Sous le Ciel de Paris (Still Learning)

A few months ago I mentioned that I was determined to learn the Edith Piaf classic, "Sous le Ciel de Paris." I had been asked to accompany a singer, but then decided I wanted to learn the Tune itself. I saw the Anders Johannson video and was thoroughly inspired. In the end, I did not use his arrangement. I based mine on the arrangement my singer was using. There are some techniques of Johannson's that I would dearly love to get under my fingers -- those descants! But I'm pleased with the progress I've made. I follow the example of fellow blogger Owen Woods who, in April, posted some "experimental" work he was doing with descants, and then just recently posted a piece about the joys of being "out of my depth." Very joyful, indeed. Sigh.



Some technical points. I'm playing it basically in A minor, but there's a lot of straying from typical diato chords. I pulled the thirds out of the chords on the left hand. My goal wasn't so much to find the right chord for the song, but to find a dyad that fit with the chord.

Vivant: Tree of Life

I wrote about Vivant -- the duo of Clive Williams, melodeon, and Mark Prescott, violin -- some months ago, including some lengthy commentary by Clive himself! At the time I was enthusing about their first recording. Clive mentioned that a second disc was in the works. It's here.

Tree of Life builds on the strengths of its predecesor with a sort of whirling romantic simplicity. There's a bit more of the melancholy here then on the first. And at one point these English and French tunes actually evoked a Russian winter to me. Though that could simply be because I'm reading Dostoyevsky at the moment (for which this recording provides a perfect soundtrack).

This isn't meant to be a proper review. Rather, I'm hoping to call your attention to beautiful work being done by two artists in a way that suits the music, the instruments, and me. Go to Vivant's bandcamp page to stream, download, or order.

First Tunes with the Baffetti

Videos down below!

The Dino Baffetti Tex-Mex II/34 arrived on Thursday! Very exciting! I had intended to do an internal examination of the box, a la Owen Woods or Daddy Long Les, but I found I couldn't bear to take a screw driver to it, not even to remove the grill. I'm made of less stern stuff than that, it seems.

Instead, I've been playing the heck out of it. Here are some first thoughts:

• Big one!  Playing a three row is different from playing two or two-and-a-half row or even two-row-plus-accidentals. Possibly this is obvious. The three row quint box can do different things that I don't yet know how to do. New frontiers!
• The two row repertoire works just fine on this one. Even if it is obvious that playing up-and-down the rows is not what it was built to do, everything I've been learning for the last 15 years is essentially transferable!
• At melodeon.net there is a recurring discussion about stepped keyboards vs. flat keyboards. Playing a flat keyboard for the first time in years has made no difference to me.
• Even though this is an F/Bb/Eb box (which is exactly what I was after) I'm choosing to name it as G/C/F and recognize that it's a transposing instrument. All of the sheet music and tab is for G/C/F, so this seems simplest.
• It sounds AMAZING. Essentially, as one colleague mentioned, it's a clone of a Hohner Corona, done to a absurdly high level of quality. The sound is so very sweet. And the touch is effortless. I do have fond feelings for Hohner accordions, but this is a cut above.
• I love it.
• It is a little silly that with five rows of box to my name, I still don't have a D row. What sort of psychological block am I dealing with. Is it PTSD from the Minneapolis Irish sessions?

Here are three videos with the Baffetti. The first is a hanter dro written by Sylvain Piron.

The second is another hanter dro, traditional, that I learned from Steve Gruverman.

The third is a Breton March, traditional, that I learned from the playing of Daniel Thonon.

Rémi Geffroy

A beautiful piece by Rémi Geffroy's trio. I'm not sure what this genre of sweet, folkish, instrumental music should be called. It's like an amazing soundtrack for a movie that has yet to be made. There's so much story going on in it. It's based in his traditional Aveyron upbringing, but there's a lot there. This piece is from Geffroy's recent, fantastic album, Entre-Deux.

Welcoming Baffetti

The plan unfolds slowly! Made arrangements for sale of the Nik, yesterday, and arranged to purchase a Dino Baffetti, Tex-Mex II/34 from the Button Box. As it happens, both the buyer of the Nik and the Button Box are right near Sunderland, Massachusetts.  Saturday, I'll be making the pilgrimage.

Here's a picture of the Baffetti, and there's a video over on the Button Box site. It's a three-row, MM box, tuned American Tremolo (as was the Nik), with rows in F/Bb/Eb. Baffetti has a stellar reputation as a maker. As the name of the thing suggests, it was made for the Tex-Mex market, but its wider tuning perfectly suits all of the French musics I'm obsessed with. This decision has been a long time coming. I've loved that Nik, but have felt the redundancy of its G/C tuning many times at gigs. Also, working in a chanson trio with Barbara Truex and Joëlle Morris, the need for key flexibility is urgent. Finally, I've wanted a three-row quint tuned box for ages. Now I get my chance. I'm already thinking of the new possibilities for across-the-row madness and right-hand chords.

Here's hoping it all goes off as planned!

Castagnari Nik (G/C) for Sale (SOLD)

UPDATE:  Arrangements for sale have been made!

In order to meet my wider musical goals, I'm putting my beloved Castagnari Nik (G/C) up for sale. It's in perfect condition, comes with original straps, and the Castagnari box. A two row, 8 bass machine, two-reeds tuned MM, "American Tremolo." What does all that mean? It means an amazing simple box with a lovely sound.  I love this box, but having two quality boxes in G/C doesn't serve my needs. I'm asking $2000 for this box. A new box of the same type goes for $2365 at the Button Box. I would also take a good quality F/Bb/Eb (Baffetti, for example) box in trade, if one were offered.

Contact accordeonaire@aol.com.

Here's a video:



And another:

La Chavannée Videos

The magic that is La Chavannée is on display in some quality videos on YouTube. Here is an assortment. Thanks to Mitch Gordon, and Phillipe Wurlgue and Jeff Dantin (of Morvan Productions) for posting these.