring my CD & Tee Shirt on his amazing Cajun-Zydeco Webster and his generous contribution to the world music & dance community.