Zardis played bass from a young age, and studied without his disapproving mother's knowledge, under Billy Marrero of the Superior Orchestra.
[2] He joined Buddy Petit's orchestra at age 16,[2] and worked as a bassist in nightclubs and a tubist in brass bands in New Orleans in the 1920s, playing with Kid Rena,[1] A.J.
Piron, Punch Miller, Kid Howard, Jack Carey, Fate Marable, and Duke Dejan's Dixie Rhythm Band.
[1] Zardis was a master of the original New Orleans - style slap bass, achieving both clarity of intonation and a strong percussive beat.
The short-statured Zardis, who was a powerful player and a creative soloist, overcame these handicaps by frequently turning his back to the audience, in order to face his instrument into the back wall of the bandstand, thus bouncing his notes off the wall, and projecting his sound up and over the competing sounds of the louder front-line brass horn players, and out over a room full of loud patrons.