Not just for polkas

Thanks to Anthony Cornicello for citing Accordion Awareness Month (i.e., June), which I hope will cause those skeptical of the instrument to reconsider.  The accordion has long struck me as one of the world's most difficult instruments to play, requiring not one, not two, but three separate techniques operating in seamless harmony.  Perhaps the enduring image of Lawrence Welk has prevented some listeners from taking the repertoire seriously, and to those I would suggest checking out Bill Schimmel, whose rapturous reading of Sofia Gubaidulina's De Profundis a few years ago is still burned in my memory, or the work of Mikko Luoma, one of the leaders of a new generation of Finnish accordion virtuosos. 

And for those who like molten-lava jazz, Dwayne Dopsie (leader of the Zydeco Hellraisers) is about as ferociously talented as they come.  It's no accident that he has been called "Hottest Accordion in America" by the American Accordionists Association.

Comments

[Lisa Hirsch]

http://irontongue.blogspot.com/2008/06/words-i-never-thought-id-see-together.html