I thought MTV gave up on music years ago, opting instead to corner the market on inane reality shows for 16 year olds. Despite their best efforts, however, some music manages to occasionally escape onto their airwaves. Thankfully, one example is Mexican singer/songwriter/accordionist Julieta Venegas’ recent performance on MTV Unplugged, which was released this month as both an album and DVD.
Trained as a classical musician on piano and cello before rising to fame with the accordion, Venegas decided to take a fresh approach for her Unplugged performance, including instruments like the ukelele, banjo, xylophone, and tuba. And in addition to hits from her four albums, she unveiled a handful of new tunes, including “Ilusión,” a Spanish/Portuguese duet with Marisa Monte, and the bouncy “El Presente,” which you can watch over at YouTube:
The brainchild of two-time Oscar-winner Gustavo Santaolalla (Best Score for Brokeback Mountain and Babel), Bajofondo (formerly Bajofondo Tango Club) fuses machine-generated beats with the traditional sounds of tango born of the RÃo de la Plata — the river separating Argentina and Uruguay. Experimenting with hip hop, rock and electronica, the band blazes new trails with relentlessly pulsing rhythms and layered sound textures.
But it isn’t all about the laptops; violinist Javier Casalla and bandoneonist Martin Ferres bring all the passion, intoxication, and surprise that you expect from great tango. It’s drama you can dance to. Their latest record, Mar Dulce, will be released in the U.S. next month and includes guest appearances by Elvis Costello, Nelly Furtado, and Japanese bandoneonist Ryota Komatsu.
You can listen to a live in-studio performance from KCRW’s excellent show Morning Becomes Eclectic, or download the track “Pa’ Bailar” below. And if you’re interested in more electronic/tango fusion, I definitely recommend checking out Gotan Project, one of the genre’s pioneers.
When Debbie Budd’s father turned 80 years old, she didn’t bake him an ordinary cake. No sir, she made this delicious masterpiece — a chocolate accordion cake complete with white chocolate buttons and chocolate icing bellows. The cake is a full-size replica of a two-row button accordion that Debbie bought her father as a birthday gift. Read Debbie’s instructions to learn how to make your own, or check out this YouTube video where Debbie points out some of the cake’s finer details. (Anyone else need a glass of milk after seeing that cake?)
I receive a lot of emails from people who have found (or been given) an old accordion and are looking to identify it and determine its value. And while this is a common predicament, there are very few resources online for accurately identifying vintage accordions. So I typically ask these people where they’re located and refer them to a local accordion shop. (Especially since, to do an accurate appraisal, you really need to see, hear, and even smell an accordion in person.)
But lately I’ve been thinking, why not throw some of these queries to our readers — after all, you’re probably one of the most diverse and knowledgeable collections of accordion enthusiasts online. So, we’re starting a regular feature called “Name That Accordion”, where we post photos of re-discovered accordions and ask you, our fair readers, to help identify their age, origin, and any other historical details you can muster up.
Our first subjects come from Carmen L., who is researching three accordions that her late stepfather left her. We’ve posted a few photos on Flickr — there’s a black 120-bass Wurlitzer, a blue two-row Concertone, and a red German-made 12-bass. If you can help fill in the details on any of these boxes, post a comment here or over at Flickr. Let’s test the wisdom of the crowds!
Idi Amin Playing Accordion After The Last King of Scotland was released, I read how Forest Whitaker learned to play accordion as he prepared for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. But, until now, I’d never actually seen a clip of Amin playing. (Probably not the ideal poster boy for the accordion, though…)
Hang on tight — it’s another edition of “Five Questions”, our interview series with noteworthy accordion personalities from around the globe.
Few accordionists can cross genres as comfortably as Bradley Jaye Williams. Born in Michigan, Williams moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and then to Austin, where his music career really took off, playing with the likes of Flaco Jimenez and Mingo Saldivar. He currently plays in three bands: an authentic Texas-style conjunto called Conjunto Los Pinkys, a Cajun/Zydeco dance band known as The Gulf Coast Playboys, and The Fabulous Polkasonics, a combo that plays Polish-American “honky style” polkas, waltzes, and obereks.
When and why did you first start playing the accordion?
In 1986, I started playing the 2-row button accordion while living in a tiny studio apartment in Berkeley, California. My neighbors listened to me struggle with “La Cucaracha” and “La Nopalera” for a few months! Why did I start playing? I love accordion music! It was the natural thing to do. It felt right. To me, the accordion was always cool and it’s at the heart of many styles of dance music I love. I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan around all kinds of music… Motown, country, Dixieland, jazz, rock n’ roll and polka music… mainly the Polish-American and German music of Marv Herzog and Lawrence Welk (of course).
Living in the Bay Area in my 20’s, I experienced the music of Flaco Jimenez and it really struck a chord with me. Here was good old polka music being chopped and customized in a new and different way. I loved it. Ultimately, I think I was drawn to the international and cross-cultural appeal of accordion music and polka… the songs, customs, dance, food and pure FUN we all share. Of course, there is also something very compelling about the accordion itself: a magnificent machine…beautifully designed…and a challenge to play.
In honor of Accordion Awareness Month, shirt.woot.com is featuring an accordion t-shirt which reads “Everything’s going accordion to plan!” for $15. From the site:
“Wear this shirt: every day during National Accordion Awareness Month, this June and every June. Don’t wear this shirt: while you’re playing accordion. Then nobody’ll see that hilarious pun.”
You probably already have it marked on your calendar, but in case you didn’t, June is Accordion Awareness Month. The “holiday” was established in 1989 by San Franciscan Tom Torriglia to promote and educate people about the accordion, as well as help spread the word about the accordion’s resurgence in popularity. (Tom was also instrumental — pun intended — in getting the accordion named San Francisco’s official instrument in 1990.)
“But how do I celebrate Accordion Awareness Month?” Here are some ideas:
I spent my Memorial Day weekend in Mendocino, lounging around my in-laws’ house, reading their subscription to Smithsonian magazine when I stumbled across an article about vallenato, the popular accordion-driven folk music from Colombia. It mentioned that on June 6, a new Smithsonian film about vallenato called The Accordion Kings will premiere at the National History Museum.
The documentary focuses on the annual accordion competition held at the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata in Valledupar. (We’ve shown clips of this festival on our site before.) Traditionally played with the accordion, caja (drum), and guacharaca (percussion stick), vallenato is a melting pot of African, European, and Colombian rhythms and sounds. Here’s a clip of five-time competition winner Hugo C Granados, who last year won the special Rey de Reyes (“King of Kings”) contest which is held only once every ten years.
It’s probably no surprise that Weird Al Yankovic is on the cutting edge of accordion technology and, indeed, Roland has a fun little interview with him about their V-Accordion line of digital accordions. Apparently Al has been an FR-7 user for quite some time and just picked up the smaller, lighter FR-2. In the interview, Al talks about the appeal of a digital accordion versus an acoustic one:
“I really like the idea that it is a direct connection. The accordion is a hard instrument to mic, because if you put an acoustic microphone next to an accordion — especially the left hand — the bellows are always moving. So it’s kind of hard to get an even sound, because the mic is always going to be closer and then further away from the sound source. Internal microphones are also always a problem, because you still get the sound of the bellows. So just the simple fact that there’s a digital solution out there where you get a clean accordion sound is very appealing to me.”
Weird Al will be on tour this summer supporting his latest album, Straight Outta Lynwood; keep an eye on our calendar for dates. (Interview found via Wired).
I thought MTV gave up on music years ago, opting instead to corner the market on inane reality shows for 16 year olds. Despite their best efforts, however, some music manages to occasionally escape onto their airwaves. Thankfully, one example is Mexican singer/songwriter/accordionist Julieta Venegas’ recent performance on MTV Unplugged, which was released this month as both an album and DVD.
Hang on tight — it’s another edition of “Five Questions”, our interview series with noteworthy accordion personalities from around the globe.
It’s probably no surprise that 