NEW ORLEANS The mid-afternoon sun was beating down, wisps of steam rose from the soggy ground and Buckwheat Zydeco danced his way to the edge of the stage, accordion wailing, moving his shoulders with the music.
Forget the heat _ this guy was cool. He'd shed the jacket to his black suit, but still wore the vest.
His high-collared white shirt was still crisp, his ivory boots matched his accordion.
"He is so sexy," said Michelle Davis, 31, of Detroit. "There is just something about a guy and a squeezebox.
"
Yes there is.
Forget Lawrence Welk and that little cousin who used to annoy family gatherings with "Lady of Spain."
The accordions cranking out tunes on the stages of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival are popular, prolific and downright sexy.
They were not only a constant on the Fais Do Do stage where Cajun and zydeco music plays all day, they were showing up this year on the big stages and even in some of the big bands.
Calexico, an alternative country band based in Tucson, Ariz., used an accordion in several numbers it played.
And The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars could not crank out their funky Jewish music without one.
"I'm surprised how much the accordion has caught on," said Brian Jack, who had eight of them with him for his gig with the Zydeco Gamblers. "I've even seen them with country-and-western bands.
"
In Cajun and zydeco, the Cajun accordion is the main ingredient, said Bruce Daigrepont, who has been playing Jazz Fest for 27 years, accordion for 30.
"In our music it starts and finishes the song," Daigrepont said. "In rock and pop people are adding it for background and texture.
"
The traditional Cajun accordion is more like a harmonica than the big piano accordion that Welk played: pulling its ends apart and pushing them together both make music.
And they can be very finicky instruments.
"Most instruments get better as they get older," Daigrepont said.
"Not the Cajun accordion. They don't last."
Finding the right one can be difficult.
That's why most musicians find an accordion maker they like and establish a relationship.
"You have to find a sound you like, and if you work with someone building it that is easier," Jack said.
With the small accordions now ranging in price from $2,200 to $5,000, selection is slow and careful.
Buckwheat Zydeco, also known as Stanley Dural, plays a big, piano accordion that he had made in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1982 for $10,000.
Originally an organist, Dural never expected to find himself wowing the fans on accordion.
"It was not a cool instrument," he said.
"My father played an accordion all the time and I hated it. I was into rhythm and blues."
That changed when Dural took a job playing backup for Clifton Chenier, the late king of zydeco.
It wasn't easy, though.
"Man, the keyboard was OK, but those 120 buttons on the other side really gave me the blues," he said.
Not anymore.
His brand of Creole zydeco had them rocking out on Saturday.
"It's a lot of fun," he said. "But that thing weighs 45 pounds.
When I'm dealing with that instrument, believe me, I'm not thinking about looking sexy."
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2007 SmartMoney. SmartMoney is a joint publishing venture of Dow Jones Company, Inc.
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