Jan E., 1973
Jan E., 1986
RJ making his living as a street musician, Austria 1996
Chubby Carrier & RJ,
Jr. Martin Acc, Inc, Scott 1995
Beau Jocque & RJ, Richard´s Club, Lawtell, Louisiana 1993
Blues Jam at Poet´s, Lafayette 1994
Rosie Ledet,
1999 NO Jazz&Heritage Festival,
Photo: BAS-Archive
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Jan’s early years
I was born on 6th April 1972 in Vienna, Austria, the son of Finnish photographer Seija and Austrian jazz musician Franz Eckerl. Right from the very outset, I was surrounded by music; I grew up with Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.
 When I was nine, my father asked me if I would like to learn a musical instrument. I told him “Yes” and took up the violin, the very same instrument my father had played in his childhood, many years before he switched to the saxophone.
It was during a ski-ing holiday in the South Tyrol that I changed my mind. It was there that I heard the sound of an accordion for the first time. My father was happy with my change of mind, as he knew that you can also play jazz on ‘the old squeezebox’; his good friend Karl Hodina and the well-known Joe Zawinul had both made their first tentative musical efforts with this instrument.
At the same time as I was learning the basic elements of formal music at a Music school in Vienna, my father was showing me the ideas and thinking behind improvisation.
 When I was 12, I discovered, in amongst records of Austrian folk music and drinking songs, an album labelled ‘Clifton Chenier – Bon Ton Roulet’. At that age I knew virtually nothing about Louisiana, never mind Zydeco! My father translated the liner notes for me and I drank it in like a little child.
We ordered more Clifton Chenier records and became more and more absorbed by this initially strange but deeply emotional and inspiring music. I became aware of other accordionists such as Rockin’ Dopsie and Fernest Arceneaux and on to Sivuca and Flaco Jimenez.
In 1986 I met one of my new heroes for the first time – Flaco Jimenez. Never before had I seen an accordionist who played with so much energy and joie-de-vivre that by the end of the second number the crowd were so excited that they were on their feet and dancing away.
 That was when I knew I’d picked the right instrument.
At that time though, the accordion was anything but popular. When, at age 14, I played Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man for my class-mates one day, nobody ever made fun of my accordion playing anymore! I was convinced that an accordion is for a lot more than ‘just polkas’.
I decided I had to give myself a stage name in keeping with those zydeco performers in Louisiana:
ROCKIN’ JANITOR was born!
The name was a comment on the hierarchy among Louisiana accordionists. Following Clifton Chenier’s death, everyone wanted to be the one to inherit his title. But to attain such lofty heights, you have to work from the very bottom upwards - hence, the ‘ROCKIN’ JANITOR’.
I discovered more musicians and stylings such as Tango Nuevo, played by people like Astor Piazzola, Luis Di Matteo, Dino Saluzzi & Sexteto Mayor – and also the Blues.
I discovered the acoustic blues via John Lee Hooker, Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry, Lightnin’ Hopkins. Amplified and harsher sounds came to me courtesy of Muddy Waters, B.B.King, Buddy Guy, Luther Allison and Johnny Winter.
Through playing at various little school parties, it gradually dawned on me that there were not many people of my age interested in blues and zydeco. I would have to play with older musicians.
One such was a man by the name of Fritz Svacina. Besides being an excellent blues guitarist, along with his wife he ran the (at that time) Vienna based magazine ‘Blues Life’. I became the youngest freelance writer for this publication. Now I had connected to the source and I got to know musicians I had never heard before.
Among them were Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, two unbelievable guitarists whose ways of playing thrilled me through and through. But as I am no guitarist, I looked for an accordionist who could make me feel that same way – and I found him!
 Sivuca gave one of his rare concerts in Vienna and his virtuoso and emotion packed playing thrilled me in the same way as those two previously mentioned guitarists. At a time when a tight pigeon-holing of musical styles still held sway, he saw no problem in playing a range of styles encompassing Jazz and classical music, forro and musette.
It wasn’t until years later that I found this same versatility in the playing of Texas guitarist Bugs Henderson.
I moved from my music school to the Joseph Haydn Conservatory and continued my classical studies on the accordion, whilst simultaneously immersing myself in Blues and Zydeco.
Jan in Louisiana
When I was 20, my father and I took a plane to Louisiana to hear some of my favourite musicians. In order to broaden my collection of instruments, we were also looking for a maker of Cajun accordions.
We got to know a barber, Gervis Stanford, a typical Cajun ‘nice guy’ who was recommended to us by mistake! We quickly became familiar with Lousiana hospitality and Gervis Stanford serenaded us on his violin. As he also owned a piano accordion, I played a piece and he was more than surprised that someone of my age, and from the other side of the Atlantic, not only knew his music but could play it too!
 Jr, Martin turned out to be the accordion maker we were looking for. I was asked to turn in a piece to the best of my ability and more and more musicians came to hear ‘the boy from overseas’. One of them was David ‘Pokey’ Guidry, a Cajun multi-instrumentalist. His heart though was in Zydeco and blues. A year later he was to show me the different clubs and dancehalls in Louisiana.
If you know your instrument, you straightaway get called up on stage in the Pelican State, and so I got to play with and learn from numerous musicians. My sweat-drenched debut took place at the Back To Back Club in Lafayette, Swamp pop star T.K. Hulin calling me up onto the stage. Numerous blues jam session in Bob’s Pub and Poet’s followed. It was through these that I got to know many of the area’s well-known musicians such as Ronnie Vice, Pandy ‘Guitar Gable Jr.’ Perrodin, Paul ‘Lil’ Buck’ Sinegal, and Bobby Broussard.
Mind you, Zydeco was my biggest love and so off to ‘Creole Country’ we headed!
In Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki Club I met Roscoe Chenier, Clifton Chenier’s cousin, and a blues guitarist and a singer right out of the old school. After one audition I was not only standing on the stage of the famous dance-hall but I was also playing with a genuine legend!
The following day we went to the oldest Zydeco joint, Richard’s Club, to see Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers. I was already known to him as I had written an article on him for Blues Life.
 Beau Jocque was the new star of the Zydeco scene, with a style that included Rock and hip-hop influences. Both young and old flocked to his shows. He just got me up onto the stage – another one of the high points of my life!
In the following years my name got around and I played with Steve Riley, Walter Mouton, Johnnie Allan, Anthony Dopsie, Chubby Carrier, and Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas, to name only a few.
I was appointed an ‘honorary Cajun’ for life! When I played ‘I’m Coming Home’ in memory of Rockin’ Dopsie, who died much too young, I was made an ‘honorary sheriff’ of Lafayette.
I fulfilled one dream when I played in Clifton Chenier’s old club in St. Martinsville. But the most extraordinary thing came with C J Chenier’s invitation to appear on his accordion with the Red Hot Louisiana Band. From that day on he has been a huge influence on my music and my career.
The RJ Duo is founded
In 1995, in Philipp ‘Zydeco Magic Board’ Bruna, I found the frottoir (rub-board) player I’d been looking for – the R J Duo was born.
 At first we worked as buskers in Vienna. Soon though we got gigs in different bars and at various festivals, as well as on radio and television. We got energetic support from Daniel Klemmer, a percussionist with Finnish roots, and Erich Dirnwober, chef, DJ and percussionist. His ‘Bayou’ pub, Vienna’s first and only Cajun & Creole cuisine restaurant, became a musical and culinary second home for us! In Austria appearances at numerous festivals gave us the opportunity to test ourselves against Louisiana musicians of the likes of Rosie Ledet, the Zydeco Creole Farmers, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas, and C J Chenier & The Red Hot Louisiana Band.
We were invited to take part in the annual ‘Blues Night’ in the Vienna “Radiokulturhaus”, and we immediately got a recording contract!
Our debut album Zydeco Experience Live’ appeared and it has been well-received by critics across Europe.
We already have ten years under our belts and look forward to many more. We intend to carry on playing the Zydeco for our loyal fans, though we will also keep working on developing musically.
Keep the Zydeco in your heart!
Jan “Rockin’ Janitor” Eckerl
(English translation by Norman Darwen)
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