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Le Boogie, French Style
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Express, Le Boogie, French Style >>
A Geno Defafose performance is party in any language
When you're in the mood and looking to party, you want three things.
You want there to be boogie, you want it to be rockin' and, yes, you may not even know it consciously, but you want it to be French.
Well, when Geno Delafose and his band, French Rockin' Boogie, take to the Birchmere's band stand Thursday, you'll get all that plus some very tasty accordion playing.
Although only in his early 30s, Delafose has been in the zydeco business for a quarter of a century. His father, the late accordionist John Delafose, got him started playing the rubboard with the Eunice Playboys at age 7.
A stint on drums followed, but when his father's health failed, Geno took up the squeezebox.
Today he's a master not only of the single-row diatonic button accordion that is the mainstay of Creole tradition, but also of the triple-row button and piano accordions he brings out for more contemporary numbers.
In addition to the repertoire handed down from his father and such bayou greats as the Balfa Brothers and Iry LeJeune, Delafose performs his own mate rial and songs from such pop tunesmiths as Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.
Delafose has even been known to lay down a soul groove on the Hammond B-3 organ. It's a little tough to dance while behind a key board, though, and French Rockin' Boogie is foremost a dance band.
Whether it's two-stepping or waltzing you're after, Delafose makes sure the beat goes on.
GLENN DIXON
Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vemon Ave., Alexandria; 77m., Jan. 6, doors open at 6 p.m., show at 7:30 p.m.; $19.50; 703-549-7500.
01/06/05
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