Queen Ida - Biography
Legendary performer Queen Ida is a perfect example of the indefatigable charms of zydeco, and her career perfectly reflects some of the most durable assets of the genre. Zydeco is as deeply rooted in tradition as any folk music of North America, but its enduring appeal owes much to an adaptability and flexibility that has allowed it to flourish for centuries. Zydeco traces its origins to creole music crafted by French-speaking slaves and Freemen in the Acadian country of Southwest Louisiana and far-Southeast Texas. Yet while it displays sincere respect to its antecedents, zydeco is a constantly evolving creature, casually wearing new shades and strains like vivid aural garments. Within Queen Ida’s work there are echoes of rhythm and blues, soul, Cajun, urban contemporary, rock ‘n’ roll, and festive Caribbean glee; yet she utilizes her singular skills on the accordion as a traditional base, mastering the Old World waltzes and two-steps that comprise the rhythmic fundamentals. The result is a joyous synthesis of disparate flavors into a coherent and cohesive whole.
In many ways, Queen Ida’s story mirrors that of zydeco: it’s a story of both reinvention and roots. She was born Ida Lewis Guillory, in 1929, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, into an extended family of rice farmers, many of whom were musically inclined. As a child, Ida was proficient on piano and accordion, and when her family migrated to California in the 1940s, seeking work in the Bay Area shipyards, she gravitated towards a life of domesticity. She married, raised a family, and earned her living driving a school bus. However, she remained facile as a musician, and retained all of her enthusiasm for the sounds of the swamps of home. Then, when her children were grown and her time was her own, she made a wonderfully inspired move, and took to the stage, crowning herself as royalty of a genre that had not yet achieved mainstream recognition. Her gender was also an item of note. Queen Ida may not have been the first female accordionist, but she was the first to achieve prominence, in a role that had been the exclusive domain of men.
Ida began to gain national prominence with performances at festivals in the early and mid 1970s. Cajun, creole and zydeco music had surreptitiously seeped into popular music via performers including Hank Williams, but it was still novel enough to fascinate and exhilarate previously unaware audiences. Appearances with her Bon Temps Zedeco Band ignited crowds at the San Francisco Bloes Festival in 1975 and 1977, and the Monterrey Jazz Festival in 1976; Ida and the group were soon signed to the stellar World Music label, GNP Crescendo. The recording industry was delighted with the impossibly buoyant vibe, and rewarded Queen Ida with hard-earned and well-deserved accolades. Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band in New Orleans (GNP Crescendo, 1979) was nominated for a Grammy award in 1980, in the category of Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording. Ida didn’t take home the statue, but her preeminence in the genre was firmly established; she won a Grammy two years later, with Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band on Tour (GNP Crescendo, 1981).
These early successes were only the beginning. As Queen Ida grew as an artist, her recordings blossomed into wonderful, trans-genre affairs, gaining her international attention and tour opportunities that ranged from Europe to Africa to Asia. Between 1980 and 1991, the highly regarded Blues Music Awards nominated her five times for Traditional Blues Female Artist; her discography expanded throughout the 1990s. Now in her 80s, Queen Ida’s recording and touring schedules have slowed, but her body of work — including In San Francisco (GNP Crescendo, 1983), Caught In the Act (GNP Crescendo, 1985), Zydeco a la Mode (GNP Crescendo, 1990), Mardi Gras (GNP Crescendo, 1994), On a Saturday Night (GNP Crescendo, 1995), and Back on the Bayou (GNP Crescendo, 1995) — remains an essential cornerstone of zydeco as it dances unimpeded into the 21st century.
