A Conversation with NEA Heritage Fellow Queen Ida
From: National Endowment for the Arts
Series: Art Works Podcast
Length: 28:57
Queen Ida and her Bon Temps Zydeco Band have toured nationally and internationally, in addition to appearing on programs such asA Prairie Home Companion and Austin City Limits. She also has published a popular cookbook, Cookin' with Queen Ida. There have been several kings of zydeco over the years, but there has been only one Queen Ida!
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Piece Description
Queen Ida and her Bon Temps Zydeco Band have toured nationally and internationally, in addition to appearing on programs such asA Prairie Home Companion and Austin City Limits. She also has published a popular cookbook, Cookin' with Queen Ida. There have been several kings of zydeco over the years, but there has been only one Queen Ida!
Transcript
Queen Ida Guillory
Interview by Josephine Reed for the NEA
NEA: I want to begin by asking you, "How did you become 'Queen' Ida?"
Queen Ida: I became Queen Ida at a function that was given at one of the parochial schools back in 1975. It was a Mardi Gras celebration –-- and there's always a king and a queen of Mardi Gras. And so during the day youngsters were crowned king and queen, and in the evening, they crowned me Queen Ida, Queen of the Zydeco Music. That's how it all got started.
NEA: And it stuck.
Queen Ida: And it stuck. I wanted to change the name down the line. I, at that time, only probably had six or seven songs in my repertoire. And my brother had his own band. He had been playing around the Bay area for years; a small rock and roll band. And he asked me to come and sit in with them. And I said no. But then after I was dubbed Queen Ida by a reporter, Peter Levine, they ke...
Read the full transcript
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take Five | Dave Brubeck Quartet (composed by Paul Desmond) | Take Five . | Derry Music Company | 00:00 |
Additional Credits
Interviews conducted and edited by Jo Reed.
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