Stanley Dural Jr. made an error in choosing the stage name Buckwheat Zydeco. The talented multi-instrumentalist and singer from Lafayette, Louisiana, knows better than anyone that the music he plays is markedly different from the zydeco that he heard at local dances and played with Clifton Chenier, who hired him as a keyboardist. The central instrument in-zydeco is the accordion, played in a rhythm-lead style that bypasses classical arrangement strategies in a frenzied, wheezing pulse similar to the ad hoc nature of country blues.

On Track, Dural's eleventh album, is not a zydeco recording, but what's a label between friends? This is the work of an R&B musician who has grafted elements of zydeco onto his style. Dural plays the accordion like the keyboard player he is, emphasizing single-note runs rather than rhythmic throb. Despite that, two of the songs are out-and-out zydeco – the title track and "Everything Hurts (Tout Que 'qu' Chose Fait Mal)." Both numbers rocket along with a clanking ensemble-percussion style underpinned by ratcheting rubboard patterns played by Dural's son Reginald. "Won't You Let Me Go?" is a spirited R&B arrangement with a series of choruses played by Dural, guitarists Michael Melchione and Melvin J. Veazie and tenor saxophonist Wilbert Miller. Miller also plays sprightly harmonica fills on "Cooking With Pierre."

Dural strays completely from zydeco on the classic R&B ballad "Cry to Me," a conventional rendition of "The Midnight Special" and the simple love song "There Will Always Be Tomorrow." "You Lied to Me" is a soul-music lament with a reggae backbeat. There's also a languorous, album-closing version of "Hey Joe." The hottest track on the album, "Funky Filly," is an R&B instrumental that turns on a great chart for the Uptown Horns and Dural's finest playing – on Hammond B-3 organ, not accordion. Dural is no Clifton Chenier, but he can hold his own with Booker T.

So why is he calling this zydeco? Partly in tribute to Chenier, partly in the spirit of regional pride. No matter what he calls it, though, Buckwheat Zydeco cuts a wicked groove. (RS 626)

JOHN SWENSON