Nineteen years in one business is almost guaranteed to make a professional out of anyone who sticks to it.
In the world of zydeco music, there's one woman who stands tall (while holding her accordion) - Queen Ida."You can say I've been on the road for 19 years, although I've been playing professionally for 21," Ida said during a phone call from her home in San Francisco. "I've hit a lot of bases, but looking back, there isn't very much I would have changed."
Queen Ida and the Bon Temps (pronounced Bon Ton) Zydeco Band will play the Red Butte Garden, Sunday, July 14. Gates open at 5 p.m. and the concert begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at ArtTix box office in the Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, or by calling 355-ARTS (2787). Tickets will also be available at the gate. In the event of rain, the concert will be moved to Kingsbury Hall.
"Things are different these days," Ida said in her downhome sassy rasp. "There is a transistion out there that's getting the music played on the radio. Before, there wasn't really a place for us. Now, we're getting the blues stations to play us once in awhile. But there's always room for more."
Still, Ida said, she's not complaining.
"When I first started playing it wasn't proper for a girl to play music, let alone pick up the accordion," Ida remembered of her upbringing in Louisiana. "Though the music was always around me, my parents and many other adults thought zydeco and Cajun should be played by the boys. The girls should be playing piano or violin - never the washboards."
But Ida had the luxury of being the only girl in a family full of older boys.
"My mom encouraged me to play," said Ida. "When my brothers weren't playing their accordions, my mom told me to pick (one) up.
"So I figured I had the green light to go for it," she chuckled. "Even though my brothers didn't want a girl, let alone a little sister, playing their instrument, they still taught me things. When I say `taught' I mean they showed me things and I watched them every chance I got."
During the mid 1940s, Ida's family moved to San Francisco for a better life.
"All that time, my parents would come back from work and let off steam by playing," she said. "And they would travel back and forth from Louisiana to California from time to time."
After one of those trips, Ida's mother returned with an accordion and took her children aside.
"She told us the music is dying in Louisiana," Ida remembered. "She said none of the younger generation were playing it and keeping it alive. She told us all the older players were either retiring or passing away. Then she told us to keep the tradition alive because `It's our culture."'
Ida has nine albums to her name, including the Grammy winner "On Tour" (1983). Other awards Ida has received include the W.C. Handy Award for female blues artist of the year and the (San Francisco) Cajun Creole Cultural Center's Outstanding Contributions Award.
In addition to publishing a cookbook - "Cooking with Queen Ida" - she has toured all over the world including various parts of Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan.
"The one place I was nervous about was Japan," she said. "The audience was very polite, as it always is. But they'd sit and listen to the songs of our first set. They'd sit through a song and give a huge loud applause during the breaks. Then they'd sit silent again.
"I thought to myself, `I need to connect musically with the audience,"' she said. "So I returned for the second set and noticed the audience was standing. All the seats were pushed back. Then when we began to play, they were dancing, clapping and having a real good time.
"It just goes to show you, music crosses all types of boundaries," she concluded. "Just like it should."