Cajun to Creole to Back Again

Some 13 years ago, anyone watching one Festivals Acadiens tent might have noticed a peculiar thing happening. Crowd after crowd shuffled in and out, over and over again, seemingly in four-song intervals. Causing the influx, and subsequent outflux, were a 7-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy playing the only four songs they knew for an hour and a half ... at their first-ever gig.

"The tent would fill up, they'd listen to them (the songs), we'd start over again, the tent would empty out and it would fill up again, and we just did that for about an hour and a half," laughs Mo*se Viator of the duo performance by him and his sister, Alida. "The worst part was they were four songs, but we only knew three of them really well. The fourth one was sort of filler!" The set wasn't originally meant to violate child labor laws, but it turned out that way after a member of the next band injured his leg.

Since that day all those Septembers ago, their repertoire has not only grown but also jumped musical styles and languages, and the fiddle-and-guitar duo became Eh, La-Bas! In 1999, after recording its first CD, a buffet of all Louisiana French music, Eh, La-Bas! decided to bulk up and grow into an eight-piece band, which includes their father on percussion. A nod to both the language and to one of their influences, the band's name is a phrase that translates into the modern day New Orleans greeting, "Where y'at?" Eh, La-Bas!, aside from meaning, "Hey, over there!" is also the title of one of the most famous Creole jazz songs, once performed by Kid Ory, one of the duo's musical idols.

That's right, although they began their musical career playing Cajun tunes, they swapped out Cajun French for New Orleans Creole. Now, they hold the distinction of being one of the few bands singing in New Orleans Creole. The change wasn't made after an epiphany at a Crescent City dancehall, but while helping fill pages of a dictionary.



Vince Vance had come a long way from The Valiants. In 1975, when the crowds got cold for the rock 'n' roll hits of the '50s and '60s, Vance (real name Jim "Etienne" Viator) realized a career change was in order. He did his time in graduate and law school and now teaches at Loyola University. Years later, a professor at nearby Tulane, Tom Klinger, began compiling a Creole French dictionary. One of his field researchers happened to be Viator, who grew up playing accordion and whose father played trumpet for various Creole jazz bands. Often his kids, Mo*se and Alida, would accompany him on his jaunts, picking up the language and piquing their interest as they went.

"We had spoken Cajun French pretty well, and when we started playing the music, Creole jazz, we said we can't really sing Cajun French to this, that's not the language that belongs with this," says Alida. who almost always punctuates her sentences with a bout of giddy laughter.

Their grasp of Cajun French made the undertaking easier, as did a newfound drive. "We figured it's kind of like a mission, because we said, 'Well, there are people who are working to preserve Cajun, but there is no one really working to preserve Creole, so we went on a little Blues Brothers mission from God,'" says Alida.

"We knew there were songs in Louisiana Creole," says Mo*se, who shares vocal duties with his sister. "Several Creole jazz songs were sung in Creole, not nearly as many as you would think, but (Dad) started working on the Creole dictionary, and that got us interested in it. We decided to try to find some of the older songs and preserve them and even write some of our own in the Creole language."

The language is a third for the duo, after English and Cajun French, and after some more classwork you can add French to that list. Along with Creole verses, they can carry on conversations with elders. "It's getting there," Mo*se humbly reports.

But long before they discovered the language and art form in their bloodline, New Orleans Creole jazz was performed profusely in Eunice, near where they were home-schooled, in Tasso.

"Back in the '40s and '30s, New Orleans jazz was actually very popular around the Eunice area," says Mo*se. "Louis Armstrong, lots of people, would come out that way and play gigs out there, things that a lot of people don't remember, but way back when even in Cajun country, New Orleans jazz was very popular, New Orleans Creole jazz especially. We had that connection."



Before Eh, La-Bas! was an eight-piece band, trying to preserve a language or a duo drawing in and turning out Festivals Acadiens goers, they were just two kids immersed in the music of their parents. Like many youngsters from this area, they got their start early and at home. Home schooled, they were exposed to things Alida says no other tyke should or would ever be, like radio shows from the 1940s.

Like even more youngsters, they started playing jam sessions with some of the greats, including Bois Sec Ardoin. As they grew in pant size and musicianship, they also hungered to try their hand at other sounds. In the Viator house, there was always music - all types of music - playing. When Mo*se rambles off a few of their influences and components of their style, it sounds like a travel agent listing the itinerary for an extended Caribbean cruise, embarking and returning at the port of New Orleans.

"We listened to everything and tried to find musical connections between everything," says Mo*se. At some early age, he says he picked up a guitar and Alida started taking lessons for the fiddle with one string she had been sawing on for years, "and we took over those instruments."

Put a sibling team together and charge them with tying a shoe, and the only results might possibly be a black eye, pulled hair and a few allegations of who exactly started it. For Eh, La-Bas!, time, and lots of it, spent together actually helped them overcome the complications and fat lips often packaged with sibling-staffed tasks.

"When you are stuck in a house with somebody, you kind of have to get along," Alida says. "It forces you to get along better, I think. You know, when you are gone at school and you don't have to see somebody as much you don't have to try as hard to get along."

Mo*se agrees, stating their days as a twosome helped them learn "real early on, how to get along and play musically with each other. We got to where we knew where we were going to make mistakes in songs, and we'd actually correct them beforehand. I'd know what each of us would be doing ahead of time, and we'd just work around each other."

For the pair, this Friday's Downtown Alive! concert will be the second time the full band has played Lafayette. Once before, the Viators sat in with Filé and in 2001 Eh, La-Bas! played Festival International de Louisiane. It's not exactly home, but it is still somewhat of a homecoming.

"Finally, my numerous cousins will get to see me. I've got to say it's hard to get anybody to drive out to New Orleans. You say New Orleans and it's like it's on the side of the country," laughs Alida.