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THE SAVOY-DOUCET CAJUN BAND --- Carrying on Traditional Cajun Music The Savoy Doucet Cajun Band play honed down, hard core Cajun music laced with an earthy sensuality. Though the old tunes have been revived and returned to a new life intensity in their hands, the Savoy Doucet Cajun band doesn't play from a studied angle. The three musicians in the band, Marc and Ann Savoy and Michael Doucet, each hold their own as strong individual group members, making up a tight intense sound. Savoy-Doucet has been performing and recording together since 1977, recording five CDs on the Arhoolie label. They have traveled all over the world, appearing in many prestigious venues, such as the Newport Folk Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Concert Series, even the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, England, to name a few. The nation has rewarded the trio for their authenticity and expertise by taking them on numerous state department tours, featuring them in national festivals, awarding Marc Savoy the highest honor in the country for traditional artists, the honorable National Heritage Fellowship Award. Michael Doucet was awarded a Grammy award and Ann was awarded the Botkin Book Award for her definitive book on the history of Cajun music, and she recently appeared as a musician in the film "Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood." Although the Savoy Doucet Cajun Band insists upon maintaining a more acoustic approach to Cajun music the band can hold its own amongst Cajun music lovers everywhere. In fact, the band loves seeing how much power and sound they can get out of just three instruments. Each members of the band can play numerous instruments and sometimes trade instruments during stage performances. Sometimes the group demonstrates the way Cajun music has evolved by demonstrating the early double fiddle - triangle sound or the solo accordion - fiddle sound. Early French ballads are added to the program to show other historic elements prevalent in early southwest Louisiana. Between the songs the Cajun French poetry of the songs is often briefly translated by Ann so that the feeling can be better understood. Their repertoire is chosen carefully, popular dancehall tunes interspersed with soulful ballads, fiddle or vocal duets, or blues. The songs show the spectrum of Cajun life from sorrow and lost love to nonsense and the joy of dance. The Savoy Doucet Cajun Band brings the raw energy of the dancehalls of southwest Louisiana to the stage, peppered with humorous and informative anecdotes about life on the Louisiana prairies. |
