Spicing Up Louisiana Recipe : Festival: The Cajun and zydeco event June 3-4 in Long Beach will add some new sounds and faces to the mix.

The Southern California Cajun & Zydeco Festival will expand beyond those two styles when blues-R&B; pianist-singer Marcia Ball tops a seven-act bill June 3 and 4 in Long Beach, festival producer Franklin Zawacki announced Tuesday.

Also playing the ninth annual festival will be Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi-Rollers; Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys; Geno Delafose & the French Rockin’ Boogie; Sheryl Cormier & the Cajun Sounds; Danny Poullard & the California Cajun Orchestra, and the Brand-New Old-Time Cajun Band.

Although Ball lives in Austin, Tex., the Louisiana native draws from Louisiana roots-music traditions and follows in the footsteps of such seminal New Orleans pianists as Professor Longhair and James Booker. A fixture at the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, she is the first performer from outside the fields of Cajun and zydeco music to play the Southern California festival.

“I think we’ve now located most of the pure Cajun-zydeco fanatics in the state through nine years of hard work,” Zawacki said by phone from his headquarters in San Francisco. “Now I feel it is important to welcome aboard some new enthusiasts and get people listening to an even wider spectrum of Louisiana music.

“I don’t like to see people remain restricted in what they listen to,” he added. “I feel a responsibility as a producer to widen their interests, to help people meet other kinds of music.”

Beau Jocque, a relative newcomer to the Louisiana zydeco scene, will make his first appearance at the event. Geno Delafose has appeared on the stage in Long Beach as a member of his father’s band, John Delafose & the Eunice Playboys. After his father’s death last year, Geno assumed leadership of the group and changed its name to the French Rockin’ Boogie.

*

Accordionist-fiddler Riley and his Mamou Playboys top the list of returnees.

Poullard and his group, based in the Bay Area, and the Brand-New Old-Time Cajun Band, based in the Southland, represent the growing California wing of Cajun-zydeco music, Zawacki said. “The California Cajun scene has really gained its own legitimacy. Danny’s group always plays our festival in Northern California, and people have been asking us, ‘When are you going to bring him down here?’ ”

All performers will appear both days except for the Brand-New Old-Time Cajun Band, which plays June 3, and Cormier’s group, which performs June 4.

As in the past five years, the festival will take place at Rainbow Lagoon, adjacent to the Long Beach Convention Center. Comprehensive Child Care of Long Beach, a nonprofit child development agency, will again help organize the event, coordinating activities for children, arranging meals for festival volunteers and receiving a portion of the proceeds.

Ticket prices are up slightly from last year: $15 general per day in advance (contrasted with $14.50 in 1994), with two-day passes available in advance for $29 (up from $27). At the gate, tickets will be $20 per day general admission, $15 for senior citizens and students, $5 for children 10-16 and free for children under 10. Information: (310) 427-3713.