Dominic Frontiere’s Mighty Accordion Band

With an album cover featuring an accordion-playing gorilla, you know it has to be good. Or at least, well, really bizarre. And that’s definitely the case with “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” by The Mighty Accordion Band. The album features a 20-accordion-strong band playing unique arrangements of classics like “April in Paris”, “La Vie En Rose”, and “Caravan” (check here for audio clips), while the back cover boasts:

“If you’re looking for a nice old-time accordion album with Lady of Spain and the like, it should be pretty clear already that this isn’t it. For the listener, music by the Mighty Accordion Band can be summed up simply: more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

The album was the brainchild of Dominic Frontiere, a jazz accordionist known for his willingness to push the envelope, who later turned his attention to arranging scores for film and television. Perhaps not surprisingly, this seems to be the only album he made with the Mighty Accordion Band. [Found via Echoes from AP3 in Pezland]