US musician Buckwheat Zydeco dead at 68

The musician's longtime manager, Ted Fox, announced on social media Saturday that Dural had succumbed to lung cancer at 1:32 a.m. (0632 UTC) in Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, Louisiana.

"This is one of the world's true genius musicians. A completely natural musician who could just fit in in any scenario," Fox told The Associated Press news agency. "He had this incredible charisma both onstage and personally," Fox continued. "To the end of his days with all the stuff that he'd done, all the awards, he was still the same Stanley Dural Jr. who was picking cotton when he was 5 years old."

One of 13 children, Dural earned his nickname because of his signature braided hair when he was younger that resembled the character Buckwheat from "The Little Rascals" television show. His father played the accordion, but the younger Dural preferred listening to and playing rhythm and blues and learned to play the organ. In the late 1950s, still a teenager, Dural was backing up musicians and eventually formed his own band. In 1976 he joined legendary zydeco artist Clifton Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana Band as an organist, launching an important musical turn in his career.

"I had so much fun playing that first night with Clifton. We played for four hours and I wasn't ready to quit," he said in comments quoted in his obituary.

Zydeco music was once largely unknown outside of Louisiana, where people would often drive for miles to small dancehalls where zydeco bands featured an accordion and a washboard. But Dural helped bring the genre to a larger audience after signing a five-album deal with Island Records in 1987.

He went on to tour and perform with guitarists Eric Clapton and Ry Cooder, songwriter Paul Simon and country music greats Dwight Yoakam and Willie Nelson. He performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Atlanta and at both of President Bill Clinton's inauguration ceremonies.

"It's a tough one for us and the entire Zydeco community and the greater music community," family friend Dustin Cravins told the "New Orleans Times-Picayune" newspaper on Saturday. "Words like legend and icon are tossed around so much these days that it almost sounds watered-down, but he was the true definition of it."

"He brought zydeco to unprecedented new audiences," said Ben Sandmel, a music historian who wrote a book titled "Zydeco!"

Embarking on world tours, Dural became an ambassador for the zydeco genre.

"It's like sharing the culture," Dural said in a 2009 interview with National Public Radio when his album "Lay Your Burden Down" was released. "I love going to other countries because this is my culture, this is how I live."

Zydeco music has its roots in southwest Louisiana's French Creole speakers. The language stems from a contact language spoken by African-American slaves, Native Americans and French-speaking plantation owners in the 18th and 19th centuries.

His daughter, Tomorrow Dural, has created a fundraising campaign to help with expenses. Dural is survived by his wife, Bernite Dural, and his five children.

jar/jlw (AP, AFP)