"Boozoo" Chavis was born Wilson Chavis on October 23, 1930 in the Doghill section of Lake Charles. He was playing accordion and harmonica at the age of nine years old. He was influenced by several local Creole accordion players and soon he was playing at various social functions by his teenage years.
He acquired the nickname "Boozoo" in his childhood, although the origin of the nickname is unknown. When asked by a reporter about his nickname, Chavis replied "Man, I hate that question". His mother opened a dance club in 1944, where ‘Boozoo’ could sit in with Maurice Chenier and his sons Clifton and Cleveland, picking up techniques from the early zydeco masters.
After Iry LeJeune's death, Sidney Brown was Eddie Shuler's star accordionist. Sidney heard Boozoo playing and recommended him to Eddie. At this time Boozoo played by himself, keeping time by stomping his foot on a Coke box.
Eddie recalls:
"Sidney heard this boy out in the country that had a pretty good song. He brought Boozoo by and we recorded "Paper in My Shoe".
Eddie first wanted Sidney Brown and his band to back Boozoo on his recordings, but Sidney told him he couldn't play that kind of music. Sidney told Eddie that it wasn't Cajun music, that they called it Zydeco. Eddie hired a local band to back Boozoo on the session.
The first recordings in 1954 did so well that soon, Imperial Records leased the master for national distribution. It wasn't long after that Imperial wanted more songs to release. But Boozoo wouldn't make any more records because he hadn't got paid from the previous sessions. The record sold well all over the country, but when Boozoo saw the paltry royalty check it brought him, he thought it was so disgraceful.
Eddie finally got Boozoo 700 dollars for the recordings and he cut two more songs to be released. Sadly, Imperial wasn't interested in the new material and momentum was lost. As for Boozoo, he went back to the horses and would come by the studio to record something every once in a while.
It wouldn't be until 1960 that Boozoo would record again. He released "Hamburgers and Popcorn" on Eddie's Goldband label. The song started out as a instrumental and Little Brother Griffen's vocal was added later.
Boozoo spent the next thirty years training racehorses, before he signed a contract with the Maison de Soul label in 1984. With a sandpaper voice and a hypnotic single-note riffs, Boozoo took zydeco back to an earlier style compared to the current output of the time. Boozoo recruited his sons Charles on ‘frottoir’ and Rellis on drums into his backing band The Majic Sounds.
Session info
Goldband 1161
Hamburgers and Popcorn
Vocals- Little Brother
Resources
https://www.allaboutbluesmusic.com/boozoo-chavis/
Liner ntoes to The Lake Charles Atom Bomb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boozoo_Chavis
Early Cajun Music Blog
Boozoo got his nickname by a cousin of his when he was young. He admitted he didn't know why he was given this name, he was too young.
ReplyDeleteThanks Professor!
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