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:
Memorial Day Weekend is almost here and that can only mean one thing… festival season! Whether it’s a celebration of Polish culture or crawfish, festivals are the perfect excuse to get outside, have fun, and listen to some great music. Preferably accordion music.
The season kicks off with two big accordion-related festivals this weekend; the first is the National Button Accordion Festival in Bessemer, PA. This festival is the rebirth of the old Fontana Jamboree and features three full days of dancing and jamming to Czech, Polish, Slovenian, Austrian, German, and many other types of music. And despite the name, piano accordionists are welcome.
Meanwhile, the small town of Ennis, TX plays host to the National Polka Festival. The largest Czech heritage festival in the US, the National Polka Festival has all the ingredients for a great summer festival — there’s a parade, a festival king and queen, tons of food (kolaches galore!), and a bunch of bands. Brave Combo, Polka Freak Out, Vrazel’s Polka Band, and many more will be leading folks on multiple dance floors.
Northern California has had its fair share of accordion festivals over the years, so it was only a matter of time before Southern California got into the act. The first Los Angeles Accordion Festival is a three-day event running from May 30th to June 1st at Eagles Hall in Los Angeles.
Designed to showcase some of L.A.’s finest new accordion talent, there’ll be four or five bands performing each night with diverse styles ranging from Irish to Tex-Mex, Cajun to Rockabilly, and nearly everything in-between. On Saturday, May 31st, there’ll also be an accordion workshop on the three-row button accordion led by Otono Lujan of Conjunto Los Pochos, accordion instructor at the Eagle Rock Music Studio. For more information — including a full list of artists performing — check the festival website or the listing on our calendar.
After spending the weekend adding concerts and festivals to our accordion events calendar, I’ll highlight two events going on this week. First, classical accordionist Lidia Kaminska performs Rimsky-Korsakov and Piazzolla with the Haddonfield Symphony in Camden, NJ. Yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer had a excellent profile of Lidia and her quest to rehabiliate the accordion’s image. “I don’t want people to think of accordion only as a polka or wedding instrument. I want people to have knowledge – that it is a serious classical instrument.”
Meanwhile, down on the Bayou, this weekend’s Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival features some of the biggest names in Cajun/Zydeco. Performers include Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, the Pine Leaf Boys, Geno Delafose, Keith Frank, and Corey Ledet, but the main attraction is the crawfish. There’ll be a crawfish cookoff, a crawfish eating contest, the crowning of the Crawfish Queen, and, of course, crawfish races. Please, no wagering.
The South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival kicked off in Austin today and, with hundreds of artists performing at over eighty venues, there are plenty of accordions in the mix. As we’ve done in previousyears, here’s a quick look at some performers that may have flown under your radar:
Dusty Rhodes and the River Band
Not your typical West Coast indie rock band, this Orange County six piece blends a love for 70’s era classic rock with folk and bluegrass, ensuring that the guitars are never far from the accordion, violin, and banjo. Dusty Rhodes and the River Band: Dear Honeymp3
Rana Santacruz
Born in Mexico City and heavily influenced by both folk and alternative music, Santacruz’s music has been labeled by some as “Irish mariachi”, favoring acoustic instruments like the guitar, accordion, and guitarrone. Rana Santacruz: Cajita de Barromp3
1001 Nights Orchestra
Austin’s longest running Middle Eastern music group has a repertoire that stretches from Southwest Asia and the Caucuses in the East to the shores of the Mediterranean in the West, as well as many original compositions. 1001 Nights Orchestra: Neda Voda Nali Valamp3
There are few places where you can hear so many excellent artists in one place, so if you’re anywhere near Austin this week — on your way to the National Accordion Association convention in Richardson, perhaps? — stop in, have a drink, and meet your new favorite band.
Next week, the National Accordion Association is holding its annual festival in Richardson, Texas. It sounds like a blast — three days of concerts, workshops, and hobnobbing with fellow accordionists. I’m especially envious of the “Accordion All-Stars” performance on Friday night featuring Carl Finch of Brave Combo, Ginny Mac, Danny Jerabek of Copper Box, and many more.
If there’s anyone attending the festival who’s interested in writing something about it for Let’s Polka, drop me a line and let me know. We’ll try to make it worth your while.
If you’re in the festival mood this weekend, you can still catch the tail end of a couple good ones. The American Accordion Musicological Society (say that three times fast) is having their annual bash in Pennsylvania, with a massed band performance and numerous workshops on Sunday. Meanwhile, down in San Antonio, family-run KEDA Radio Jalapeno’s weekend party concludes with performances by Eddie “Lalo” Torres, Ricky Naranjo, and many others.
Now that we have a newborn, I have (a little) more justification for staying up all night working on our accordion events calendar. I’ve added a couple new features, including:
Search by location. Use the search box at the top of the calendar home page to find all events within 50, 100, 250, or even 500 miles of any city you choose. Admittedly, this isn’t completely new, but it works more reliably now and you can also get an RSS feed of the results — for example, all the events within 50 miles of New York City or 100 miles of Lafayette, Louisiana.
Best of all, we currently have almost 300 events listed on the calendar! But we know we’re still only scratching the surface, so if you know of an accordion concert, club meeting, or workshop in your area, tell us about it!
“For many years, people made fun of the accordion, but we wanted to show what can be done on the accordion… I think making fun of the accordion is on its way out. People are realizing you can play serious music on it.”
The festival features nonstop accordion entertainment on the main stage, as well as free workshops and lessons (they’ll provide the accordions) throughout the afternoon. There will also be a “Rising Star Stage” to showcase students and the afternoon will culminate in a big jam session open to all.
Posted February 22nd, 2008 in Events · Comments off
Guy Klucevsek and Alan Bern have long been in the vanguard of contemporary accordion music; Klucevsek with his background in classical and (often whimsical) avant-garde music and Bern with his work in world music, particularly the jazz/klezmer ensemble Brave Old World. Last year, the pair released their second album together, Notefalls; I don’t have it yet, but I’ve long been a fan of their 2001 release, Accordance. In a recent interview, Klucevsek explains his attraction to the sound of accordions playing together:
“The accordions are never exactly in tune with each other. It’s a little raw and — I don’t know if ugly’s the right word — a little dirty… It’s always going to have a little bit of dirt on it when you have more than one accordion, and the dirt in music is what I really find interesting.”
Klucevsek and Bern will be playing a handful of shows together on the East Coast over the next two weeks, starting with a performance in Philadelphia on Friday night. Check our calendar for more information.
Few artists challenge notions of what the accordion can or can’t do quite like Poland’s Motion Trio. Since 1996, Motion Trio has been taking its unorthodox playing techniques (bellows scraping, accentuated vibrato) and eclectic repertoire (jazz, rock, avant garde) from the streets where they first honed their skills to the concert hall. According to trio founder, Janusz Wojtarowicz:
“Our idea is to take this instrument, which is only thought about for weddings or polka or tango, and to make it as serious as any other classical instrument… We want to show the world that this is a versatile instrument that can play everything from contemporary classical music to folk or even avant garde music.”
Last Sunday, the trio played at Carnegie Hall in New York and I found an excellent clip of their performance online. It cuts off abruptly at the end, but you’ll get the idea — their playing is inspired, quirky, and totally captivating.
The 