One of the ideas we try to promote here is that the accordion isn’t just a polka instrument, or a Cajun instrument, or a Tex-Mex instrument: it’s all those things and much, much more. For well over a hundred years now, accordions have been an essential player in genres ranging from avant-garde jazz to zydeco, in countries from Albania to Zimbabwe.

This past weekend, I stumbled across a great video that captures this idea. “The Accordion Party” is a medley of songs showing how the accordion has been a key player in party music the world over since its invention in the 1800’s. It’s by no means complete, but it’s a fun survey of the accordion’s global reach.

The video was created by cdza, a group of musicians in New York who create “musical video experiments.” They’re incredibly talented and I highly recommend checking out their other videos, including “Journey of the Guitar Solo” and “An Abridged History of Western Music in 16 Genres”.