Doors at 7:30 pm; Cajun/Zydeco Dance Lesson at 8 pm; Show at 8:30 pm
Tickets are minimum $12 - Donations will go towards helping victims of Hurricane Harvey
Sauce Piquante, along with Special Guest Andrew Carriere (and a few other friends) are joining forces tonight to raise money for hurricane victims in Texas. Proceeds from this show will be donated to United Way of Beaumont and Jefferson County, a hard-hit area 80 miles east of Houston. This region in southeast Texas shares the rich musical traditions of neighboring Louisiana. It is also close to the hearts of many in our local Cajun-Zydeco community—including a couple of the band members, who will be thinking of two Texas friends tonight: Jude Moreau, a Cajun musician and instrument maker (he madeBlair’s red accordion) and Ed Poullard, a renowned Creole fiddler, who has been Steve’s biggest musical influence.
Sauce Piquante has been playing for Bay Area dancers since 1999, when accordionist Blair Kilpatrick started the band. The group’s high-energy dance tunes and French vocals are rooted in two musical traditions: Cajun and old-time Creole, or, as some call it, early zydeco. Sauce Piquante captures the authentic sound of southern Louisiana’s dance halls, house parties, and church dances while appealing to a contemporary audience. Along with Kilpatrick on accordion and vocals, the band includes fiddler Steve Tabak, guitarist-singer Jim Ruth, bassist-singer Kathy “KP” Price, and David Hymowitz on drums.
Sauce Piquante was inspired by the late Danny Poullard, the Bay Area accordionist who suggested the group’s name. During more than two decades of Louisiana travels and music camp attendance, band members have been influenced by many other gifted musicians. They have learned from Creole masters (Bois Sec Ardoin, Delton Broussard, Canray Fontenot, Edward Poullard) and legendary Cajun accordionists (Steve Riley, Jesse Lége, Eddie LeJeune, Sheryl Cormier). The band’s debut recording “Sauce Piquante Live” got a thumbs-up in a Dirty Linen magazine review. Kilpatrick is also the author of “Accordion Dreams” (University Press of Mississippi, 2009), which documents her musical journey. She and her husband Tabak were among the musicians profiled in “Zydeco Nation,” a recent public radio documentary about the Louisiana Creole migration to Northern California.
A native of Southern Louisiana, accordionist and singer Andrew Carriere brings a long family tradition into his playing. His father was the legendary Creole fiddler “Bebe” Carriere, his uncle was accordionist Eraste Carriere, and cousins Chubby, Calvin, and Roy Carrier are popular in the zydeco arena. Carriere moved to the Bay Area in the ’60s, learned accordion from the late Danny Poullard, and is featured vocalist on the California Cajun Orchestra’s “Not Lonesome Anymore” CD. He performs regularly with the Creole Belles and CZ & the Bon Vivants, and more occasionally in the Cajun Classics.
