Blues Concert

Theo and the Zydeco Patrol

On June 27, 2009 I went to the Long Beach Bayou and Mardi Gras festival. The band I watched was called Theo and the Zydeco Patrol, which consists of Theo Bellow who plays guitar and sings, and four other members. The instruments they played reminded me of what we learned about blues but they also had a more southern zydeco twist. The members of the band took turns playing solos, which reminded me of learning about Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues. The spirit of the festival reminded me about what we learned about jazz and blues and the American spirit. It also resembled improvisation a lot. Theo and the Zydeco Patrol really embodied blues and improvisation, which is what we just learned about.

The instruments that Theo and the Zydeco Patrol used represented blues. There were two guitar players and two players playing different types of drums and an accordian player. The guitar and the way that Theo sang really represented blues and reminded me of hearing Robert Jackson in our e-book. However, the accordian player was an interesting sound and really represented southern zydeco and gave it more of a funky sound. The music was more blues than jazz because there wasn’t a brass instrument. However, at one point they did use a trumpet to play As The Saints Go Marching In and switched it in instead of a guitar.

The form of the songs was like Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues. Each player would do a solo but they all sounded similar and other players would play their instruments as background throughout. Some of the songs were pretty long because of all the solos and it made for interesting music to listen to. Most of the songs were faster than one we had listened to as well.

The mood and atmosphere at the festival was very fun. Everyone was dancing and having a good time and it reminded me of what we read about American spirit and jazz. Jazz music brought about a mixture of optimism and realism and this music definitely did that. The article we read talked about how jazz music was made to dance to and it was definitely hard not to dance when the music made you feel good about yourself and had a happy beat. Since it was a festival there was southern food and drinks and really captured the feeling of New Orleans.

I also liked how Theo and the Zydeco Patrol used a lot of improvisation, which was what our last unit was all about. You could see the band members playing off each other and during each solo they had a chance to use improvisation and it made the experience a lot of fun. The improvisation had a lot to do with blues and that was definitely a key point the band was trying to make.

When going to see Theo and the Zydeco Patrol I really didn’t know what to expect. It was a great way to hear blues music with a fusion of zydeco that was interesting and because we were at a music festival the atmosphere was fun and there was a lot of dancing. The instruments used were similar to blues but also different because of the zydeco twist in the music. It also reminded me of Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues because of how each instrument took turns playing solos. It reminded me of jazz as well because it used optimism and a happy beat to create a great and fun atmosphere. The improvisation that the band used really related to what we had been learning in class too.