Buckwheat Zydeco - Biography
By J Poet
Stanley Dural, Jr., better known by his stage name of Buckwheat Zydeco, is the most popular zydeco bandleader in the music’s history. While not as important historically as Clifton Chenier, Buckwheat Zydeco is one of the few zydeco bandleaders to have recorded for a major label. His charismatic stage presence and top-notch bands have made him and international star. He played President Clinton’s second inaugural ball, has four Grammy nominations, wrote the theme song for the PBS series Pierre Franey's Cooking In America and plays around the world to sold out crowds in clubs and festivals.
Stanley Dural was born in Lafayette, LA in 1947. Inspired by Fats Domino, who he met when he was nine years old, Dural started playing the piano. His father, Stanley, Sr., played the folk and popular music of the black French-speaking Creoles of Louisiana on the accordion, but it hadn’t been named zydeco yet. Dural, Jr. got his nickname because his friends through he looked like the Buckwheat character in the Little Rascals comedies.
Dural grew up as zydeco grew up, becoming a music that blended Afro-Caribbean rhythms, blues, soul, rock, country, R&B and the Cajun music of white Louisiana. He first played piano, although his father frowned upon rock and popular music. He was sitting in with local bands on piano and organ while still in grammar school, and was a working musician in high school playing with Sammy and the Untouchables and Little Buck and The Top Cats, a pickup band for top acts like Barbara Lynn, Joe Tex, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Solomon Burke.
Dural started his own band when he was 24 - Buckwheat and the Hitchhikers, with a five-piece horn section and Dural on Hammond B-3. They played soul and funk covers and became a regional hit. In 1975, after years of urging, Dural finally went to a Clifton Chenier show with his father. He was blown away. He left his band and joined Chenier’s on organ and started singing, which was difficult because he had been stuttering since he was a child. He was surprised to find that singing helped to calm his stuttering. After two years with Chenier, Dural quit and spent a year teaching himself accordion. In 1979 he put together Buckwheat Zydeco and the Ils Sont Partis Band.
The Ils Sont Partis Band was an immediate hit and their first album, One for the Road (1979 Paula/Flyright), expanded the musical palette of zydeco with Dural’s bluesy playing and singing. They were soon making noise on the national scene and Rounder’s Scott Billington signed them up for: 100% Fortified Zydeco (1983 Black Top), his first classic album, Turning Point (1983 Rounder), which included Dural’s “Zydeco Boogaloo,” a song that became one of zydeco’s greatest hits, Waitin' for My Ya-Ya (1986 Rounder), a fusion of R&B and zydeco, and Buckwheat’s Zydeco Party (1987 Rounder.)
Dural and the band were now touring internationally and Chris Blackwell signed them to Island, the first zydeco band on a major label. On a Night Like This (1987 Island), which included covers of Dylan (the title track) and the Blasters (“Marie, Marie”), featured a horn section drawn from The Dirty Dozen Brass band. The album became the first zydeco record to get onto Billboard’s pop charts and became the biggest selling zydeco record ever made. It was nominated for a Best Folk or Ethnic Record Grammy. Taking It Home (1988 Island, 1990 Polygram) featured a guest shot from Eric Clapton on the Derek and the Dominos’ song “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad.” Where There's Smoke There's Fire (1990 Island) was produced by David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, and had more superior horn charts and plenty of great new tunes from Dural’s pen. It featured Dural on piano, playing a jaw dropping extended solo on his own “It’s Getting late.”
On Track (1992 Charisma) continued to showcase the band’s winning blend of zydeco with rock, soul and blues and included the show stopper “Hey Joe.” Five Card Stud (1994 Island) featured guest vocals from Willie Nelson and Mavis Staples and a cover of Bruce Channell’s "Hey Baby" that was a crowd favorite. They also cut Choo Choo Boogaloo (1994 Music for Little People) the band’s first children’s album. Trouble (1997 Atlantic/Mesa/Blue Moon, 1999 Tomorrow) was a solid party album, but Mesa went belly up just after its release and it was never promoted despite critical raves calling it one of Buckwheat’s best. Dural countered by starting his own label, Tomorrow, and reissuing the set.
The new label’s first original album was The Buckwheat Zydeco Story: A 20-Year Party (1999 Tomorrow) a two CD retrospective of his career so far. Down Home Live (2001 Tomorrow) was culled from a three hour show the band played top celebrate Thanksgiving at The Zydeco and Blues Club in Lafayette, LA. Their extended versions of crowd favorites like Fats Domino’s “Walking to New Orleans” and Dural’s “What You Gonna Do?” are hot enough to melt your CD player. In 2001, Dural wrote the score for Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich, a documentary about the Louisiana State University superstar basketball player. Dural won an Emmy for his work. He also contributed a track to Our New Orleans (2005 Nonesuch) an album that benefited the survivors of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Jackpot! (2005 Tomorrow) is another solid party album, with a special teat, three numbers featuring Dural on the big Hammond B-3, the funky “Buck’s going Downtown,” the smooth soul/jazz of “Buck’s going Uptown,” and “Buck’s going Trenchtown,” a bit of zydeco reggae.
In 2009, Dural and The Ils Sont Partis Band toured internationally to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their first record, as well as releasing a new LP enitled Lay Your Burden Down.
