It was 1987 when a young, emerging Terrance Simien and his Mallet Playboys first performed at the Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
It was a bill that featured legend and fellow Louisianan, French speaking Antoine “Fats” Domino and the incomparable Sarah Vaughan in a total of three cities that also included Montreux Jazz Festival and a fest in Lucerne.
What? Wait a minute, back that up! Did we just imply that the new kid on the block in zydeco, who’d just been seen on The Big Easy movie by millions, without even an album out (just a couple 45’s!) from deep in Creole country, Louisiana was on tour with these internationally known and celebrated artists?
Yes, we did! So, you can imagine how poignant it is that the current Zydeco Experience band will return 36 years later as accomplished GRAMMY award winning artists! More poignant than we can even measure.
What an honor and a thrill, and we applaud the festival curator/organizer for their ongoing commitment to diversity in their programming. All of it: racial, genre, cultural – done and done!
