CALENDAR OF FLORIDA DANCE EVENTS
Your Source for Cajun-Zydeco Dancing in Florida
Welcome to FloridaCajunZydeco, a website dedicated to people who love to dance to Louisiana-style music. This site features a calendar page of Cajun and Zydeco dance bands and events in the state of Florida (below), and a Festivals page of major Cajun and Zydeco events anywhere in the United States -- even Louisiana! Check out my blog on page 3 for stories from my monthly news magazine, Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!, and select posts from our Facebook group page, Florida Cajun Zydeco Dancers. And in the spirit of the dance community that embraces this joyful music, "If you're smiling, you're doing it right!"
Sunday, Dec. 8 --- Holiday Zydeco Dance Party featuring Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe (Pinellas Park, FL)
5 to 6 p.m. Potluck meal (Please bring an entree, salad, side dish or dessert. Plates, utensils and ice will be provided.)
6 to 9 p.m. Dance to Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe. (A cash donation of $20 is requested to pay the band from Louisiana.)
Location: Sunset Palms Park Clubhouse, 3401 Gandy Blvd. North, Pinellas Park, FL 33781
No need to RSVP, but it wouldn't be a party without you!
Check for December Date --- The Villages Cajun Zydeco Dance (The Villages, FL)
7 to 9 p.m. Location: Big Cypress Recreation Center, 3110 Hendry Drive, The Villages, FL
Note: These dances are planned for the fourth Wednesday of the month. Email Jango at janko32163@gmail.com to confirm.
Welcome to FloridaCajunZydeco, a website dedicated to people who love to dance to Louisiana-style music. This site features a calendar page of Cajun and Zydeco dance bands and events in the state of Florida (below), and a Festivals page of major Cajun and Zydeco events anywhere in the United States -- even Louisiana! Check out my blog on page 3 for stories from my monthly news magazine, Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!, and select posts from our Facebook group page, Florida Cajun Zydeco Dancers. And in the spirit of the dance community that embraces this joyful music, "If you're smiling, you're doing it right!"
Sunday, Dec. 8 --- Holiday Zydeco Dance Party featuring Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe (Pinellas Park, FL)
5 to 6 p.m. Potluck meal (Please bring an entree, salad, side dish or dessert. Plates, utensils and ice will be provided.)
6 to 9 p.m. Dance to Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe. (A cash donation of $20 is requested to pay the band from Louisiana.)
Location: Sunset Palms Park Clubhouse, 3401 Gandy Blvd. North, Pinellas Park, FL 33781
No need to RSVP, but it wouldn't be a party without you!
Check for December Date --- The Villages Cajun Zydeco Dance (The Villages, FL)
7 to 9 p.m. Location: Big Cypress Recreation Center, 3110 Hendry Drive, The Villages, FL
Note: These dances are planned for the fourth Wednesday of the month. Email Jango at janko32163@gmail.com to confirm.
Featured Artist: Dikki Du
Holiday Zydeco Dance Party on Dec. 8; spotlight on Dikki Du; 2025 Blues and Brews concerts at Orange Blossom Opry outside The Villages; the end of the line for OffBeat magazine?; Adventures in Vinyl: The Vintage Goodman (1956); Suwannee Spring Reunion Mar. 20-23, 2025; Festival-O-Rama lists Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival and Floorplay Swing Vacation.
Excerpt: “Teddy Wilson, who became known as ‘the definitive swing pianist’ with Goodman’s orchestra and later with Louis Armstrong, became a session player in numerous hit recordings for vocalists Lena Horne, Helen Ward, Ella Fitzgerald, Mildred Bailey and Billie Holiday.”
Holiday Zydeco Dance Party on Dec. 8; spotlight on Dikki Du; 2025 Blues and Brews concerts at Orange Blossom Opry outside The Villages; the end of the line for OffBeat magazine?; Adventures in Vinyl: The Vintage Goodman (1956); Suwannee Spring Reunion Mar. 20-23, 2025; Festival-O-Rama lists Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival and Floorplay Swing Vacation.
Excerpt: “Teddy Wilson, who became known as ‘the definitive swing pianist’ with Goodman’s orchestra and later with Louis Armstrong, became a session player in numerous hit recordings for vocalists Lena Horne, Helen Ward, Ella Fitzgerald, Mildred Bailey and Billie Holiday.”
Feature story: Hurricanes, Music Festivals and Baseball, Oh My!
Also, Orange Blossom Opry "Blues and Brews" series; Florida Winter Music Festival will be Nov. 7-10 at former Sertoma Youth Ranch (renamed Florida Sand Music Ranch); Getting Funky and a list of funky zydeco tunes; Festival-O-Rama.
Excerpt: “Life can deal some harsh blows, but music is there to restore the soul."
Also, Orange Blossom Opry "Blues and Brews" series; Florida Winter Music Festival will be Nov. 7-10 at former Sertoma Youth Ranch (renamed Florida Sand Music Ranch); Getting Funky and a list of funky zydeco tunes; Festival-O-Rama.
Excerpt: “Life can deal some harsh blows, but music is there to restore the soul."
Stories include: Revisiting the Boozoo Chavis Songbook; Rosie Ledet — Zydeco Sweetheart; Wayne Toups — Back to the Bayou; Muddy Waters — The Art of a Masterful Blues Recording.
Excerpt: “People started telling me, ‘Boy, you act different when you’re on stage.’ And I just started thinking about it, and I realized that it’s like, nobody can bother you when you’re on stage — you’re just somewhere else. You can do whatever you want. You’re safe.” — Rosie Ledet
Excerpt: “So, I bought a pint of Seagram’s 7 for $1.35 and gave it to him. After a while it loosened him up and the whole group began meshing really well,” added Eddie. “We were just about at the 2:47 of elapsed time [recording “Paper in My Shoe”] preferred as the ideal cut-off point by juke box operators when I heard this horrible crashing on the other side of the partition which separated the control room from the studio itself. When I peered around, there was Boozoo on his back and on the floor still playing without skipping a beat even after falling off his stool,” claimed Eddie Shuler. [Eddie Shuler, owner of Goldband Records, commenting on the first recording session with Boozoo Chavis]
Excerpt: “Ever since I heard The Eagles Unplugged (album) I had an idea that one day, with those electrifying, high-energy shows that we put on, to break it down with an acoustic bass and acoustic guitar,” said Toups. “It would represent the songs in a different, more subtle way. It would show a different side.” — Wayne Toups
Excerpt: “An interesting result of Waters’ recording process on Folk Singer is how it allows us to hear blues music differently than we were used to. Until now, electric blues records were (usually accidentally) claustrophobic in their sound palette. The distorted harmonica would melt into the over-driven sound of the vocal track. A blues record was like a burning car — it wasn’t made up of different pieces that come together to create a whole, but was instead a flaming amalgamation of sound that couldn’t be broken down to constituent pieces. Much like the early acoustic 78-r.p.m. blues records that were recorded poorly and full of surface noise, the indecipherability of the sound provided mystery. On Folk Singer, Chess Records suddenly started acting as if they were a jazz label like Verve, providing space between the instruments, where the room is a virtual instrument. For better or worse, the blues sounded `respectable’ on Folk Singer.” — Tom Ryan
Excerpt: “People started telling me, ‘Boy, you act different when you’re on stage.’ And I just started thinking about it, and I realized that it’s like, nobody can bother you when you’re on stage — you’re just somewhere else. You can do whatever you want. You’re safe.” — Rosie Ledet
Excerpt: “So, I bought a pint of Seagram’s 7 for $1.35 and gave it to him. After a while it loosened him up and the whole group began meshing really well,” added Eddie. “We were just about at the 2:47 of elapsed time [recording “Paper in My Shoe”] preferred as the ideal cut-off point by juke box operators when I heard this horrible crashing on the other side of the partition which separated the control room from the studio itself. When I peered around, there was Boozoo on his back and on the floor still playing without skipping a beat even after falling off his stool,” claimed Eddie Shuler. [Eddie Shuler, owner of Goldband Records, commenting on the first recording session with Boozoo Chavis]
Excerpt: “Ever since I heard The Eagles Unplugged (album) I had an idea that one day, with those electrifying, high-energy shows that we put on, to break it down with an acoustic bass and acoustic guitar,” said Toups. “It would represent the songs in a different, more subtle way. It would show a different side.” — Wayne Toups
Excerpt: “An interesting result of Waters’ recording process on Folk Singer is how it allows us to hear blues music differently than we were used to. Until now, electric blues records were (usually accidentally) claustrophobic in their sound palette. The distorted harmonica would melt into the over-driven sound of the vocal track. A blues record was like a burning car — it wasn’t made up of different pieces that come together to create a whole, but was instead a flaming amalgamation of sound that couldn’t be broken down to constituent pieces. Much like the early acoustic 78-r.p.m. blues records that were recorded poorly and full of surface noise, the indecipherability of the sound provided mystery. On Folk Singer, Chess Records suddenly started acting as if they were a jazz label like Verve, providing space between the instruments, where the room is a virtual instrument. For better or worse, the blues sounded `respectable’ on Folk Singer.” — Tom Ryan
Stories include: The Making of the first recording of Cajun music connects with the present; Terrance Simien finds a world connected by music; Son of Greatness: C.J. Chenier; Old Crow Medicine Show to headline Suwannee Roots Revival (the band's story connects with Doc Watson, Bob Dylan, Marty Stuart, Darius Rucker, and just about everybody in bluegrass music); RCA’s Dynaflex vinyl records of the 1970s; and Festival-O-Rama.
Fernest Arceneaux: Prince of Zydeco; A blind man's life in music: a story about Lynn August; Philosophy of Modern Song, a review of a Bob Dylan book; Why bluegrass music has a home in Florida.
Excerpt: “Bobby Osborne’s daredevil vocal swoops, sustained notes, and the drive of the twin banjos with lightning runs combined to make something so staggeringly propulsive it would most likely make Yngwie Malmsteen scratch his head. This is speed metal without the embarrassment of Spandex and junior high school devil worship.”
Excerpt: “Bobby Osborne’s daredevil vocal swoops, sustained notes, and the drive of the twin banjos with lightning runs combined to make something so staggeringly propulsive it would most likely make Yngwie Malmsteen scratch his head. This is speed metal without the embarrassment of Spandex and junior high school devil worship.”
Happy birthday, Chubby Carrier! Story on Chubby Carrier and his career. Story on Suwannee Roots Revival Oct. 10-13, 2024. Feature stories on two artists performing at Suwannee Roots Revival. Also, "Vinyl Adventure" with the 1962 release The Lonely Bull by Herb Alpert, the first release on the new A&M Records label.
Excerpt: “I reminisce all the time about watching my grandfather and my daddy make this wonderful music when I knew they couldn’t read or write,” he said. “But they played this music from their heart and soul, working in the bean fields, picking cotton and singing the blues away.” — Chubby Carrier
Excerpt: “I reminisce all the time about watching my grandfather and my daddy make this wonderful music when I knew they couldn’t read or write,” he said. “But they played this music from their heart and soul, working in the bean fields, picking cotton and singing the blues away.” — Chubby Carrier