A tireless promoter of Slovenian culture and button accordion music, Frank Vidergar passed away late last month. Vidergar started the Far West Button Accordion Jamboree, an event that drew hundreds of button accordionists to Fontana, CA, every year for a weekend of spirited music and dancing. The Jamboree recently evolved into the National Button Accordion Festival, now held on Memorial Day weekend in Yukon, OK.
In the Fontana Herald-News, Philip Rue remembers a past Jamboree where Vidergar “directed a patriotic program as 30 accordions and button boxes en masse played ‘God Bless America’ with the audience singing along.”
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has an excellent article on Vidergar’s life, focusing on his Slovenian roots and dedication to the community
Honoring Zydeco’s King Remembering the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, on the 20th anniversary of his death. “Sometimes, if I’m stuck on one of his songs and I can’t figure it out, I’ll go out there [to Chenier’s tomb] and just kind of play it,” said Corey Ledet. “In about 30 minutes, I’ll be playing it.”
Mr. Accordion Man At age five, Walter Lawrence received an accordion for Christmas. More than fifty years later, he’s still playing — now serenading customers four nights a week at a local restaurant. “By day, he shuffles paper at an office job. ‘But this is what I am,’ he says. ‘This is my love.'”
As Americans remember those who served their country on this Veterans Day, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a feature on World War II veterans sharing their stories for a collection of oral histories called An Honor to Serve. One of the stories comes from John Martino, a veteran who brought his accordion while landing on Omaha Beach, fought his way across Europe, and eventually captured Hitler’s accordion:
“Martino ‘captured’ Hitler’s Hohner accordion when the Nazi Reich was defeated in 1945. ‘I had about 21 accordions over there… A lot of them got shot up, and this is the only one that made it home with me. This thing is history. It has to be 85, 90 years old.'”
Martino still has the accordion — a Hohner Verdi IIIB that he found in Hitler’s mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden, Germany — which will be donated to the military museum at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
Take one accordion virtuoso from Pennsylvania, son of a polka legend, with a diverse background in jazz, pop, and folk. Take one bass player from Texas, formerly of Brave Combo, known for rocking Tex-Mex and cumbias with Los Super Vatos. Put them together and what do you get? Polka Freak Out!
Polka Freak Out is a collaboration between Alex Meixner and Bubba Hernandez that combines polka styles from around the world (Slovenian, Austrian, Polish, you name it) with conjunto/tejano rhythms and rock and roll energy and enthusiasm. It started with a casual jam session a few years ago, while Hernandez was passing through Alex’s area during a Brave Combo tour. Now they’ve released their first self-titled album, which includes guest appearances by bajo sexto legend Max Baca and Texas Tornado keyboardist Augie Meyers.
The duo will be out on the road later this month, with shows in New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago. Check our calendar for details.
If you’re in Santa Cruz tonight, head on down to Bookshop Santa Cruz for a one-of-a-kind book signing with colorful accordionist, The Great Morgani. He’ll be signing his new autobiography, The Great Morgani: The Creative Madness of a Middle-Aged Stockbroker Turned Street Musician, which depicts many of the outrageouscostumes he’s created throughout the years. Of course, he’ll be performing, too.
For those who aren’t familiar with The Great Morgani (aka Frank Lima), he’s become a fixture in the Santa Cruz area, performing downtown and at various festivals while covered head-to-toe in mind-blowing, homemade costumes. Most people would never guess that Lima was originally a stock broker who retired at 35 and didn’t start performing as The Great Morgani until after he was 50. Today, he’s 65 and still spends hours with his sewing machine and glue gun putting together new costumes.
“It all depends on the body… I’m doing more now than ever. As long as it’s fun and creative, I’ll keep going. But if you see me at age 85 on a 3-foot stool wearing gold lycra, please intervene.”
Do you dig jazz accordion? Yesterday’s Boston Globe has a glowing review of a recent performance by Cory Pesaturo, a 21-year-old jazz accordionist from Boston. Pesaturo is the only accordion player at the New England Conservatory of Music and, according to the Globe, “makes the instrument sound as natural and native to jazz as the saxophone or trumpet.”
Pesaturo switches between acoustic and digital accordions, using the latter to play solos as different “instruments” simultaneously. In an interview with the Providence Journal, he mentions how people are often surprised by the accordion’s versatility:
“It catches people’s eyes, and you can do anything with it. Most people think it’s only the polka box, but you can do totally everything.”
He’s just released a new album, Change in the Weather, with saxophonist George Garzone, who’s a teacher at the Conservatory where Pesaturo is a student. Here’s their rendition of a Cole Porter classic from that album:
The apple never falls far from the tree… or accordion, I guess. While poking around YouTube the other day, I stumbled across a video of the Pete Contino Band. That’s right: Pete is the son of Mr. “Lady of Spain” himself, Dick Contino. Pete toured as a drummer with his father for nearly fifteen years, but now plays accordion with his own band in a style he describes as “acoustic blues with a touch of zydeco.” After putting out his first solo album (Push It) in 2005, Pete has a collaboration with his father coming out later this year. Simply called Contino, the new album features a mix of jazz, blues, rock, latin and more.
Based in Las Vegas, Pete and his band often play at Brendan’s Irish Pub, located at the Orleans Hotel and Casino. Here’s a live clip of the Pete Contino Band doing “Hot Tamale Baby”:
Anna and I recently saw the new Disney-Pixar film Ratatouille (two thumbs up!) and we came away big fans of Michael Giacchino’s soundtrack, particularly for its liberal use of the accordion. (As you might expect from a film set in Paris.) But who was squeezing the bellows as Remy and his buddies took over the kitchen at Gusteau’s? Sure enough, it was the hardest-working accordionist in Hollywood, Frank Marocco.
Frank Marocco grew up just outside of Chicago (Waukegan) and started playing the accordion when he was only seven years old. By the 1950s, he had formed his own trio and played the hotel and club circuit around Las Vegas and Palm Springs before moving to Los Angeles. There, he played with the Les Brown Band, joined Bob Hope on countless tours overseas, and began his career as a highly sought-after session musician. His hundreds of credits range from the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds to the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Odds are, if you hear an accordion in a movie, TV show, or commercial — it’s Frank Marocco.
One of Marocco’s hallmarks has always been his versatility. Jazz, classical, latin… regardless of the genre, he always plays flawlessly and passionately. Here’s a video clip of Marocco performing his own arrangement of Astor Piazzola’s classic tango, “Oblivion”:
One of my coworkers caught the San Francisco Symphony’s free concert in Dolores Park on Sunday, which featured bandoneón virtuoso Daniel Binelli. Binelli is a seasoned tango veteran, having been a member of both Osvaldo Pugliese’s orchestra and Astor Piazzolla’s New Tango Sextet, touring extensively with the latter until Piazzolla’s death.
Today, Binelli often performs with symphonies, his own quintet, and as part of a duo with Uruguayan pianist Polly Ferman. A longtime friend of Piazzolla’s, Binelli is considered one of the primary torchbearers of the tango nuevo master’s musical legacy. Here’s a clip of Binelli interpreting Piazzolla’s classic “Adios Nonino”:
Born into an Acadian family in St. Charles, New Brunswick, Elly Kelly started playing accordion at the age of 13 and was soon joining her mother, father, and brother onstage at square dances, jamborees and talent shows. After taking time off to raise three children, Elly has returned to music with a lively album of reels and waltzes called Yesterday’s Dream.
The album opens with a nod to her musical roots — a high-spirited clip recorded by her parents at her childhood home more than 25 years ago. From there, it’s nothing but foot-stompin’, feel-good music buoyed by Elly’s passionate accordion playing and complemented by June Eikhard’s fiddle work. This is a perfect summer evening party-on-the-porch record; the kind of down-home, old-time party music you enjoy while laughing and relaxing with friends.
Elly doesn’t currently have a website, but if you want to learn more or order her CD, you can email her at ellykellymusic at gmail.com.
Do you dig jazz accordion? Yesterday’s Boston Globe has a 
Born into an Acadian family in St. Charles, New Brunswick, Elly Kelly started playing accordion at the age of 13 and was soon joining her mother, father, and brother onstage at square dances, jamborees and talent shows. After taking time off to raise three children, Elly has returned to music with a lively album of reels and waltzes called Yesterday’s Dream.