Bébé Carrière

Joseph "Bébé" Carrière (1908–May 6, 2001) was an American fiddler who was an influential performer and teacher in the genres of Creole la-la music and Cajun music.

Biography Carrière was born in 1908 in Lawtell, Louisiana. He had four brothers and one sister. His father, Ernest Carrière, played accordion, as did his older brother Eraste.

Carrière worked as a manual laborer, for example, building Army facilities at Fort Johnson (known then as Fort Polk) near Leesville, Louisiana, building industrial plants near Lake Charles, and farming corn, cotton, and yams. He particularly enjoyed developing new songs by listening to blues records. However, Carrière mocked the more modern Creole genre, zydeco, jesting in one interview, "They talk about the musicians, and say so-and-so is going to play a number about the zydeco, and I say, they ought to make some about the peas. Yeah, I'm going to get them to try to dance the peas. How about sweet potatoes? Yeah, if I'd have stayed playing, maybe I could have made one about that....". As young people began going to clubs instead of house parties, the band started playing Saturday nights at Slim's Y-Ki-Ki, a popular zydeco club. Both brothers retired from the band in 1966, but the band continued on with Eraste's son Calvin Carrière on fiddle, and Delton Broussard on accordion.

Bébé and Eraste Carrière recorded as "Les Freres Carrières" with folklorist Nick Spitzer in 1976, released as La La: Louisiana Black French Music the following year. One reviewer has commented, "it's easy to ascertain zydeco's early roots: Afro-Caribbean with its intricate polyrhythms and Eastern European with a mazurka, and 'Robe À Parasol' with very Creole lyrics." The commercial availability of these recordings exposed new audiences to the Carrières' music and to la la generally.

Carrière married twice. His second wife was named Emily. He had five sons and three daughters.

Legacy Bébé Carrière is revered as one of the great Creole, la-la fiddlers, with a musical influence mentioned alongside contemporaries Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee and Creole accordionist Amédé Ardoin.

Carrière's composition "Blue Runner" has become a popular work in the Creole repertoire.

Discography