Tisserand, Michael 1963–

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Tisserand, Michael 1963–

(Michael Joseph Tisserand)

PERSONAL:

Born September 19, 1963, in Evansville, IN; son of Joseph Jerome and Marilyn Jean Tisserand; married Tami Jeanne Hinz, June 28, 1997; two children. Education: University of Minnesota, B.A., 1990.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Evanston, IL.

CAREER:

Columnist and nonfiction writer. OffBeat Magazine, New Orleans, LA, columnist, 1992-94; Gambit Weekly, New Orleans, associate editor, 1994-95; Living Blues, Oxford, MI, columnist, 1996—. Member, nominating committee, Big Easy Awards, New Orleans, 1993-96.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Third Place award, New Orleans Press Club, 1994, for feature article; First Place Award, New Orleans Press Club, 1995, for headlines; ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music writing, 1999, for The Kingdom of Zydeco.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Frommer's New Orleans by Night, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1996.

(Contributor) August Lind, New Orleans: Rollin' on the River, Towery (Memphis, TN), 1996.

The Kingdom of Zydeco, Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1997, reprinted, Arcade Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2007.

Author of liner notes for sound recording Music from the Zydeco Kingdom, released by Rounder Select, 2000. Contributor of articles to periodicals, including Nation, Utne Reader, Progressive, and National Catholic Reporter. Contributor of radio essays to WBEZ, Chicago, IL.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael Tisserand, who lived in New Orleans for twenty years, has become known as an expert on the city. His topics include New Orleans's contributions to musical genres such as jazz, blues, and zydeco—the latter being the subject of The Kingdom of Zydeco—and residents' reactions to Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005, explored in Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember.

In The Kingdom of Zydeco, Tisserand chronicles the history of zydeco music, which, until Clifton Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band infused it with such urban elements as R & B and rock and roll, was virtually unknown outside Louisiana and East Texas. The music was developed in the early twentieth century by French/English-speaking Creoles in southwest Louisiana as a "‘house music’ for Saturday-night parties at which sharecroppers danced away their troubles," reported a Publishers Weekly contributor. While still fronted by the accordion, within several decades zydeco had developed more cosmopolitan elements as the black Creoles moved into East Texas to take jobs in Houston oil fields. Artists like Chenier brought the sound greater prominence in the 1970s, and by the mid-1980s figures like Queen Ida and Buckwheat Zydeco had become known nationally. Paul Simon's Chenier-inspired track on Graceland marked a high point of zydeco's popularity.

Tisserand tells zydeco's story through the use of recordings from the 1920s and 1930s, oral histories, contemporary photographs, and original research. He deals with not only zydeco's headlining stars, but lesser-known artists such as Boozoo Chavis, Rockin' Sidney, and TBroussard. Some critics praised The Kingdom of Zydeco as a book with both intellectual depth and a lively style. The Publishers Weekly contributor called the volume a "comprehensive assessment" and deemed it "a must for fans."

New Orleans, often associated with parties and pleasure, had a most unpleasant time when Hurricane Katrina hit, with much of the city being flooded after levees gave way. Tisserand, his wife, and their two children evacuated to the west. The children enrolled in a school Tisserand helped establish in New Iberia, and the school gives its name to Tisserand's book Sugarcane Academy, in which he recounts the heroic efforts of Paul Reynaud, the former New Orleans teacher heading the academy, and of other teachers and volunteers assisting the evacuees.

While these efforts went on under less-than-ideal conditions, Tisserand's book emphasizes the positive, according to some observers. Tisserand acknowledges the difficulties but points up the "tenacity and creativity" of the citizen response to Katrina, related Leonard Gill in the Memphis Flyer newspaper. A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked that the book "highlights a displaced community that refused to be decimated." The critic added that Tisserand brings "warmth and humanity" to his "revealing profiles" of Reynaud and others, resulting in an "inspirational and heartwarming" work.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 1998, Mike Tribby, review of The Kingdom of Zydeco, p. 49.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1998, review of The Kingdom of Zydeco, p. 1102; March 15, 2007, review of Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember.

Library Journal, October 1, 1998, Dan Bogey, review of The Kingdom of Zydeco, p. 92.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 27, 1998, Sean Wilsey, review of The Kingdom of Zydeco, p. 6.

Memphis Flyer, August 16, 2007, Leonard Gill, "Back to School."

New Orleans Magazine, October, 1998, Jason Berry, review of The Kingdom of Zydeco, p. 42.

Publishers Weekly, July 6, 1998, review of The Kingdom of Zydeco, p. 40.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 1998, review of The Kingdom of Zydeco, p. 174.