August 18, 2025 – Hoke's Jukebox

Who but Terrance Simien can lead a conga line grinning through the rain?

Terrance Simien

Sunday at Music Haven, the zydeco singer and accordionist did what he always does, as he’s done in many shows here. He gave great fun by visibly having so much of it himself.

Zydeco may have come from one small point on the globe; bayou country west of New Orleans. Simien spins it all over the world and across musical styles through the power of joy among virtuosos.

Acting on his simple mission statement – “help you feel it right” – in ambitiously complex ways, he expanded the common definition of zydeco from Creole accordion dance music to include soul, rock, pop and folk. Behind him, an all-aces band played with jazz band precision.

They started down home, inviting folks onto the dance floor with zippy two-steps. Then they reached into mainstream folk-rock in the exuberant “500 Miles” before flying back to the bayou with “Creole Mardi Gras Run.” Alternating zydeco dance numbers with zydeco-fied everything else was their path through 90 dynamic minutes onstage.

Tie together all the Mardi Gras beads Simien tossed into the crowd and they’d likely reach Proctors, the rain site downtown. Proctors proved unnecessary as staying in the park despite the dodgy, rapidly changing forecast proved the right choice. As evening turned windy and wet at times, few left and those who stayed kept dancing, or chair-dancing.

Since reggae and zydeco are distant cousins across the Caribbean, “500 Miles” worked well as a cross-styles hybrid. Then when Simien lit into Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry,” DJ Sir Walford was the first among many springing up in delight. Here and elsewhere, Simien proved a great soul singer, using nuance to delineate feeling. A singer armed with an accordion, Simien and keyboardist Danny Williams played like one mind with four hands, riffs wrapping riffs.

Terrance Simien, left; and Danny Williams, keyboards

Noting he’d collaborated with Randy Newman on the first zydeco song among Disney works, soundtrack of the “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” ride, they played “Gonna Take You There” with non-cartoon-y commitment. From this zydeco tune, they sprang back into the mainstream with The Band’s “I Shall Be Released,” Simien going all Sam Cooke on the chorus. I don’t know if the next uptempo dance tune was “Zydeco Boogaloo,” but it was surely A zydeco boogaloo.

Addressing “Love the One You’re With” to “my hippies” who filled the dance floor among everybody else, Simien injected another rock chestnut right inside, the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” before wrapping “Love” around it as coda. In between, the band copped grooves from Sly and Stevie, making it all fit.

Stan Chambers, above; Ian Molinaro-Thompson, below

Here’s let’s give the band some, starting with its versatile beat masters. Bassist Stan Chambers played busy and relentless, right on the pulse set by drummer Ian Molinaro-Thompson. Trumpeter Emanuel Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Noah Boshra blended well as a section or soloed hot or subtle. Putting aside their brass when Simien cued them into the rhythm section, Mitchell smacked a tambourine and Boshra scratched a frottoir (metal rub-board) with bent spoons.

Emanuel Mitchell, above; Noah Boshra, below

Mardi Gras chants gave this expanded rhythm section plenty to do behind Simien calling “Mighty Cooti Fiyo,” “Indian Red” and more before settling into “Iko Iko” at full force. Leading Mitchell and Boshra strutting down through the crowd, Simien lit into – what else? – “When the Saints Go Marching In” on returning to the stage. Afterward, urging peace and love, they left. As encore, they played and sang The Band’s classic “The Weight” in soulful authenticity. Here Simien raised his hand in a slow wave that also raised the crowd’s voices with him.

Keith Pray’s Mohawk Brass Band – From left: Pray, alto saxophone; Ben O’Shea, trombone; Chad Ploss (behind O’Shea), drums; Steve Lambert, trumpet; and Adam Streeter (behind Lambert), Sousaphone

The show began with an earlier parade, from near the Ben & Jerry’s scoop stand and all around the crowd to the stage, by saxophonist Keith Pray’s Mohawk Brass Band. Trumpeter Steve Lambert, trombonist Ben O’Shea, Sousaphonist Adam Streeter and Pray himself, playing alto, all also play in Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble (only drummer Chad Ploss doesn’t), so they know how to lock a groove and solo all over it.

From left: Ben O’Shea, Adam Streeter, Chad Ploss, Steve Lambert, Keith Pray

Marching around or standing still onstage, they honored New Orleans brass band traditions in song choices, arrangements with round-robin solos or both. They paid tribute to the Rebirth and Hot 8 brass bands, turned “I’ll Fly Away” into a Sousaphone showcase and easily navigated the reggae/Second Line changes of the Hot 8’s “Rastafunk.”

Photo Gallery