Following recent talk about The Groanbox Boys on The Mothership .... here's the groanboxmeister in another guise. This is an example of the power of the Hyper Accordion which has attracted the attention of the classical world and composers like Osvaldo Golijov. As a serial musical dilettante, I once had an 80 bass Hohner accordion, ... which lost its magic after I gave myself a black eye by walking into a lamppost whilst playing Christmas carols in the dark ... head down, concentrating on all those bloomin' bass buttons ...
More about Michael's accordions here http://www.mjwb.co.uk/
And Spill points to anyone who can identify Fraudulent Guru, Sudhay Master J ...
8 comments:
I feel blessed!
TatYo: Aha, a fellow accordionista! My iTunes is full of various accordion groups and soloists. I recall many years ago in my DJ period announcing to the world at large that "The accordion has become my favorite instrument!"
Not sure if I'd still say that but I do enjoy it and seek it out.
This was an interesting piece, I've never heard of Michael Ward-Bergeman nor the Hyper accordion but in the tiny town where I live there's an annual accordion festival, years ago I became aware that there were players who were hooking into midi and the many possibilities therein of sonic manipulation, sounds like Michael was one of those.
There's an interesting DVD available, try google and Amazon,
[http://www.amazon.com/Accordion-Tribe/dp/B000006OAJ]
it's 'The Accordion Tribe', a group of five international, brilliant musicians who came together for a European tour some years ago. They are, Maria Kalaniemi, Guy Klucevsek, Otto Lechner, Bratco Bibic and Lars Hollmer; it's a very well made video with much interesting music resulting from these world class artists coming together to perform. I'd definitely suggest anyone interested in where jazz and the accordion interact should check out the name Otto Lechner, an Austrian who's doing very interesting stuff.
A few more names well worth pursuing:
Chango Spasiuk from Argentina.
Richard Galliano, French artist, considered by many to be the greatest player alive, check him at Wiki.
And of course Astor Piazzolla also from Argentina though he performs in a very specific genre and doesn't use a 'real' accordion, he plays the bandonion but you'd never know the difference. An enormous library of wonderful music, start with the Central Park Concert.
None of the above deal in polkas nor Lady of Spain!
@gf I'm without sound on my computer at the moment, so haven't been able to listen to TY's post yet. I have, however, had the pleasure of hearing the new CD by Klaus Paier & Asja Valcic. I think you might like it, so here's their website:
http://www.klaus-paier.com/html/projekte/duo_paier_valcic.html
Debby: Thank you, I've just checked the site but wasn't able to play anything there, I'll keep looking....T.
GF that's my weekend sorted, following up your links. Michael played a concert in Hong Kong last Autumn featuring a performance of Osvaldo Golijov's Azul with Yo-Yo Ma and as part of the programme, had been commissioned to rearrange Astor Piazzolla's Aconcagua concerto for bandoneon for piano accordion & stradella bass. He's also been over your way, working on the soundtrack for the next Francis F Coppola film Tetro,set in Argentina, which has given him an outlet for his love of Raul Barboza and the Chamamé style.
TatYo; Yeah, I saw the bit about the Coppola score, plus there's a review of a performance there with Yo Yo at UCLA that sounded interesting. Frances Ford's one of my idols so a film shot in Argentina is exciting.
Just when we thought the 'Spill had it all covered, Tank goes & pulls out his accordian.
I think I know the other FG!
Aspect ratio for FG vid is 16:9, best to use these dimensions for posting : width="498" height="306"
Music and info about the upcoming Coppola film can be found here:
www.tetro.com
Peace!
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