Louisiana legend Buckwheat Zydeco has died at age 68 after a battle with lung cancer.
Stanley Dural Jr aka Buckwheat Zydeco was born and died in his hometown Lafayette, Louisiana, the heart of New Orleans music.
Dural became known as Buckwheat as a teenager because of his braided hair. As a teen in the 50s he was backing Joe Tex and Clarence ‘Frogmouth’ Brown on the organ.
In 1971 he formed Buckwheat Zydeco & the Hitchhikers and had his first success with the song ‘It’s Hard To Get’.
Buckwheat Zydeco scored his first Grammy nomination for ‘Turning Point’ in 1983 and popularised Zydeco. In 1987 Dural signed with Island Records becoming the first Zydeco artist to be signed to a major label. In 1996 Bill Clinton invited him to play at his inauguration.
Stanley Dural (Buckwheat Zydeco) died at the Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette.
Neil Portnow, CEO of the Grammy Foundation has released the following statement:
Buckwheat Zydeco embodied a genre and represented a community with his signature playing style that brought distinctly creole zydeco music to fans across the globe. Buckwheat played both for and with legends, performing at both Clinton inaugurations, touring with Eric Clapton, and collaborating with a seemingly endless list of artists over his 40-plus year career. He won an Emmy for his work in TV and a GRAMMY® in the genre, he helped define. The world lost a music heavyweight today. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.
