Queen Ida

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Queen Ida

| image = Queen Ida Guillory 2009.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Guillory in 2009

| birth_name = Ida Lee Lewis

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1929|1|15}}

| birth_place = Lake Charles, Louisiana, U.S.

| death_date =

| instrument = Accordion

| genre = Zydeco

| occupation = Accordionist, record producer

| years_active = 1975—2010

| label = GNP Crescendo

| associated_acts =

| website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20071004211958/http://www.cotatifest.com/Queen%20Ida.htm Queen Ida]

}}

Ida Lewis "Queen Ida" Guillory (born January 15, 1929){{cite encyclopedia |title=Queen Ida |encyclopedia=Contemporary Musicians |url=http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/queen-ida-biography |date=May 28, 2009 |publisher=Gale |volume=51|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070913224125/http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/queen-ida-biography |archive-date=September 13, 2007 }} is a Louisiana Creole accordionist.{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=987}} She was the first female accordion player to lead a zydeco band.{{cite book |last1=Nyhan |first1=Pat |last2=Rollins |first2=Brian |last3=Babb |first3=David |date=1997 |title=Let The Good Times Roll!: A Guide to Cajun & Zydeco Music |location=Portland, Maine |publisher=Upbeat Books |pages=[https://archive.org/details/letgoodtimesroll00nyha_0/page/172 172]–174 |isbn=9780965823203 |oclc=38128267 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/letgoodtimesroll00nyha_0}} Queen Ida's music is an eclectic mix of R&B, Caribbean, and Cajun, though the presence of her accordion always keeps it traditional.

Biography

File:Queen Ida concert ticket - 1993 - Stierch.JPG

Born Ida Lee Lewis to a musical family of rice farmers in Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States, her family were Louisiana Creole people and her first language is French.{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/queen-ida-guillory|title="Queen" Ida Guillory: Zydeco Musician |author= |date=n.d. |website=Arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=January 14, 2021}} Her family moved to Beaumont, Texas, when she was ten and eight years later moved to San Francisco, California. Although her mother was an accordion player, women were not encouraged to play in public, and Queen Ida learned mostly from her brother Al Lewis, later known as Al Rapone. After marrying Raymond Guillory she raised their three children and worked as a bus driver but occasionally sat in with her brother's Zydeco band, also cooking Louisiana cuisine for the band members. She was dubbed "Queen Ida" after being chosen queen of a Mardi Gras celebration.{{cite book|author=Mark F. DeWitt|date=2008|title=Cajun and Zydeco Dance Music in Northern California: Modern Pleasures in a Postmodern World|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1604730906}}{{cite book|last=Tisserand |first=Michael |date=1998 |title=The Kingdom of Zydeco |publisher=Arcade Publishing |location=New York |edition=1st |pages=207–216 |isbn=978-1559704182 |lccn=98-6640 |oclc=38765020 |url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/kingdomofzydeco00tiss}} A year after her first appearance on stage Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Band signed with the record label GNP/Crescendo, and her first record Play the Zydeco demonstrated her style combining Zydeco with a Tex Mex sound.

Queen Ida and her band played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1976 and 1988, and the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1975, 1978, and 1991.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} In 1988, Queen Ida toured Japan, becoming the first zydeco artist to do so. She toured Africa the following year and in 1990 went to Australia and New Zealand.

On the album Back on the Bayou (1999), Queen Ida got together on the bayou in Louisiana with her brother, Al Rapone, for a zydeco reunion.{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/back-on-the-bayou-mw0000245693 |title=Back on the Bayou |last=Witmer |first=Rose of Sharon |date=n.d. |website=AllMusic |access-date=January 14, 2021}} Rapone often wrote and produced for her and formed the Bon Temps Zydeco Band, which later became Queen Ida's backup group. Doubling up on accordions with her oldest son Myrick "Freeze" Guillory, they are joined by Terry Buddingh on bass, James Santiago on guitar, Bernard Anderson on saxophone, Erik Nielsen on drums, and her youngest daughter Ledra Guillory and son Ron "The Rock" Guillory on rub board and vocals.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} As "Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band," the ensemble was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on November 23, 1985, with Paul Reubens as host.

Queen Ida also co-authored a cookbook, Cookin' with Queen Ida in 1990, which featured Creole recipes.{{cite book |last1=Guillory |first1=Queen Ida |last2=Wise |first2=Naomi |date=1990 |title=Cookin' with Queen Ida |location=Rocklin, California |publisher=Prima Publications |isbn=9781559580502 |lccn=90-42525 |oclc=22108540}} A revised second edition of the cookbook was published in 1995.{{cite book |last1=Guillory |first1=Queen Ida |last2=Wise |first2=Naomi |date=1995 |title=Cookin' with Queen Ida |edition=Rev. 2nd |location=Rocklin, California |publisher=Prima Publications |isbn=9780761500063 |lccn=95-1517 |oclc=32012799}}

Queen Ida continued to perform live through the 2000s, and though she did not release any albums during this period, she has joined her son Myrick and his band onstage. She officially retired from playing in 2010 and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she enjoys cooking for her friends and family.

One of her accordions is among the artifacts exhibited at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee, which opened in January 2021.{{cite news |last=Humphries |first=Stephen |date=January 15, 2021 |title=From Ella to Beyoncé: New museum celebrates African American music |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2021/0115/From-Ella-to-Beyonce-New-museum-celebrates-African-American-music |newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=January 28, 2023}}

Selected discography

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

!Genre

!Label

1999

|Back on the Bayou (with Al Rapone)

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPD 2265

1995

|On a Saturday Night

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPD 2172

1994

|Mardi Gras

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPD 2227

1989

|Cookin' with Queen Ida

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPD 2197{{cite AV media |people=Queen Ida and her Zydeco Band |year=1989 |title=Cookin' with Queen Ida |medium=CD |location=Hollywood, CA |publisher=GNP-Crescendo |id=GNPD-2197 |oclc=872468550}}

1985

|Caught in the Act

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPD 2181

1983

|In San Francisco

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPD 2158

1982

|Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band on Tour

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPD 2147

1980

|Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band in New Orleans

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPS 2131

1977

|Uptown Zydeco

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo

1977

|Zydeco a La Mode

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPS 2112

1976

|Play the Zydeco

|Zydeco

|GNP Crescendo - GNPS 2101

Awards and honors

She is a recipient of a 2009 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2009 |title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2009 |author= |website=Arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=January 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928023511/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2009 |archive-date=September 28, 2020 |url-status=dead}}

=Grammy Awards=

Won: 1{{cite web |url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/queen-ida |title=Artist: Queen Ida |author= |date=n.d. |website=Grammy.com |publisher=Recording Academy |access-date=January 14, 2021}}

Nominations: 4

class=wikitable

1980

| Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording

| Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band in New Orleans

| Zydeco

| {{nom}}

1982

| Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording

| Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band on Tour

| Zydeco

| {{won}}

1984

| Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording

| On a Saturday Night

| Zydeco

| {{nom}}

1986

| Best Traditional Folk Recording

| Caught in the Act

| Zydeco

| {{nom}}

=Blues Music Awards=

Won: 2{{cite web |url=https://blues.org/awards/ |title=Award Winners and Nominees [search] |author= |date=2021 |website=blues.org |publisher=The Blues Foundation |access-date=January 14, 2021}}

Nominations: 4

class=wikitable
colspan=5 align=center \| Queen Ida Blues Music Awards History
Year ! Category ! Result
align=center \| 1983 \| Traditional Blues Female Artist \| {{nom}}
align=center \| 1984 \| Traditional Blues Female Artist \| {{nom}}
align=center \| 1988 \| Traditional Blues Female Artist \| {{nom}}
align=center \| 1989 \| Traditional Blues Female Artist \| {{won}}
align=center \| 1990 \| Traditional Blues Female Artist \| {{won}}
align=center \| 1991 \| Traditional Blues Female Artist \| {{nom}}
align=center

class=wikitable

colspan=5 align=center | Queen Ida Blues Music Awards History

Year

! Category

! Result

align=center

| 1983