Music icon, Wardell ‘Creole Beethoven’ Quezergue dies

12th September 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

“Love the music first and something good will come out of it,” New Orleans renowned and much-loved bandleader, arranger and composer Wardell Quezergue once advised. He lived by those words as can be experienced through the special music he created. Quezergue, a man of enormous talent and heart who gained the title of the “Creole Beethoven,” died on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at the age of 81.

“He could do everything,” says pianist/composer Allen Toussaint who worked with Quezergue extensively. “Most importantly however, was that whatever he did was always so right for the moment. He could go from 100-string symphonic orchestra down to a combo and it all would sound wonderful.”

Tunes that benefited from Quezergue’s touch read like an all-time, New Orleans greatest hits list. They include classics such as Professor Longhair’s “Big Chief,” Robert Parker’s “Barefootin’,” King Floyd’s “Groove Me” and Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff.” He provided the arrangements for Dr. John’s triumphant, Grammy-winning 1992 album, Goin’ Back to New Orleans.

Along with drummer Smokey Johnson, Quezergue wrote the classic “It Ain’t my Fault” that continues to resonate on the street and gained new life having been sampled by numerous rap artists. As a bandleader, Quezergue released several solid CDs with his Slammin’ Big Band that brought together some of New Orleans finest players.

A pinnacle moment in Quezergue’s life came when he performed his “A Creole Mass” at St. Louis Cathedral and the subsequent release of the CD of the same name. An elegant piece that speaks of unity and faith, Quezergue wrote it to fulfill a promise he made to himself some 50 years before its completion. While serving in the Army in 1951 during the Korean War he was assigned to the front lines. His orders were changed at the last minute because his talents as a music arranger were needed elsewhere. When he found out that the man who took his place had been killed in the line of duty, he promised to write a Mass to give him thanks. Great jubilation filled New Orleans’ St. Louis Cathedral when “A Creole Mass” was unveiled that night in 2001. In this historic setting, Quezergue’s work revealed the kinship of humankind with elements of classical music and spiritual music, jazz and dance.

“He was very much an intellect but also a very decent and spiritual man,” Toussaint observes. “Some-times he’d make you want to genuflect,” he adds with a warm laugh.

Quezergue once remembered the Sunday afternoons when he was a child and he and his parents, siblings and uncles would gather for a jam session swinging on some traditional jazz. When he was 12, he began blowing trumpet though his interest in arranging music was further sparked while attending Xavier Prep. Quezergue (pronounced ka-ZAIR) credited Dave Bartholomew for giving him the opportunity to go into the studio for his first recording session. It was a start of a career that would lead him to be much in demand for his distinctive, signature charts that would be heard on a wealth of recordings including those by Fats Domino and Paul Simon.

“His arrangements were never overdone,” Toussaint says with admiration. “He knew how to go towards the magic and he knew when he got there to stop right there. He also knew how to get the best groove out of a whole group of people. When they put a group together – or if he just walked in on another group and took over – the musicians began to sound better than they sounded before. He could always get the groove going so well.”

Quezergue did his arranging and composing not at piano but at a card table. He laughed when he told the story of going into a session and was asked what he required. “I reached into my pocket and pulled out my tuning fork and said, ‘Here, that’s all I need.’”

The ability to hear the music in his head was an asset that helped allow Quezergue to continue to work after losing his eyesight to diabetes in 2003. His son, bassist Brian Quezergue, would transcribe the music from his father’s instructions.

In 2009 Quezergue was awarded an honorary doctorate from Loyola University and during the same year a tribute to him was held at the prestigious Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall where Quezergue himself conducted the concert.

“Musically he was a man for all seasons,” Toussaint declares. “He left so much here. I’m sure the great master would say, ‘A job well done.’”

A funeral mass was held Monday, September 12, at the Corpus Christi Catholic Church. A musical celebration of the life of Wardell Quezergue is being planned for the near future.

This article was originally published in the September 12, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper