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#236138 - 06/18/08 02:22 PM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
Dnj Offline
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Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
Cass you have mail

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#236139 - 06/18/08 05:27 PM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
tony mads usa Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 01/16/02
Posts: 14376
Loc: East Greenwich RI USA
Quite a number of us here started out as accordion players ... it was the portable instrument of choice in the 50's ... and you didn't have to be concerned about the venue piano being out of tune ...

Donny ... The wedding was great !!! First class (almost) all the way ... only low point was a DJ instead of live music, but they did a pretty good job ... high tech, too ... using 2 lap tops ... no CD's, turntables, nothing but LT and spkrs ...
But the wedding - ceremony on the beach ... tremendous cocktail hour ...choice of filet mignon, talapia or chicken for dinner entree ... all the food was EXCELLENT ... open bar all day ... GREAT reunion with some family we haven't seen in some time ...
BTW ... had dinner the night before at McLoon's on the river ... wonderful ...
t.
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t. cool

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#236140 - 06/18/08 05:58 PM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
Dnj Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
Tony sounds like you had a ball...I've played at McCloons for a few private affairs upstairs....but usually they have a nice jazz thing down in the restaurant also or outside also Tim also opened a new one in Ocean in Pier Village in Long Branch!
http://www.shirleysonline.com/
http://www.timmcloone.com/

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#236141 - 06/18/08 10:11 PM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
Lucky2Bhere Offline
Member

Registered: 03/04/06
Posts: 533
I played the accordion for years in a German Bier Keller in Europe. I was happy, the clientèle was happy, the staff was happy, and…..the boss was happy! I got to play music every day and night that you wouldn’t dare play here (Zorba the Greek…Kalinka…Eviva Espana…Strauss waltzes…German marches, etc). Music you can sink your teeth and your emotions into. Every night when we started the music, immediately the crowd would get up on their long benches at the tables with a pint of lager in their hands, lock arms and dance and swing and sway with each other. This would go on for hours. You could play Zorba every 30 minutes and the crowd would go wild every time.

Fast forward back to here. I returned to the USA and started over again “re-learning” what’s popular here. However, I became absolutely disillusioned in a short amount of time when I began playing here in the States. The music was dull and the people were just as dull (as an audience…of course this is all relative). Even the good music had a subdued ring to it, and of course, had to be COOL because Americans want their music...COOL!

The thorn in my side became New York, NY (Sinatra). To me, it typified the shallowness and polished glitz of American music. Don’t get me wrong...there’s a whole lot of it I like, particularly 70’s Disco and Latin music (which I wasn’t in touch with in Europe), but most days I wish I was back on the Continent playing the real stuff.

One of the top songs in Europe at the time, for many years, was Tie A Yellow Ribbon. When I left that was the last time I got to play it...and enjoy playing it. In Europe, when you play music, people come alive. Here, no matter how well you entertain, it’s like pulling teeth trying to get them to have a good time.

Don’t misinterpret...I don’t knock the folks in this country for their musical shortcomings. They were just never taught to “let go” and feel wholesome, happy music like their European counterparts. Sometimes I look at them and see the child inside trying to crawl out and I feel bad that they grew up in this musically challenged stifled environment we live in.

Yes, there IS a whole new world of music out there that we don’t get to hear in America. I find Americans to be obsessed with jazz (which even a buffoon musician could make work) or, as I said, anything considered to be “cool” because Americans get off on being “cool!”

I consider myself a very lucky man having lived and played in Europe for 10 years. Those were the best 10 musical years of my life, and now that I think of it, my 10 best years period!

When I first moved there, I knew nothing about European music and their listening habits. But I started playing/busking in the streets and studying and researching the music every day. I’d listen to the music presentation on the BBC daily and write down every song title. Easy enough as there were only 4 channels at the time. I’d make notes of any song that was ever mentioned or requested and go out and by the sheet music and learn it immediately. The more I studied European music, the more insatiable my appetite for it grew. It’s non-gimmicky music with real melody lines, bright, lively, happy, fun, moving, emotional, etc. Then I even graduated to French musette and this was the most fun I ever had playing music. Couldn’t get enough of it.

To this day, I wish I could go back and re-live those years. But as Tony Mads said:

“every where you turned there was a McDonald's or a Burger-King.”

In came the fast food joints and juke boxes and out went traditional music in mainstream Europe.

Lucky

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#236142 - 06/18/08 10:25 PM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
Lucky2Bhere Offline
Member

Registered: 03/04/06
Posts: 533
Quote:
Originally posted by tony mads usa:
[B]Quite a number of us here started out as accordion players ... it was the portable instrument of choice in the 50's ... and you didn't have to be concerned about the venue piano being out of tune ...


I never thought about that. I always assumed everyone here started out as a keyboard player. How many of you folks are former accordionists? How many of you will admit to it like Donny did?

It took me 2-3 years to make the transition before I was comfortable with my left hand on a horizontal keyboard. And, after all these years, I still sometimes think like an accordionist when I'm playing arrangers. Mostly with chord progressions where I tend to think of the circle of fifths on the bass side of the accordion.

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#236143 - 06/19/08 05:35 AM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
cassp Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 03/21/03
Posts: 3748
Loc: Motown
First of all, Lucky that was a fantastic post! It hit right to the heart of the situation.

As for accordion, I started out at 8 yrs old. To this day I use the concept of the circle of fifths and fourths, alternate bass, key signatures... the whole left hand concept. That's also why the chromatic button system piqued my interest. I know it's been around forever, but I finally saw the artistry of it in those Ludovic videos.

Oh, and one more thing... how can you not credit accordion playing with note phrasing. Piano and its pedals has it nuances, and so does organ with its volume pedal, but the accordion with the bellows going in and out is/was a major factor in how I phrased my songs. Mentally I still do that. When people comment on how natural my phrasing is I always give credit to those early years on the accordion.

[This message has been edited by cassp (edited 06-19-2008).]
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#236144 - 06/19/08 09:11 AM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
tony mads usa Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 01/16/02
Posts: 14376
Loc: East Greenwich RI USA
I AM AN ACCORDION PLAYER, AND i'M PROUD OF IT !!!!!
Started playing accordion at age 13 ... Didn't study music before that ... Played in accordion contests in various states ... played Carnegie Hall with an accordion symphony orchestra !!! .. the only part of being an accordion player that I am embarrassed about is the fact that I haven't played it in DECADES !!! DAMN, I have to get that box out from under the steps!!!

And like cass and Lucky, I still think like an accordionist as far as the left hand is concerned - which, unfortunately, is not always good as a keyboard player ...
t.
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t. cool

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#236145 - 06/19/08 09:18 AM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
tony mads usa Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 01/16/02
Posts: 14376
Loc: East Greenwich RI USA
Quote:
Originally posted by Dnj:
Tony sounds like you had a ball...I've played at McCloons for a few private affairs upstairs....but usually they have a nice jazz thing down in the restaurant also or outside also Tim also opened a new one in Ocean in Pier Village in Long Branch!
http://www.shirleysonline.com/
http://www.timmcloone.com/



Donny ... On Monday before we left we walked the boardwalk from Rooney's (where we had some late night blue claw crabs Sunday ) http://rooneysocean.com/
to Pier Village http://www.piervillage.com/
really nice ...
t.
_________________________
t. cool

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#236146 - 06/19/08 12:08 PM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
Dnj Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
Things are shaping up in that area BIG TIME Tony....Million dollar condos all over, & summer outdoor ice skating too! The more south you go the nicer it gets down where we are & beyond toward Atlantic city & Wildwood/Cape may.

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#236147 - 06/19/08 11:32 PM Re: Wow! Now this is accordion playing!
abacus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5345
Loc: English Riviera, UK
As you are no doubt aware, there are many Keyboard Festivals in Europe, (Really big and popular over here) however they are dwarfed by the number of Accordion festivals.
Another point to note is that all European manufactures of keyboards have versions where the normal keyboard is replaced by Accordion keyboards; (And have done for decades) here is one http://www.wersi.net/html/mywersi-08.html# it is the second up from the bottom, and it is also why Midi modules from Europe integrate seamlessly with Midi Accordions.

Bill
_________________________
English Riviera:
Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).

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