Originally posted by Ian Thumwood
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I heard RG and his band playing Piazzolla at a Brighton Festival a few years ago. While I enjoyed the concert the accordeon doesn't sound quite right for Piazzolla. By chance I was playing the Astor Piazzolla In Portrait DVD (Opus Arte) only last night. The bonus track shows Joanna MacGregor a.o. in an alternate take of Milonga del Angel. JMcG must surely be one of the most accomplished and versatile pianists around.My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson) -
George Scott Wood is often hailed as the man who 'introduced the accordion' to British popular music, around 1930.
and British composers jumped in to write things like this:
Spanish Sweetheart (Hargreaves, Damerell, Evans) Scott Wood and his Orchestra, with vocals by Sam Browne.
Recorded May 1933. Regal Zonophone MR942.- - -
John WComment
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John / Bluesnik
I think that alot of the prejudice against accordeons in jazz probably stems from records like that - not my cup of tea, I'm afraid. The association with "light music" or Dance Music probably ensured that it was always going to be a struggle to get the accordeon accepted as a jazz instrument. However, I think that what makes a "genuine" jazz instrument or not stems to some extent from the
time when a lot of jazz involved "freak" sounds which ensured the likes of brass instruments and reeds quickly became accepted. It is also worth noting that according to Lawrence Gushee's research, Buddy Bolden started off as an accordeon player and not on the cornet. I'm sure that I read it in the book "The original jazz pioneers."
Granted that more than a fair share of duff records have been made on this instrument, someone like Richard Galliano shoudl not be dismissed out of hand. There are other musicians like Dino Saluzzi who have made some pretty convincing jazz noises on his bandoneon. (An appearance with George Gruntz's Concert Jazz Orchestra on the track "El chancho" remains one of the most original big band charts recorded in the 1980's. The disc also features sheila Jordan. ) He also made a record called "long ago, far away in the South" which remains one of ECM's strongest ever albums and features Palle Mikkelborg , Pierre Favre and Charlie Haden. The music is stark , compelling and full of drama - almost like the Art Ensemble of Chicargo interpreting tangos.
In Bebop land, of course, the perimeters of what is or isn't acceptable as a jazz insrument were pretty much thought through by the likes of Parker and Gillespie so that a line up like Miles' "Birth of the cool" immediately seemed outside the conventions. Probably safe to say that during the period 1945 to 1965 the range of different instruments employed in jazz was probably at it's narrowest. Even electric guitars were more of a novelty than the norm. As a cosequence, it has made it harder for something like the accordeon to be welcomed within a jazz context but I would argue it someone can eleoquently express themselves as a jazz soloist on a piano, why the hostility towards smeone doing hte same on an accordeon which, if I am honest, is probably apparent in most of us jazz fans? Equaqlly perplexing to have this view given the fact that synthesizers have been a regular feature in jazz since the 70's with groups like Weather Report and accordeon-like sounds on these instruments are generally accepted.Comment
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Yes the accordeon became popular in the 1930s in UK, and one reason was that an 'accordeon band' was cheaper to run than a proper band with strings, brass and reeds; running an accordeon band was cheaper because the instrument was cheaper and you could get a 'full sound' from just 4 accordeons. The repertoire as you guessed from the above example tended to be waltzes and novelty numbers, pseudo-continental songs usually written by British composers, stuff like Isle Of Capri, Red Sails In The Sunset, When I Grow Too Old To Dream and dance hall stuff like that.
All the record labels at the time had their own studio accordeon band, and these were often directed by the studio director and had pseudonym names like Primo Scala, or Don Porto, and there was the famous Geraldo who resided at the Savoy for a while and then ran a superb swing band in the 40s.
There's a couple of names I know who played jazz accordeon in Britain then, one was Frank Gregori (father of Johnny Gregory who you might know of) but I haven't found a good example of Gregori's playing, another was pianist Monia Liter and he's on this record by Joe Daniels jazz band. Even this 1930s jazz record is made to sound 'light novelty' by the accordeon, but things hot up a bit later, and listen particularly to Monia Liter's piano
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John WComment
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it matters not who plays what on the squeezy box it just sounds duffAccording to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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Not duff, in my view, in the hands of Gil Goldstein, or Michel Portal (Ok it's a bandoneon, but close) and my discovery of the summer Luciano Biondini whom I heard at the Coutances Festival in Normandy. This is the group and part of what they played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeIc4...eature=relatedComment
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Accordian to my very old Oxford Dictionary the instrument is spelt "accordion".
Just thought I'd mention that...
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ok Alyn nice music but the box still sounds duff to me, but that is me; oh and no bass!According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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The clip I posted is part of Marcotulli's score for the Jean Renoir film "Nana". I saw the trio play the entire 90 minute piece along with the (silent) movie, and Biondini was amazing, not least for playing the whole thing entirely from memory. Bass was not missed at all...
And S-A you are right about the spelling, but I thought BN might not wish to have that pointed out...Comment
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Yes the thread title is wrong. In my messages, though, I have spelled it 'accordeon' because that is how it is spelled on 1930s record labelsOriginally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostAccordian to my very old Oxford Dictionary the instrument is spelt "accordion".
Just thought I'd mention that...
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John WComment
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I was raised on Jimmy Shand's music
but the greatest player has to be Clifton Chenier The King of Zydeco :
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Alyn
The Rita Marcotulli track was brilliant - a new name for me too. Echoes of Saluzzi in there, I think. Don't see how anyone can have any grumbles with music as evocative as that.
I never knew that Jean Renoir had made a version on "Nana." I've got the DVD of his verion of "La bete humaine" which is also based on a book by Emile Zola. The opening sequence of the film with the steam engines is amazing but otherwise the film suffers from being truncated and very much toned down in respect of the violence in the novel. Alot of the story is missing and I think the film probably doesn't make a lot of sense if you are unfamiliar with the novel. Simone Simon idoes have an amazing presence though. I've never read "Nana" as the subject matter didn't interest and after about 5 or 6 of his books, they all seemed to be written to a formula. It's intriguing that he should have made a film of "Nana" first as the book was strictly "top shelf" in many French libraries for a long time. "La bete humaine" and "Germinal" remain his best but Zola is like an impressionist painter who is great at the wider view of things but not as good at the detail. The less familiar books aren't that much cop in my opinion and probably why Penguin never elected to publish them. At one stage I went through a lot of the famous French writers but found the best of them to be Alain-Fournier and St. Exupery - the likes of Proust and Sartre can seriously do your head in!Comment
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