Simien’s Zydeco Beat Sure to Infect Some Feet at Street Scene

Terrance Simien is the James Brown of zydeco, the festive dance music of the Louisiana bayou country from which he hails.

Like the “hardest-working man in show business,” Simien is not just a talented musician, he’s a charismatic performer known for his dynamic, hyperkinetic stage show.

While his band, the Mallet Playboys, provides the trademark zydeco beat--an electric blend of traditional Cajun two-steps and waltzes and contemporary rock, blues, funk and even country dance rhythms--Simien fairly radiates heat.

Squeezing his accordion and singing in his sweet doo-wop tenor, Simien is every bit the whirling dervish Brown used to be back in the early 1960s. He tosses and turns; he shakes, rattles and rolls; he twists and shouts.

“I can’t help myself,” said the 24-year-old Simien, who, with his band, will appear tonight at Michelob Street Scene ’89 in the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. “It’s just a natural reaction to the music.”

It’s also a sure-fire way to attract attention.

In mid-1985, Paul Simon caught one of Simien and the Playboys’ local club shows when he visited Louisiana to research zydeco for his “Graceland” album. He ended up financing the group’s first recording session and singing backup on the resultant single, “You Used to Call Me.”

A few months later, Simien and the Playboys made their first New York concert appearance at the Lone Star Cafe. Keith Richards and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones happened to drop by; they ended up joining the group on stage for an impromptu jam session.

In the fall of 1985, the band auditioned for a part in the movie “The Big Easy,” starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin. They not only got the part, they ended up with two songs on the film’s sound-track album.

“Things went real quickly after that,” Simien recalled. “Before, we were known only around Louisiana, since we didn’t have an album out. But now we finally had something to use as a promotion for the band, something that gave people outside of Louisiana a chance to hear our music, something that made them want to come out and see us.

“So we began traveling all over the country, all over the world, taking our music to the people.”

Indeed. Since the release of “The Big Easy” and its accompanying sound-track LP in August, 1987, Terrance Simien and the Mallet Playboys have been on a roll.

They went to Europe for a series of dates with Fats Domino, then toured the United States, alternately headlining in clubs and opening big-arena shows for Los Lobos. In January, 1988, they embarked on a two-month tour of North Africa sponsored by the U.S. government, playing in Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Upon returning to the states, the band took a brief break before hitting the road again for a three-month summer tour. Bookings ranged from an outdoor festival along the Mississippi River to the prestigious Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

After spending much of this year in the studio, recording their debut album for Enigma Records, which is scheduled for release next spring, Simien and the Playboys recently resumed their U.S. travels.

Sold-out shows, once the exception, are fast becoming the rule.

“People are really starting to become open-minded about music,” Simien said. “All over the country, people who used to listen only to rock ‘n’ roll or soul are listening to all different kinds of things--reggae, African, world beat, zydeco.”

Simien was born and raised in the small Louisiana bayou town of Mallet, about 70 miles southwest of Baton Rouge. He played trumpet in his high school band but soon switched to accordion, zydeco’s central instrument.

“I grew up listening to zydeco in church halls, at benefit dance concerts and at festivals,” Simien said. “It was the music I loved best, and it was the music I really wanted to play.”

By the time he graduated from high school, Simien said, he had formed his first zydeco band and was regularly playing school parties and dances. In early 1984, he decided to turn professional; he put together a new band and began actively seeking nightclub bookings.

The group was an immediate nightclub hit, and, in September, 1984, made its first out-of-town appearance, at the New Orleans World’s Fair.

Through word of mouth, Simien said, the group’s reputation spread, and, in April, 1985, it went on its inaugural tour of the American Northeast.

Everything that’s happened since, he added, he attributes to this same word-of-mouth reputation--all the close encounters with stars such as Simon and Richards and Wood, the movie role in “The Big Easy” and the subsequent touring.

“Word of mouth, yes,” Simien said. “But also a lot of hard work.”