Obituary: Wardell Quezergue, musician, composer and producer

Such was Wardell Quezergue’s contribution to the music of New Orleans, as musician, composer, arranger and producer, that he was dubbed the “Creole Beethoven”.

He played trumpet in the 1940s, had his own band in the 1950s and went on to become one of the region’s foremost musical arrangers and producers, working with stars of the calibre of Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson and Fats Domino, and doing much to take the music of the region to a wider national and international audience.

Noted for his big, brassy horn sound and funky rhythms, Quezergue was the arranger on Iko Iko, the Creole standard that was a hit for the Dixie Cups on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1960s, was later used on the soundtrack of the Dennis Quaid film The Big Easy and has become something of an anthem for the city.

His music seems as fresh and relevant today as it ever did. With Smokey Johnson he co-wrote It Ain’t My Fault, which was later sampled by Mariah Carey, and he produced and arranged Dr John’s album Goin’ Back to New Orleans, a Grammy award-winner in 1993.

In later years he lost his sight, and then most of his belongings when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005. Dr John was at the forefront in arranging benefit concerts for him.

Wardell Joseph Quezergue was born into a musical family in New Orleans and began playing trumpet and writing his own arrangements while still at school.

He served in the US army during the Korean War, where his principal role was working with the army orchestra in Tokyo. However, he was ordered to join his unit when it was due to go to the front line. He was actually en route to the airport, with many of the musicians, when an officer stopped the convoy and told him he was to stay behind.

He was regarded as irreplaceable when it came to the army’s musical work, whereas anyone could fight a war, and in fact the officer came with another soldier who was to take Quezergue’s place on the truck.

The man who replaced him was killed within a week in the combat zone and Quezergue struggled to come to terms with the experience. He conceived A Creole Mass while still in Asia but it would take him half a century to complete the work, which includes orchestra, classical symphony chorus, Negro spiritual chorale, children’s choir and brass band. After returning from the army, he and other ex-servicemen formed a band called the Royal Dukes of Rhythm. They became popular in New Orleans dance halls and were backing band for visiting stars.

Quezergue signed with Imperial Records, working as arranger for Fats Domino and recording with his own band, Wardell and the Sultans. He set up his own record company, Nola Records, but it did not last and he subsequently worked at Malaco Records as a musician, arranger and producer.

In one marathon recording session at Malaco’s studios in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1970 Quezergue produced and recorded King Floyd’s Groove Me and Jean Knight’s Mr Big Stuff. They were offered to Atlantic and Stax for distribution, but the two big companies turned them down. They came out on Malaco’s own Chimneyville label and proved enormously popular locally.

Atlantic then jumped back on the bandwagon to take Groove Me to a wider audience and Stax did much the same with Mr Big Stuff. Both songs reached No 1 on the Billboard soul chart in the US and made it into the overall Top Ten. Groove Me was used in an episode of The Simpsons and also the Austin Powers film Goldmember. John Broven, the author of Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans, told the New York Times: “Wardell delivered those hits at a time when New Orleans really needed them. The city’s music scene was dead, but the symbolism of those hits gave New Orleans the impetus to get going again.”

Following the success of Groove Me and Mr Big Stuff, Quezergue worked with many leading singers and musicians from outwith the New Orleans area, many of them hoping to tap into the energy of the music scene in the Big Easy, an energy which Quezergue had done much to generate.

He worked with Paul Simon on There Goes Rhymin’ Simon at the Malaco studios. It was one of Simon’s first solo albums as he attempted to establish his own musical identity following the split with Art Garfunkel.

Quezergue was married for 60 years and his wife Yoshi died earlier this year. He is survived by five sons, eight daughters and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

BRIAN PENDREIGH