Forget Guitar Hero. In Valledupar, Colombia — the birthplace of vallenato music — children dream of becoming accordion stars. And for many of those children, Andres “Turco” Gil’s accordion school is the perfect place to start their journey.

Gil has about 1,000 students, some as young as 3 years old, but most between the ages of 6 and 15. They attend his school for free, with tuition supported by donations, proceeds from concerts, and tuition from other students who come from around the world to study with Gil. Many have the opportunity to win prizes at Valledupar’s annual accordion festival, but according to Gil, the accordion plays a more important role to his students, most of whom live in poverty:

“A child who plays accordion or other instrument doesn’t pick up a gun… The music makes them noble, it changes their heart. They start to sing, they forget about their problems and they feel happy.”

This audio slideshow shows Gil’s school in action, including one of his star pupils, a 9 year old blind boy named Juan David Atencia.

From Petosa to Jason Webley, we’ve always known Seattle to be a forward-thinking, accordion-savvy town. So it’s no surprise that one of Seattle’s hottest new bands, Hey Marseilles, features our favorite instrument as well. Drawing comparisons to bands like Arcade Fire and Beirut, Hey Marseilles plays swirling, orchestral folk-rock with soaring arrangements incorporating violin, cello, sousaphone, trumpet, bass drum, and more. Their self-released debut album, To Travels & Trunks, ranges from ambitiously sweeping to soft and spare. The selection below is one of my favorites, and a great accordion showcase.

Hey Marseilles: From a Terrace mp3

Buy To Travels & Trunks by Hey Marseilles

I couldn’t pass up an article titled “Love for accordions even saved his life”, and this story of accordion player/repairman/collector Nic Schewtschenko doesn’t disappoint. During World War II, he and thousands of other Russians were rounded up and put in a camp outside Minsk by German soldiers. Fortunately for Schewtschenko, he had a talent that the Germans needed:

“After two days of no food, a German officer waded through the Russian captives, asking for someone who knew how to fix accordions. Apparently the soldiers had damaged theirs during drunken frolicking the night before… The Germans took him to a garage where he was fed, given time to recoup his strength, then put to work mending the accordion while many of his compatriots starved to death in the field.”

After the war, Schewtschenko moved to Canada where he owned a construction business and repaired accordions on the side. Today he’s 87 years old and, while he’s retired and in the process of selling most of the 60 accordions he has accumulated over the years, is still sought after for his accordion expertise.

For years, accordionists have been exercising their hands and arms while their poor feet wither away due to neglect. But no more! Behold the foot bass (or “Basse aux pieds”), a 12-key bellows-driven instrument played entirely with your feet. Invented by Joseph Alexandry in 1894, this instrument was (supposedly) popular in the first half of the 20th century and, thanks to renewed interest by contemporary musicians, is poised for a comeback. A brand-new foot bass, built by Harry Geuns in Belgium, will set you back nearly 2000 Euros, but at least your feet will never be bored again.

Foot Bass playing “The Merry Widows” mp3

I’ve run across some colorful accordion cases over the years, but I really like this one from Alaska artist Tam Johannes. An accordion player herself, Johannes has been “jazzing up” her cases using a combination of mosaic and decoupage, incorporating everything from tarot cards to game pieces. We’ve recently cast aside our hard-shell accordion cases for soft ones (more comfy and easily portable), but I’m guessing there are some readers out there with funky cases of their own. Leave a comment — even better, show us a photo — if you do.

Yesterday’s New York Times had a rave review for a recent performance by Chango Spasiuk, one of our favorite Argentine accordionists. Spasiuk is best known as an innovator of chamamé, a folk music from northeast Argentina which blends native Guarani, Creole and European traditions. But Spasiuk’s music goes beyond the traditional, incorporating rock, jazz and even avant-garde references. He’s drawn comparisons to his fellow countryman, the legendary Astor Piazzolla, and indeed, Spasiuk may well be doing for chamamé what Piazzolla did for tango.

Chango Spasiuk: Governor Virasoro mp3

• CBS News: Accordions in Russia
  CBS News goes to Russia and finds a culture that embraces the accordion, with virtuosos like Valery Kovtun selling out concerts and young students lining up for lessons. The segment includes an interview with jazz accordion legend Art Van Damme during a recent trip to Moscow.
• The Russia Journal: Amassing Accordions
  The “most accordion-obsessed person in the former Soviet Union”, Alfred Mirek has collected thousands of accordions and accordion-related objects over the past fifty years. Mirek has compiled an accordion encyclopedia, created a classification chart, and maintains that the accordion really originated in Russia, not Germany. Part of his collection is currently on display as part of the Moscow City Museum.
• Russian Garmoshka
  The garmoshka (or garmon) is a type of Russian button accordion. The standard button arrangment is known as “25×25”: 25 treble buttons in two rows and 25 bass buttons in three rows.

Okay, accordion sleuths: reader Diane has sent us a few photos of an accordion with two notable features: a small V and “C10” on the front grille and a “Made in Italy” nameplate on the back. Thinking the V might be a clue to the manufacturer’s name, Diane contacted Victoria Accordions in Italy, but they didn’t recognize it. Any ideas? Click here for more photos.

Bring together four of the best young accordion players in Scotland, each with their own distinctive style of playing, and you have Box Club. Gary Innes, John Somerville, Mairearad Green and Angus Lyon all met through the vibrant Glasgow music scene and saw an opportunity to showcase the versatility of the accordion by playing together. In a recent interview with the Highland News, they discussed the pros and cons of a four accordion band:

“One good thing with accordions is that they only have to be tuned once every five or six months, so you don’t have that thing of tuning onstage for the accordions. But it can be quite unforgiving as the note is either on or not, so if you’re all playing the same thing, the note has to be identical. So we’ve been spending a bit of time learning each other’s styles.”

This track comes from their debut album, released last Spring in the UK.

Box Club: Polkska mp3