00:00:03.025 --> 00:00:05.858
(accordion music)

00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:09.722
- [Roberta] I have always
felt a certain affinity

00:00:09.722 --> 00:00:11.555
for the misunderstood.

00:00:12.966 --> 00:00:15.579
Conventional wisdom tells
us that the accordion

00:00:15.579 --> 00:00:16.912
has had its day.

00:00:19.334 --> 00:00:21.155
But what if everything we thought we knew

00:00:21.155 --> 00:00:22.681
about this most maligned

00:00:22.681 --> 00:00:26.212
of all musical instruments were wrong?

00:00:26.212 --> 00:00:30.644
And what if the real story
were one of incredible variety,

00:00:30.644 --> 00:00:33.221
a fascinating caste of characters,

00:00:33.221 --> 00:00:36.804
their deep passions,
dreams and dedication?

00:00:37.813 --> 00:00:41.313
What if the real story were a revelation?

00:00:45.748 --> 00:00:48.331
(upbeat music)

00:00:58.496 --> 00:00:59.927
- We have come to a point now,

00:00:59.927 --> 00:01:03.118
where people are interested
in the way it looks.

00:01:03.118 --> 00:01:07.199
Most of the people who take
up the accordion today,

00:01:07.199 --> 00:01:11.541
whether it's younger people
or people who come back to it,

00:01:11.541 --> 00:01:13.957
they usually see it somewhere,

00:01:13.957 --> 00:01:16.245
and it will be really cool looking,

00:01:16.245 --> 00:01:19.672
and they'll fall in love with
it in a visceral sort of way.

00:01:19.672 --> 00:01:22.251
And they’ll want to one I own it,

00:01:22.251 --> 00:01:23.536
like this instrument here.

00:01:23.536 --> 00:01:28.108
It's wonderful because it
has an industrial deco grill.

00:01:28.108 --> 00:01:30.198
That's it’s gorgeous to behold.

00:01:30.198 --> 00:01:31.434
You go into some people's homes and you,

00:01:31.434 --> 00:01:34.247
they will see one displayed.

00:01:34.247 --> 00:01:36.164
Okay, so we caught you.

00:01:37.220 --> 00:01:39.425
- They have history, they have
like a whole story, right.

00:01:39.425 --> 00:01:43.205
- Yeah, hidden swollen memories, diaspora.

00:01:43.205 --> 00:01:46.205
(accordion playing)

00:01:51.746 --> 00:01:53.206
- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,

00:01:53.206 --> 00:01:55.216
and welcome to Accordion Stories.

00:01:55.216 --> 00:01:56.627
You know, I think back

00:01:56.627 --> 00:01:58.978
about going growing up
in the Moran valley.

00:01:58.978 --> 00:02:02.428
My memories are filled with the accordion.

00:02:02.428 --> 00:02:05.480
And my father, when it
was time to go to sleep,

00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:08.519
he would grab his
accordion and tuck us in.

00:02:08.519 --> 00:02:11.519
And he had this Marsh Wheeling cigar

00:02:12.476 --> 00:02:13.528
and it's in the dark

00:02:13.528 --> 00:02:17.983
and all you could see was that
alone red tip of that cigar.

00:02:17.983 --> 00:02:20.917
And as he played s some on slow tune,

00:02:20.917 --> 00:02:22.938
we’d both ripped drift off,

00:02:22.938 --> 00:02:25.649
Martingham watching him
play with that cigar

00:02:25.649 --> 00:02:27.506
in his mouth in the dark night.

00:02:27.506 --> 00:02:28.923
"Tennessee Waltz"

00:02:41.895 --> 00:02:44.545
And of course after a
couple of those measures,

00:02:44.545 --> 00:02:46.378
we were both out cold.

00:02:47.476 --> 00:02:49.783
Well, I was serenaded to sleep and

00:02:49.783 --> 00:02:51.861
I was very fortunate for that.

00:02:51.861 --> 00:02:55.180
- I first saw the accordion
and heard it the 1950s.

00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:56.548
They were really ubiquitous.

00:02:56.548 --> 00:02:59.382
You could barely turn on the
TV without seeing an accordion.

00:02:59.382 --> 00:03:00.652
In those days we had amateur hours

00:03:00.652 --> 00:03:03.778
which had not only singers
but instrumentalists,

00:03:03.778 --> 00:03:07.572
and jugglers and dancers, and Dick Contino

00:03:07.572 --> 00:03:10.686
was an accordion player
who was winning week after,

00:03:10.686 --> 00:03:12.873
week after week when I was kid.

00:03:12.873 --> 00:03:14.779
And I was fascinated by the sound of it,

00:03:14.779 --> 00:03:17.216
I was fascinated by the look of it

00:03:17.216 --> 00:03:19.913
and by the fact that he was a star.

00:03:19.913 --> 00:03:23.218
And so the, the accordion
was my introduction

00:03:23.218 --> 00:03:25.892
to somebody being a musical star,

00:03:25.892 --> 00:03:29.064
which became ironic in terms of,

00:03:29.064 --> 00:03:31.914
what I later learned
about peoples’ impression

00:03:31.914 --> 00:03:33.382
of the instrument.

00:03:33.382 --> 00:03:35.965
(upbeat music)

00:03:57.388 --> 00:04:00.043
I started taking lessons from
a guy who came door-to-door

00:04:00.043 --> 00:04:04.210
and he introduced me to pop
tunes and things like that.

00:04:04.210 --> 00:04:08.495
But the real, dive into what the accordion

00:04:08.495 --> 00:04:10.470
was about came when I was introduced

00:04:10.470 --> 00:04:13.255
to this wonderful accordion
teacher, Walter Grabowski,

00:04:13.255 --> 00:04:16.028
who was one of the best accordion
teachers in the country.

00:04:16.028 --> 00:04:20.830
And he introduced me to the
concept of accordion is,

00:04:20.830 --> 00:04:22.273
as a classical instrument,

00:04:22.273 --> 00:04:25.390
but also he was Polish-American
and he himself played,

00:04:25.390 --> 00:04:27.834
Polish weddings and dances.

00:04:27.834 --> 00:04:30.653
And so he introduced me
to polkas and waltzes.

00:04:30.653 --> 00:04:32.909
And in the neighborhood I grew up in

00:04:32.909 --> 00:04:35.902
and the people who played
accordion were working people.

00:04:35.902 --> 00:04:38.795
Guys who work during the week in the mines

00:04:38.795 --> 00:04:41.297
or the steel mills or the glass factory,

00:04:41.297 --> 00:04:43.804
and then they played on
weekends as a side job.

00:04:43.804 --> 00:04:45.874
So I thought that I would
have to do something else,

00:04:45.874 --> 00:04:48.322
but the only thing I was
good at with my hands

00:04:48.322 --> 00:04:49.859
was playing my instrument.

00:04:49.859 --> 00:04:52.525
It was only when I was 18 and

00:04:52.525 --> 00:04:53.610
I wanted to go to music school,

00:04:53.610 --> 00:04:56.416
I decided that in some way my
life wanted to be in a music.

00:04:56.416 --> 00:04:57.753
I started looking in catalogs,

00:04:57.753 --> 00:04:59.500
and there were all the instruments

00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:00.555
that you could major on,

00:05:00.555 --> 00:05:02.079
were listed out alphabetically

00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:03.950
and the first one was bassoon.

00:05:03.950 --> 00:05:07.229
But I was lucky and I was
stubborn and I wasn't gonna quit.

00:05:07.229 --> 00:05:09.572
It just meant too much to me.

00:05:09.572 --> 00:05:11.285
- You and I were both at the

00:05:11.285 --> 00:05:14.318
San Antonio International
Accordion Festival.

00:05:14.318 --> 00:05:17.826
And the musician there that
had a huge impact on me

00:05:17.826 --> 00:05:22.010
was Kepa Junkera in the from
the Basque region in Spain.

00:05:22.010 --> 00:05:25.065
He has this wonderful technique,
he does, playing very fast,

00:05:25.065 --> 00:05:27.815
reiterated notes and it was like,

00:05:28.901 --> 00:05:31.502
and he introduces them
at the ends of phrases

00:05:31.502 --> 00:05:33.446
with a great deal of flair.

00:05:33.446 --> 00:05:35.946
(quick music)

00:05:41.746 --> 00:05:42.749
I came back from the festival,

00:05:42.749 --> 00:05:44.518
I looked wrote this piece dedicated to him

00:05:44.518 --> 00:05:47.070
which were I called "Ratatatatouille".

00:05:47.070 --> 00:05:49.013
And the ratatata is the machine gun sound

00:05:49.013 --> 00:05:51.253
that I associated with repeated note

00:05:51.253 --> 00:05:53.424
and the beginning of it is like this.

00:05:53.424 --> 00:05:54.841
"Ratatatatouille"

00:06:31.872 --> 00:06:36.143
- My parents started me off on
classical piano at age five.

00:06:36.143 --> 00:06:38.893
(piano playing)

00:06:40.140 --> 00:06:43.778
So I was already playing little,
you know, little recitals.

00:06:43.778 --> 00:06:47.613
I don't remember getting all
that much of a bang out of it.

00:06:47.613 --> 00:06:49.549
People would be, you know,
pat me on the head and say,

00:06:49.549 --> 00:06:50.382
that's nice, Billy.

00:06:50.382 --> 00:06:51.462
What a nice boy you are.

00:06:51.462 --> 00:06:52.731
It really crossed my mind.

00:06:52.731 --> 00:06:54.912
Yes, is that all there is to this?

00:06:54.912 --> 00:06:56.580
A pat on the head and people telling me

00:06:56.580 --> 00:06:57.660
I'm a nice little boy?

00:06:57.660 --> 00:07:00.737
Because what would happen is,
my uncles would all arrive,

00:07:00.737 --> 00:07:02.335
all hell would break loose.

00:07:02.335 --> 00:07:05.334
A case of beer would be rolled in,

00:07:05.334 --> 00:07:07.523
sausage and stuff and I realized

00:07:07.523 --> 00:07:09.090
the power of the instrument,

00:07:09.090 --> 00:07:11.265
what the instrument could make people do.

00:07:11.265 --> 00:07:12.819
I wanted to make people do that too.

00:07:12.819 --> 00:07:15.957
But it wasn't happening for
me when I was playing piano.

00:07:15.957 --> 00:07:17.136
People were dancing around.

00:07:17.136 --> 00:07:20.244
They were really truly
enjoying themselves.

00:07:20.244 --> 00:07:23.431
And as, as it went along, it
could go the other way too.

00:07:23.431 --> 00:07:25.054
Then all of a sudden the accordion players

00:07:25.054 --> 00:07:27.818
starts playing a sad
song that reminds them of

00:07:27.818 --> 00:07:29.730
a departed relative in so many,

00:07:29.730 --> 00:07:30.703
and suddenly everybody starts crying.

00:07:30.703 --> 00:07:34.751
But still, I realized the
power of the instrument.

00:07:34.751 --> 00:07:36.651
The emotional ride it
could take people on.

00:07:36.651 --> 00:07:39.500
And so I wanted to play that instrument.

00:07:39.500 --> 00:07:41.856
- And it was not considered dorky

00:07:41.856 --> 00:07:44.131
or because I wasn't on the
football team or something.

00:07:44.131 --> 00:07:47.017
It was considered to be
something really wonderful

00:07:47.017 --> 00:07:49.350
that you had a talent
and people looked up to,

00:07:49.350 --> 00:07:50.680
and the fact that it was accordion,

00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:53.436
was neither here nor there
because many of their parents

00:07:53.436 --> 00:07:57.603
were Czech or Slovak or Polish
or Slovenian or Italian.

00:07:58.770 --> 00:08:02.097
So they had that as part
of their tradition too.

00:08:02.097 --> 00:08:03.999
It was considered part of their culture,

00:08:03.999 --> 00:08:05.499
up until the '60s.

00:08:07.011 --> 00:08:08.908
And then when those
kids started to mature,

00:08:08.908 --> 00:08:11.564
then that generation
discovered their own instrument

00:08:11.564 --> 00:08:14.040
which was the guitar and that
was the beginning of the end

00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.979
of the accordion as the
king of popular culture.

00:08:16.979 --> 00:08:18.185
- It went out of style.

00:08:18.185 --> 00:08:20.438
It didn't mean people
stopped using it because,

00:08:20.438 --> 00:08:23.233
you know, you turned on the
radio, you still heard it.

00:08:23.233 --> 00:08:26.342
You went to the movies, you
heard it in the backgrounds.

00:08:26.342 --> 00:08:28.073
You heard it in, Pink Panther.

00:08:28.073 --> 00:08:31.674
It's all the way through Broadway
Danny Rose or Moonstruck,

00:08:31.674 --> 00:08:33.590
all these movies where
you hear that wonderful

00:08:33.590 --> 00:08:37.757
Italian mussette sound, but
you didn't know who they were.

00:08:38.613 --> 00:08:40.808
- And I've lived with
him through this period

00:08:40.808 --> 00:08:44.779
where we had disgruntled,
older people, older than us,

00:08:44.779 --> 00:08:46.051
we're now the elders.

00:08:46.051 --> 00:08:50.133
We want the accordion
to be taken seriously.

00:08:50.133 --> 00:08:53.283
Those Bill’s younger students,
they don't think about that.

00:08:53.283 --> 00:08:57.450
Those 20 and 30 years olds,
they don't have that context.

00:08:58.489 --> 00:09:02.876
They are more interested
in ethnomusicology,

00:09:02.876 --> 00:09:05.876
world music, mixing, mashing music.

00:09:08.037 --> 00:09:10.641
- I was 16 years old and I was
walking through a book store

00:09:10.641 --> 00:09:14.257
in Ohio and I heard an
album of Klezmer music,

00:09:14.257 --> 00:09:16.200
lead by Itzhak Perlman.

00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:18.557
And I’d never heard this music before,

00:09:18.557 --> 00:09:19.874
and I got really into it.

00:09:19.874 --> 00:09:24.041
I asked my parents for an
accordion and they gave me one.

00:09:25.689 --> 00:09:26.989
- I'm actually a piano player.

00:09:26.989 --> 00:09:29.410
A friend's landlord was
throwing an accordion away.

00:09:29.410 --> 00:09:31.403
It was falling apart and
I put it back together

00:09:31.403 --> 00:09:34.323
with gaff tape and rubber cement.

00:09:34.323 --> 00:09:35.912
I play around in a band a bit,

00:09:35.912 --> 00:09:37.249
and we decided we need an
accordion on some songs.

00:09:37.249 --> 00:09:38.866
So I've been playing accordion,

00:09:38.866 --> 00:09:40.025
I picked up a better one.

00:09:40.025 --> 00:09:41.754
I’m still learning.

00:09:41.754 --> 00:09:44.040
- People who consider
it highbrow or lowbrow.

00:09:44.040 --> 00:09:46.995
The accordion has a lot to say about that.

00:09:46.995 --> 00:09:49.412
(slow music)

00:10:09.235 --> 00:10:10.753
- There is this element.

00:10:10.753 --> 00:10:13.090
No matter what you do,
somebody, somewhere,

00:10:13.090 --> 00:10:14.918
is gonna think it's ridiculous.

00:10:14.918 --> 00:10:16.885
- People have said to me,
what is your husband doing?

00:10:16.885 --> 00:10:21.052
I said, well, he, plays the
accordion, and they laughed.

00:10:22.472 --> 00:10:24.831
- You know, there's the
old cartoon that about

00:10:24.831 --> 00:10:27.419
welcome to Heaven, here's your harp.

00:10:27.419 --> 00:10:30.267
And welcome to Hell, here's
your accordion, right?

00:10:30.267 --> 00:10:32.303
- In this country for some reason,

00:10:32.303 --> 00:10:35.645
it seems to have an association
with street musicians

00:10:35.645 --> 00:10:36.812
or the circus.

00:10:39.119 --> 00:10:40.874
- If I'm at the Carousel in the airport,

00:10:40.874 --> 00:10:43.171
waiting for my luggage and
this big thing comes out,

00:10:43.171 --> 00:10:44.721
and somebody says, what is it?

00:10:44.721 --> 00:10:46.927
I mean, then I have to go
through the whole thing.

00:10:46.927 --> 00:10:48.749
Oh, it’s an accordion
and then the conversation

00:10:48.749 --> 00:10:50.768
comes to a stop because people think

00:10:50.768 --> 00:10:52.021
they know about you then,

00:10:52.021 --> 00:10:54.449
that you dress up in the lederhosen,

00:10:54.449 --> 00:10:56.144
and you play what they
consider stupid music,

00:10:56.144 --> 00:10:57.437
and you’re are not very interesting.

00:10:57.437 --> 00:10:59.561
And the irony about all of that is that,

00:10:59.561 --> 00:11:03.367
even the guys who were
lederhosen, among them,

00:11:03.367 --> 00:11:05.708
there are some phenomenal players.

00:11:05.708 --> 00:11:08.291
(upbeat music)

00:11:11.737 --> 00:11:13.480
Not only in terms of their techniques,

00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:15.442
but even their originality.

00:11:15.442 --> 00:11:17.859
(fast music)

00:11:24.126 --> 00:11:25.813
So you have to watch your stereotypes,

00:11:25.813 --> 00:11:26.810
no matter who you are.

00:11:26.810 --> 00:11:28.161
I mean, I'm saying you even for myself,

00:11:28.161 --> 00:11:31.244
because I had those same stereotypes.

00:11:32.247 --> 00:11:34.182
(slow music)

00:11:34.182 --> 00:11:36.203
- If you play the accordion as I do,

00:11:36.203 --> 00:11:38.580
I’ve been playing it for 69 years now.

00:11:38.580 --> 00:11:40.037
You're introduced to new people,

00:11:40.037 --> 00:11:42.278
and it's all, what do you play?

00:11:42.278 --> 00:11:45.606
And I say, well, I play the accordion.

00:11:45.606 --> 00:11:49.773
And then, the image of
Lawrence Welk usually appears,

00:11:51.526 --> 00:11:52.641
and in polka.

00:11:52.641 --> 00:11:54.643
You're an outsider.

00:11:54.643 --> 00:11:58.709
You know, this is usually
in establishment situations

00:11:58.709 --> 00:12:01.717
which of course I've been involved with.

00:12:01.717 --> 00:12:04.454
- As a kid I was pretty
obsessed with Lawrence Welk.

00:12:04.454 --> 00:12:07.677
And growing up in a
classical music household,

00:12:07.677 --> 00:12:10.942
that I think that was a
big rebellion on my part,

00:12:10.942 --> 00:12:14.325
that the bubbles and the
hairdos just fascinated me.

00:12:14.325 --> 00:12:15.978
- [Narrator] The one and
the only Lawrence Welk,

00:12:15.978 --> 00:12:17.798
and his champagne music.

00:12:17.798 --> 00:12:20.381
(upbeat music)

00:12:23.989 --> 00:12:27.237
- At one point, after I starting
to play accordion, daily,

00:12:27.237 --> 00:12:29.311
I was wandering the streets and I thought

00:12:29.311 --> 00:12:31.614
well, what I'm I doing with my life?

00:12:31.614 --> 00:12:33.394
Is this the right path?, you know,

00:12:33.394 --> 00:12:36.504
and I ended up stumbling
into an abandoned building

00:12:36.504 --> 00:12:37.860
in the East Village.

00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:41.096
And I found on the
floor and autograph copy

00:12:41.096 --> 00:12:45.263
of Lawrence Welk's book called
My America, Your America.

00:12:47.177 --> 00:12:50.905
And I took that as a
real sign that Lawrence,

00:12:50.905 --> 00:12:55.072
was just looking down and,
and giving me the okay.

00:13:00.540 --> 00:13:03.707
♫ Me and the bad boys

00:13:15.801 --> 00:13:18.980
♫ Stay up all night

00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:21.593
- That's my idealized version of America.

00:13:21.593 --> 00:13:24.558
It’s somewhere where music ends up mixing

00:13:24.558 --> 00:13:27.141
and turning into other things.

00:13:31.924 --> 00:13:35.757
I don't think Lawrence
would have liked that.

00:13:43.593 --> 00:13:45.859
- I remember once being
brought into do a commercial

00:13:45.859 --> 00:13:49.875
for a candy bar that
had like a Cajun theme.

00:13:49.875 --> 00:13:52.951
It was, had some New
Orleans connection to it.

00:13:52.951 --> 00:13:53.976
So they are trying to push that,

00:13:53.976 --> 00:13:56.127
so they had the composer for the session,

00:13:56.127 --> 00:13:58.178
do like a Zydeco tune.

00:13:58.178 --> 00:14:00.378
And they brought me in to play accordion.

00:14:00.378 --> 00:14:03.555
And then the whole time in
the mix they kept saying,

00:14:03.555 --> 00:14:04.981
"Oh, the accordion is too loud,

00:14:04.981 --> 00:14:06.340
"the accordion is too loud."

00:14:06.340 --> 00:14:08.551
And I'm sitting there thinking, wow,

00:14:08.551 --> 00:14:09.596
these guys are trying to be hip,

00:14:09.596 --> 00:14:11.655
but they don't even realize
that in Zydeco music

00:14:11.655 --> 00:14:13.886
the accordion is the lead, not only that,

00:14:13.886 --> 00:14:16.185
but pop bands are trying
to cover Zydeco tunes,

00:14:16.185 --> 00:14:18.605
because they want the
sound of the accordion.

00:14:18.605 --> 00:14:20.487
So even this person who
was supposed to be hip

00:14:20.487 --> 00:14:23.277
to popular culture, was
like a generation behind

00:14:23.277 --> 00:14:25.417
in his thinking, that's
what so frustrating.

00:14:25.417 --> 00:14:29.584
(upbeat music with muttered singing)

00:14:46.547 --> 00:14:47.882
- Zydeco!

00:14:47.882 --> 00:14:48.882
"Sang Brule"

00:15:04.735 --> 00:15:08.302
In Louisiana, this is a very unique place.

00:15:08.302 --> 00:15:12.099
People here talk loud and they play loud.

00:15:12.099 --> 00:15:13.478
So when they it came to the accordion,

00:15:13.478 --> 00:15:16.519
they certainly put their
own stamp and style,

00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:18.676
a lot heavier, a lot brighter sound,

00:15:18.676 --> 00:15:19.880
and much stronger sound.

00:15:19.880 --> 00:15:23.744
They came in very early, shortly
after they were invented,

00:15:23.744 --> 00:15:28.032
basically early spirituals,
early work songs, blues.

00:15:28.032 --> 00:15:29.199
"Gota Boogie"

00:15:34.843 --> 00:15:36.398
The earliest photo is I think is,

00:15:36.398 --> 00:15:40.936
it's of circa 1855, photo of
a Creole accordion player.

00:15:40.936 --> 00:15:42.186
"Marie Laveau"

00:15:53.463 --> 00:15:56.192
The spirit of Marie Laveau
prevails over lots of things.

00:15:56.192 --> 00:15:58.772
So I was sitting in there, fiddling around

00:15:58.772 --> 00:16:02.772
with my the accordion
and this song came to me.

00:16:06.183 --> 00:16:09.457
She's probably the most
well known priestess,

00:16:09.457 --> 00:16:13.381
associated with Voodoo
and helping orphans,

00:16:13.381 --> 00:16:17.498
stuff that stories and books
and movies are made out of.

00:16:17.498 --> 00:16:20.269
She started using an accordion
player in her Voodoo rituals

00:16:20.269 --> 00:16:22.019
for the music, so...

00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:25.825
We got to deal with Marie
Laveau to be in New Orleans.

00:16:25.825 --> 00:16:29.018
- I enjoy photographing accordion players.

00:16:29.018 --> 00:16:32.199
The accordionist is the
leader of the group,

00:16:32.199 --> 00:16:34.274
and he's an advocate for the culture,

00:16:34.274 --> 00:16:38.088
he's an advocate in the
community, he's a star.

00:16:38.088 --> 00:16:40.372
You know people look up
to him and this happens

00:16:40.372 --> 00:16:42.226
time and time again.

00:16:42.226 --> 00:16:46.096
This is a photograph I took
in 1987 of Clifton Chenier,

00:16:46.096 --> 00:16:48.264
founder, originator of Zydeco music,

00:16:48.264 --> 00:16:50.540
and he's playing a song
called "I'm Coming Home."

00:16:50.540 --> 00:16:52.247
It's one of his famous hits.

00:16:52.247 --> 00:16:54.915
It was his last concert in Louisiana.

00:16:54.915 --> 00:16:56.915
He died later that year.

00:16:58.283 --> 00:17:02.103
♫ Yes I’m coming back home

00:17:02.103 --> 00:17:04.216
♫ I feel so all alone”

00:17:04.216 --> 00:17:06.028
- [Philip] Clifton Chenier played music.

00:17:06.028 --> 00:17:08.226
The accordion was just the instrument.

00:17:08.226 --> 00:17:10.911
He played it as Zydeco if it
was an extension of himself.

00:17:10.911 --> 00:17:15.064
In this case, he was emotionally
one with his accordion,

00:17:15.064 --> 00:17:17.900
because it was all tag tied up into this

00:17:17.900 --> 00:17:20.337
transitive moment where it's the last time

00:17:20.337 --> 00:17:22.754
he's playing for his people.

00:17:23.781 --> 00:17:26.364
(church bells)

00:17:36.187 --> 00:17:37.604
- [Musician] "Angels and Accordions"

00:17:37.604 --> 00:17:39.250
is a site-specific performance

00:17:39.250 --> 00:17:41.984
at Greenwood Cemetery
that involves dancers

00:17:41.984 --> 00:17:43.817
and accordion players.

00:17:47.593 --> 00:17:50.631
A site-specific work is a
piece that's made to highlight

00:17:50.631 --> 00:17:53.132
some aspect of the place that it's in.

00:17:53.132 --> 00:17:57.370
Accordions were, this word
invented around 1829, 1830.

00:17:57.370 --> 00:18:00.342
So they're in a way
contemporary with the cemetery

00:18:00.342 --> 00:18:02.437
which was built in 1838.

00:18:02.437 --> 00:18:05.686
Guy Klucevsek wrote music
for the beginning and ending,

00:18:05.686 --> 00:18:08.963
and we accompany him on those sections.

00:18:08.963 --> 00:18:12.645
I work with seven or eight or
nine or ten accordion players,

00:18:12.645 --> 00:18:16.812
who were scattered through
the grounds of the cemetery.

00:18:18.198 --> 00:18:21.145
And as we were thinking
about the New Orleans funeral

00:18:21.145 --> 00:18:23.178
tradition of that's
mixing joy with sadness.

00:18:23.178 --> 00:18:26.672
What we were really try to
capture was a certain resonance

00:18:26.672 --> 00:18:29.615
with the history of
the cemetery in a sense

00:18:29.615 --> 00:18:32.857
of the past coming in on the present.

00:18:32.857 --> 00:18:36.607
(various accordion melodies)

00:19:10.063 --> 00:19:12.333
- It just was a wonderful
celebration of a space,

00:19:12.333 --> 00:19:16.500
of a weekend long event and
of a community of artists.

00:19:47.665 --> 00:19:49.040
(clapping)

00:19:49.040 --> 00:19:50.863
- I'm an accordion player and a composer.

00:19:50.863 --> 00:19:53.455
My current accordion group is called

00:19:53.455 --> 00:19:56.155
the Famous Accordion Orchestra.

00:19:56.155 --> 00:19:58.655
It usually works as a quartet,

00:19:59.490 --> 00:20:02.216
but sometimes I put
together larger groups,

00:20:02.216 --> 00:20:04.537
amateurs and professionals,
many different levels mixed.

00:20:04.537 --> 00:20:06.037
"Patriot's March"

00:20:29.401 --> 00:20:32.066
I've always been interested in doing music

00:20:32.066 --> 00:20:35.266
that's based on sustained textures.

00:20:35.266 --> 00:20:36.600
Drones, repeated patterns,

00:20:36.600 --> 00:20:40.149
things which stretch out
of a long period of time,

00:20:40.149 --> 00:20:42.813
and don't really require
dramatic developments.

00:20:42.813 --> 00:20:45.632
So that you can kind of
pop in, hear are bit of it,

00:20:45.632 --> 00:20:47.144
it's part of the space and pop out,

00:20:47.144 --> 00:20:51.718
and not feel like you’ve
had missed anything.

00:20:51.718 --> 00:20:53.133
- All the things they
say about the instrument,

00:20:53.133 --> 00:20:54.368
it's 100 percent true.

00:20:54.368 --> 00:20:56.225
It's to build an ironic duality.

00:20:56.225 --> 00:21:00.058
The accordion is hip,
the accordion is square,

00:21:01.026 --> 00:21:02.702
the accordion is elegant,

00:21:02.702 --> 00:21:04.451
the accordion is vulgar,

00:21:04.451 --> 00:21:08.239
the accordion is classy and,
and it ain't got no class.

00:21:08.239 --> 00:21:09.572
"Western Cowboy"

00:21:11.077 --> 00:21:13.827
It's never one without the other.

00:21:15.249 --> 00:21:18.249
That's the essence of the accordion.

00:21:20.342 --> 00:21:24.803
If you get too down with it,
then it reveals its elegance.

00:21:24.803 --> 00:21:26.136
"Spinning Jenny"

00:21:52.369 --> 00:21:55.508
- I was very dissatisfied
with the symphony orchestra

00:21:55.508 --> 00:21:58.841
which I love, but I found it inflexible.

00:22:00.570 --> 00:22:02.911
I thought that, that was holding me back.

00:22:02.911 --> 00:22:04.976
And I wanted to divide it up,

00:22:04.976 --> 00:22:08.772
so the major number in a group of 15

00:22:08.772 --> 00:22:11.701
would be from one instrumental family.

00:22:11.701 --> 00:22:16.003
Seven accordions, three
strings, in this case violin,

00:22:16.003 --> 00:22:17.233
cello and base.

00:22:17.233 --> 00:22:20.492
With influences of
rock, jazz, world music,

00:22:20.492 --> 00:22:25.235
to call it strictly classical,
only says, you know,

00:22:25.235 --> 00:22:29.858
we're not rock musicians and
primarily not jazz musicians.

00:22:29.858 --> 00:22:32.441
(upbeat music)

00:22:41.816 --> 00:22:45.233
(cheering and applause)

00:22:48.968 --> 00:22:51.384
- Once you show them that it can do

00:22:51.384 --> 00:22:53.953
things that they never imagined.

00:22:53.953 --> 00:22:56.276
Which, in one instance is just being

00:22:56.276 --> 00:22:57.798
able to play concert music.

00:22:57.798 --> 00:22:59.215
"Spanish Holiday"

00:23:04.416 --> 00:23:07.022
And then you’re able to take
them somewhere else with it,

00:23:07.022 --> 00:23:08.883
that it can only do this
kind of concert music,

00:23:08.883 --> 00:23:10.356
it can play Baroque music.

00:23:10.356 --> 00:23:12.356
"Bach Prelude and Fugue"

00:23:19.504 --> 00:23:22.308
It can also play a contemporary music.

00:23:22.308 --> 00:23:23.891
"John Cage's Dream"

00:23:26.647 --> 00:23:27.658
Dissonant contemporary music.

00:23:27.658 --> 00:23:28.658
"Exercise 8"

00:23:32.668 --> 00:23:35.251
In minimize contemporary music.

00:23:36.166 --> 00:23:38.404
It can play folk inspired
contemporary music.

00:23:38.404 --> 00:23:40.120
So that it can be as another versatile

00:23:40.120 --> 00:23:42.787
as any other concert instrument.

00:23:44.576 --> 00:23:48.034
Now, I think one of my
roles in the accordion world

00:23:48.034 --> 00:23:51.670
and the music world, in general
is to create more chaos,

00:23:51.670 --> 00:23:53.670
to create more disarray.

00:23:55.678 --> 00:23:58.761
To see musical elements collide more.

00:24:01.619 --> 00:24:03.318
Working with Micki over the years,

00:24:03.318 --> 00:24:07.038
I was then able to take the whole notion

00:24:07.038 --> 00:24:10.299
of realizing a project on the accordion

00:24:10.299 --> 00:24:12.549
in three dimensional space.

00:24:13.712 --> 00:24:16.462
In a way I could never do before.

00:24:17.489 --> 00:24:20.656
A tremendous counter point of texture.

00:24:22.009 --> 00:24:24.426
(slow music)

00:24:41.355 --> 00:24:42.467
What the piece does,

00:24:42.467 --> 00:24:46.634
it explores the orchestral
dimension of the instrument.

00:24:50.958 --> 00:24:53.418
The other aspect of what I
was interested in exploring

00:24:53.418 --> 00:24:56.564
was the cinematic dimension,

00:24:56.564 --> 00:24:59.981
being able to put a film into your mind.

00:25:04.771 --> 00:25:08.271
The title of the work is "A Born Reality."

00:25:10.133 --> 00:25:13.976
I became very much a fan
of all those Bourne movies

00:25:13.976 --> 00:25:15.393
with Matt Damon.

00:25:20.075 --> 00:25:24.242
I just saw this paranoid guy
watching his back all the time,

00:25:25.479 --> 00:25:27.855
on the run all the time,

00:25:27.855 --> 00:25:29.272
people after him.

00:25:30.617 --> 00:25:32.935
I just became enamored by
the feeling these characters

00:25:32.935 --> 00:25:35.463
had of having to watch their back.

00:25:35.463 --> 00:25:39.630
And to me that was just such
a metaphor for our fears.

00:25:52.633 --> 00:25:54.966
Just that feeling of flight,

00:25:58.219 --> 00:26:02.302
and traveling through all
these wonderful places.

00:26:38.078 --> 00:26:40.738
And I get my upper body work out in

00:26:40.738 --> 00:26:44.905
just by playing on this
particular large instrument.

00:26:46.508 --> 00:26:49.029
- There is this feeling
in the classical world,

00:26:49.029 --> 00:26:50.924
that if you are a classical musician

00:26:50.924 --> 00:26:52.463
you should be able to play anything.

00:26:52.463 --> 00:26:54.360
But you know, there are
Bulgarian accordionists,

00:26:54.360 --> 00:26:56.565
some of them who don’t read music,

00:26:56.565 --> 00:26:59.825
who can play the accordion
absolutely as well

00:26:59.825 --> 00:27:03.377
and many times better than any
of the classical virtuosos.

00:27:03.377 --> 00:27:06.038
I've heard and also I
mean there are Tex-Mex

00:27:06.038 --> 00:27:07.747
accordion players who are playing

00:27:07.747 --> 00:27:09.323
these little button accordions which have,

00:27:09.323 --> 00:27:11.126
maybe you know, a three octave range

00:27:11.126 --> 00:27:13.440
and a very limited left hand range.

00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:14.602
They play a diatonic instruments,

00:27:14.602 --> 00:27:16.175
they get one note on the out-bellows,

00:27:16.175 --> 00:27:17.361
one note on the in-wallows bellows,

00:27:17.361 --> 00:27:21.528
and they have to change
bellows to get a new note.

00:27:23.656 --> 00:27:26.600
I hear some Russian virtuosos,
some Serbian virtuosos,

00:27:26.600 --> 00:27:28.766
some Chinese virtuosos
that are playing music

00:27:28.766 --> 00:27:30.095
that I honestly could tell you that,

00:27:30.095 --> 00:27:32.630
I can spend the rest of
my life trying to learn

00:27:32.630 --> 00:27:35.099
some of those pieces.

00:27:35.099 --> 00:27:38.307
So each tradition has its
own kind of virtuosity to it.

00:27:38.307 --> 00:27:41.839
Every musician has a unique story.

00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:45.859
They come from a particular
place and particular background,

00:27:45.859 --> 00:27:47.840
and particular training,

00:27:47.840 --> 00:27:52.007
and only you have that and
only you can tell your story.

00:27:52.930 --> 00:27:55.682
- This accordion I really
love for the Balkan music.

00:27:55.682 --> 00:27:59.623
I like the sound of it,
the tones it has for the,

00:27:59.623 --> 00:28:01.456
the more warmth of it.

00:28:02.834 --> 00:28:04.686
It has a really nice warm sound to me.

00:28:04.686 --> 00:28:06.353
"Roma Improvisation"

00:28:20.353 --> 00:28:22.251
See that the clarinet sound?

00:28:22.251 --> 00:28:25.501
It's really nice, it has a sweet sound.

00:28:36.793 --> 00:28:38.761
You know, it could also be sad.

00:28:38.761 --> 00:28:39.594
"Perica"

00:28:47.004 --> 00:28:51.161
I come from a Balkan
family, family of musicians.

00:28:51.161 --> 00:28:53.828
I come from Serbia, Banat, Roma.

00:28:54.853 --> 00:28:56.613
I started learning with my father.

00:28:56.613 --> 00:28:59.798
In the Balkans's, a lot of
people don't read music.

00:28:59.798 --> 00:29:02.564
Didn't since he never
took no music lessons.

00:29:02.564 --> 00:29:05.045
He learned on his own in the village.

00:29:05.045 --> 00:29:07.693
So he said, "I don't
want you to be like that.

00:29:07.693 --> 00:29:10.025
"I want you to go to
music school and learn."

00:29:10.025 --> 00:29:11.692
"how to read music.

00:29:17.493 --> 00:29:18.603
This is not a big deal.

00:29:18.603 --> 00:29:20.608
It's just like a tremor.

00:29:20.608 --> 00:29:22.331
There's so many things to do on accordion,

00:29:22.331 --> 00:29:26.331
We have the bellow shape,
you keep seeing that.

00:29:30.740 --> 00:29:32.418
A wedding or birthday party here,

00:29:32.418 --> 00:29:34.107
the music is the main thing.

00:29:34.107 --> 00:29:38.960
And it didn’t last four
hours, it lasted three days.

00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:40.761
If the music is no good,

00:29:40.761 --> 00:29:43.382
then after the party everyone
talks about the party.

00:29:43.382 --> 00:29:44.844
The party was terrible.

00:29:44.844 --> 00:29:47.013
So this is my son Peter,

00:29:47.013 --> 00:29:48.871
he's playing the chromatic accordion.

00:29:48.871 --> 00:29:51.099
This is the cool instrument to play now.

00:29:51.099 --> 00:29:52.932
Well, let's try a duo.

00:29:54.022 --> 00:29:55.939
Try something together.

00:29:57.939 --> 00:29:59.882
This is a piece from Serbia.

00:29:59.882 --> 00:30:02.965
(accordion playing)

00:31:07.043 --> 00:31:08.249
So that's kind of a Psenicice.

00:31:08.249 --> 00:31:10.275
- [Roberta] Wow.

00:31:10.275 --> 00:31:12.025
"Jazz Improvisation"

00:31:21.727 --> 00:31:25.894
- My name is Frank Petrilli
and I'm a jazz accordionist.

00:31:27.114 --> 00:31:30.563
Well, I've always been a fan
of the American Song Book

00:31:30.563 --> 00:31:34.772
and American standards which
a lot of jazz is based.

00:31:34.772 --> 00:31:36.293
About six and a half years ago,

00:31:36.293 --> 00:31:40.430
I became passionate about
playing the acoustic accordion.

00:31:40.430 --> 00:31:43.089
I played it as a kid, but
I really didn't have this

00:31:43.089 --> 00:31:46.423
passionate relationship as
I do as until an adult now.

00:31:46.423 --> 00:31:48.357
The one word that I best
describes my experience

00:31:48.357 --> 00:31:50.457
with this whole thing is blessed,

00:31:50.457 --> 00:31:52.396
which I don't use it very often.

00:31:52.396 --> 00:31:55.062
When I started playing, within six months,

00:31:55.062 --> 00:31:58.254
I was studying with Frank Morocco,

00:31:58.254 --> 00:32:02.421
who is the best jazz player
of his genre in the world.

00:32:03.461 --> 00:32:07.195
I just loved the way he played
and I just idolized him.

00:32:07.195 --> 00:32:09.340
And here I was playing with him.

00:32:09.340 --> 00:32:10.638
And in the last couple of years,

00:32:10.638 --> 00:32:14.779
we would just jam and by
osmosis my improvisation skills

00:32:14.779 --> 00:32:16.112
just got better.

00:32:19.517 --> 00:32:22.744
He gave to me everything
he could when he was alive,

00:32:22.744 --> 00:32:25.234
musically, and then even
after he passed away,

00:32:25.234 --> 00:32:29.269
I was able to play one
of his concerts in Kiev

00:32:29.269 --> 00:32:31.881
and do some things that
would not have been possible

00:32:31.881 --> 00:32:35.645
if I wasn't that fortunate
to have that experience.

00:32:35.645 --> 00:32:37.514
Frank used to say that
the bellows are the soul

00:32:37.514 --> 00:32:39.934
of the accordion and if you
didn't have good control

00:32:39.934 --> 00:32:42.270
of your bellows, you
won't weren’t gonna get

00:32:42.270 --> 00:32:44.948
the accordion to speak.

00:32:44.948 --> 00:32:48.315
That's It’s a very physical instrument

00:32:48.315 --> 00:32:51.422
that you actually whole hold
up against your body and hug,

00:32:51.422 --> 00:32:52.760
for a lack of a better word,

00:32:52.760 --> 00:32:55.544
moving the air in and out
like you are breathing,

00:32:55.544 --> 00:32:56.461
just about.

00:32:57.770 --> 00:32:59.800
And again, I'm modeled
after Frank Morocco,

00:32:59.800 --> 00:33:01.733
because I love the way he plays.

00:33:01.733 --> 00:33:05.900
And you always know where he's
at in relation to the melody.

00:33:08.170 --> 00:33:10.042
And now my feeling towards the accordion

00:33:10.042 --> 00:33:13.459
is one of passion and enjoyment.

00:33:13.459 --> 00:33:16.881
- I started playing
accordion when I was 18,

00:33:16.881 --> 00:33:18.945
which was 24 years ago.

00:33:18.945 --> 00:33:21.354
And I was playing jazz piano at the time,

00:33:21.354 --> 00:33:24.103
and a friend of mine
brought me an old accordion

00:33:24.103 --> 00:33:27.328
at a rummage sale, it was almost a joke.

00:33:27.328 --> 00:33:28.810
He said, "Here, check this out.”

00:33:28.810 --> 00:33:29.863
It was fun.

00:33:29.863 --> 00:33:33.743
I liked the comical side, the
connection with folk music

00:33:33.743 --> 00:33:36.201
and the fact that,
within the world of jazz

00:33:36.201 --> 00:33:37.034
it was a new sound.

00:33:37.034 --> 00:33:38.701
"Blue Light Special"

00:33:51.087 --> 00:33:52.497
I live in Brooklyn, New York,

00:33:52.497 --> 00:33:55.909
and I play a lot of
different kinds of music,

00:33:55.909 --> 00:33:58.441
and I also write my own music.

00:33:58.441 --> 00:34:01.024
Based in Jazz, its modern jazz,

00:34:01.902 --> 00:34:03.786
but it's very influenced
by different kinds

00:34:03.786 --> 00:34:05.786
of accordion folk music.

00:34:06.666 --> 00:34:11.541
We have a division between
serious art and low art.

00:34:11.541 --> 00:34:14.851
In our country anyway,
the accordion is usually

00:34:14.851 --> 00:34:17.303
put into the low art
category which is something

00:34:17.303 --> 00:34:19.053
that I like about it.

00:34:24.253 --> 00:34:26.154
One time I was playing
for somebody and she said,

00:34:26.154 --> 00:34:27.432
"Oh, you play the accordion,

00:34:27.432 --> 00:34:31.099
"that reminds me of
illegal street vendors."

00:34:32.994 --> 00:34:36.049
And she just pulled that out of the blue.

00:34:36.049 --> 00:34:38.640
So people in our country
have this association

00:34:38.640 --> 00:34:40.692
with the accordion as, you know,

00:34:40.692 --> 00:34:43.532
are you gonna have a monkey with a cup?

00:34:43.532 --> 00:34:46.367
But it's the fact that
it's in that special niche

00:34:46.367 --> 00:34:48.576
that makes it exciting, I think,

00:34:48.576 --> 00:34:50.880
to people like myself
who've been rediscovering

00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:52.880
over the last 20 years.

00:35:01.566 --> 00:35:03.108
We play in small clubs,

00:35:03.108 --> 00:35:05.980
played with the Brooklyn Phil Harmonic,

00:35:05.980 --> 00:35:08.147
the New York City Ballet.

00:35:16.611 --> 00:35:18.659
A couple of the places
I play at are Barbes,

00:35:18.659 --> 00:35:20.409
and The Pas de Rouge.

00:35:22.082 --> 00:35:25.337
Those are clubs that
attract a younger crowd.

00:35:25.337 --> 00:35:26.839
The accordion is showing up more and more

00:35:26.839 --> 00:35:29.006
in these kinds of places.

00:35:32.779 --> 00:35:35.852
- There's something about
playing accordion or a trombone

00:35:35.852 --> 00:35:39.324
or these instruments that, in
mainstream society at least

00:35:39.324 --> 00:35:41.157
are maligned or banjo.

00:35:42.643 --> 00:35:45.255
All the instruments that
have jokes about them.

00:35:45.255 --> 00:35:48.638
There is something
confrontational about it.

00:35:48.638 --> 00:35:53.470
♫ Bless, please, the
people in art galleries

00:35:53.470 --> 00:35:57.903
♫ Lonely as a distant train

00:35:57.903 --> 00:36:02.070
♫ Bless, now, the cancer of the bone.

00:36:03.447 --> 00:36:06.687
♫ The last light making beautiful

00:36:06.687 --> 00:36:10.104
♫ The poisons in the sky

00:36:11.878 --> 00:36:16.045
♫ And the condemned
man in his tuxedo dream

00:36:18.604 --> 00:36:22.771
♫ His dream of limousines and innocence

00:36:25.488 --> 00:36:29.655
♫ Take off your clothes
and come to him in dreams

00:36:32.459 --> 00:36:36.626
♫ Stand on the fire escape naked and bless

00:36:39.467 --> 00:36:42.833
♫ With jazz like a rivulet of codeine

00:36:42.833 --> 00:36:47.000
♫ The laughter spilling
from our broken necklaces

00:36:49.414 --> 00:36:51.247
♫ Oh

00:37:08.079 --> 00:37:11.916
♫ Christ, by the dumpster

00:37:11.916 --> 00:37:14.926
I was in a very conservative music school

00:37:14.926 --> 00:37:17.764
and my teacher as brilliant
as he was, piano teacher,

00:37:17.764 --> 00:37:19.740
was very traditional.

00:37:19.740 --> 00:37:22.345
And one of my reasons for
getting the accordion was,

00:37:22.345 --> 00:37:23.960
to irritate him a little bit.

00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:26.696
I remember his reaction when
I said, I bought an accordion.

00:37:26.696 --> 00:37:29.451
He looked at me and went, why?

00:37:29.451 --> 00:37:33.618
And that's what I went, I
think I made the right choice.

00:37:41.240 --> 00:37:44.578
(cheering and applause)

00:37:44.578 --> 00:37:46.026
- Thank you.

00:37:46.026 --> 00:37:48.215
Accordion is actually the
most conventional instrument

00:37:48.215 --> 00:37:50.298
we use, we have theremin.

00:37:51.355 --> 00:37:53.003
We do a lot for choreographers,

00:37:53.003 --> 00:37:55.086
for theater and for film.

00:37:56.559 --> 00:37:58.325
Growing up, my impression
of the accordion was,

00:37:58.325 --> 00:38:00.530
like most people, that
it was, this instrument

00:38:00.530 --> 00:38:02.547
that very square mid-westerners played,

00:38:02.547 --> 00:38:05.112
because they weren't cool
in listening to rock n roll.

00:38:05.112 --> 00:38:07.757
And it really wasn't until
listening to Tom Waits records

00:38:07.757 --> 00:38:09.225
or listening to the Pogues,

00:38:09.225 --> 00:38:11.224
that I began to see it
in a different light and,

00:38:11.224 --> 00:38:13.950
and realized that it had
this great sort of mix of,

00:38:13.950 --> 00:38:17.016
of nostalgia, but also some subversion,

00:38:17.016 --> 00:38:21.183
a little bit of, sort of cabaret,
debauchery, quality to it,

00:38:22.406 --> 00:38:25.494
and, and that's when it
really, it sort of hit me that,

00:38:25.494 --> 00:38:27.011
as a piano player, maybe this is something

00:38:27.011 --> 00:38:28.594
I can move over to.

00:38:39.905 --> 00:38:44.046
- So about 16, 17 years ago
I ran into a estate sale,

00:38:44.046 --> 00:38:46.684
and I saw that they were
selling an accordion.

00:38:46.684 --> 00:38:48.541
And I decided I better go to the bank,

00:38:48.541 --> 00:38:50.708
take out some money and strap that thing

00:38:50.708 --> 00:38:53.095
on the back of my
motorcycle and take it home.

00:38:53.095 --> 00:38:54.795
I had seen this movie called,

00:38:54.795 --> 00:38:57.926
In The Time Of The
Gypsies, by Emir Kusturica.

00:38:57.926 --> 00:39:00.938
He was one of the most
famous Serbian composers.

00:39:00.938 --> 00:39:03.925
He made this film called
In The Time Of The Gypsies,

00:39:03.925 --> 00:39:06.602
that had featured a boy about 12 or 13,

00:39:06.602 --> 00:39:08.908
who played a red accordion and I was

00:39:08.908 --> 00:39:12.068
really, really drawn to
the music, to the film,

00:39:12.068 --> 00:39:15.651
to the region and the magic realism,

00:39:15.651 --> 00:39:20.287
that he was portraying about
the lives of the Romani people.

00:39:20.287 --> 00:39:22.962
I decided that I wanted to
play that music of that region.

00:39:22.962 --> 00:39:25.838
I just felt like, I was on a new path.

00:39:25.838 --> 00:39:28.902
It does evoke something and
every time someone hears

00:39:28.902 --> 00:39:32.319
an accordion, I believe, they are happy.

00:39:37.685 --> 00:39:42.054
Raya Brass Band is a Balkan
village style Brass Band

00:39:42.054 --> 00:39:44.177
that plays primarily music from Serbia,

00:39:44.177 --> 00:39:46.013
Romani music, music from Eastern Europe.

00:39:46.013 --> 00:39:48.401
There’s a promoter in New York City,

00:39:48.401 --> 00:39:52.049
promoting these Valentine
Day bath house gigs,

00:39:52.049 --> 00:39:54.667
with various bands around the city.

00:39:54.667 --> 00:39:56.002
Everybody goes to the bathhouse,

00:39:56.002 --> 00:39:59.541
they get into their bikinis and swimsuits,

00:39:59.541 --> 00:40:03.124
and there's a dance
party at the same time.

00:40:05.719 --> 00:40:09.072
The scene is largely people
who aren't from Eastern Europe.

00:40:09.072 --> 00:40:10.394
They are just interested in the music,

00:40:10.394 --> 00:40:14.561
they love the dancing, they
are attracted to something new.

00:40:20.233 --> 00:40:23.031
- [Alex] The store I have for 37 years.

00:40:23.031 --> 00:40:24.968
- [Roberta] And have you seen changes

00:40:24.968 --> 00:40:26.645
in the use or in purchase?

00:40:26.645 --> 00:40:29.124
- You know, it's changed a little bit.

00:40:29.124 --> 00:40:32.408
The woman now learn more
accordion than before.

00:40:32.408 --> 00:40:35.811
More woman's than men in accordions.

00:40:35.811 --> 00:40:40.499
80% of the people who
buy accordions are woman.

00:40:40.499 --> 00:40:42.769
Yes, yes, it's true.

00:40:42.769 --> 00:40:43.837
- [Roberta] That is interesting.

00:40:43.837 --> 00:40:44.898
- Yeah, very interesting.

00:40:44.898 --> 00:40:47.050
Woman love the accordion,
because they say,

00:40:47.050 --> 00:40:48.709
the sound is nice, you know ,

00:40:48.709 --> 00:40:51.766
they, with the bellow, you
can express a little more

00:40:51.766 --> 00:40:53.881
and this is different than an organ does,

00:40:53.881 --> 00:40:56.968
pa, pa, pa, you know, you
can’t express with an organ.

00:40:56.968 --> 00:40:58.968
Or a simple, in decline,

00:41:01.927 --> 00:41:02.760
see?

00:41:04.403 --> 00:41:08.070
(singing foreign language)

00:41:12.030 --> 00:41:14.828
- I'm a French singer, accordionist.

00:41:14.828 --> 00:41:18.311
From early on I was practicing
becoming a performer.

00:41:18.311 --> 00:41:19.956
I accompany myself on the accordion,

00:41:19.956 --> 00:41:22.769
give me further strengths
to do it full time,

00:41:22.769 --> 00:41:25.875
because you're more independent.

00:41:25.875 --> 00:41:29.542
(singing foreign language)

00:41:36.700 --> 00:41:39.175
I kind of discovered the
accordion strangely enough

00:41:39.175 --> 00:41:40.765
coming to New York.

00:41:40.765 --> 00:41:43.120
I am a bit of a frustrated pianist.

00:41:43.120 --> 00:41:45.304
I started performing
in cafe's in New York,

00:41:45.304 --> 00:41:49.290
and kind of naturally I met
some accordionists and I felt,

00:41:49.290 --> 00:41:51.639
oh, this is actually a great instrument.

00:41:51.639 --> 00:41:54.328
It's like a piano, but
it's a portable piano,

00:41:54.328 --> 00:41:56.629
and I like this kind of
combination of the piano,

00:41:56.629 --> 00:41:58.939
but the gypsy possibility.

00:41:58.939 --> 00:42:00.949
You could play anything on the accordion,

00:42:00.949 --> 00:42:05.032
and it didn't have to be
only the Mussette style.

00:42:07.213 --> 00:42:11.380
- This accordion is that is a
really musette accordion, see.

00:42:12.432 --> 00:42:14.442
This is, Musette means, its three reads.

00:42:14.442 --> 00:42:15.859
See, the Musette.

00:42:27.452 --> 00:42:28.909
See the sound?

00:42:28.909 --> 00:42:30.317
- I first picked it up as a joke,

00:42:30.317 --> 00:42:34.674
but I like to say that
the joke backfired on me.

00:42:34.674 --> 00:42:37.629
And I fell in love with a little accordion

00:42:37.629 --> 00:42:39.796
and couldn't put it down.

00:42:43.645 --> 00:42:45.841
People talk about this
resurgence and of interest

00:42:45.841 --> 00:42:49.618
in accordion now, but this was in 1985.

00:42:49.618 --> 00:42:51.295
I was playing on the street and playing

00:42:51.295 --> 00:42:54.888
in a bunch of different bands
and, Rolling Stone Magazine,

00:42:54.888 --> 00:42:58.682
you know, they have the
hot issue every year.

00:42:58.682 --> 00:43:00.796
So in 1988 the hot issue,

00:43:00.796 --> 00:43:04.652
I had my picture in there
as an accordion player.

00:43:04.652 --> 00:43:07.770
It sort of like a back burner kind of hot.

00:43:07.770 --> 00:43:10.801
♫ Some day their prince will not come.

00:43:10.801 --> 00:43:14.078
And for a while I played
a country western band,

00:43:14.078 --> 00:43:16.578
a kind of tropical samba band,

00:43:18.043 --> 00:43:22.664
Klezmer, and absorbed a
lot of different styles,

00:43:22.664 --> 00:43:25.081
and then began writing songs.

00:43:25.933 --> 00:43:28.824
I will say I borrow from a lot of styles.

00:43:28.824 --> 00:43:32.412
The music industry relies on demographics.

00:43:32.412 --> 00:43:36.850
In one of my shows in the
audience there were two people

00:43:36.850 --> 00:43:40.233
with blue hair and one was
a punk like little kid,

00:43:40.233 --> 00:43:43.725
with bright blue hair
and one was a woman of,

00:43:43.725 --> 00:43:46.989
you know, a certain age with
her version of blue hair,

00:43:46.989 --> 00:43:49.241
and both of them really responded well.

00:43:49.241 --> 00:43:51.679
So I, it's pretty across the board.

00:43:51.679 --> 00:43:55.846
And I feel like, yeah, I can't
really describe the audience

00:43:58.518 --> 00:43:59.777
per se, but it's certainly people

00:43:59.777 --> 00:44:02.444
that appreciate sort of misfits.

00:44:03.980 --> 00:44:07.313
♫ And I'm a lucky girl.

00:44:11.173 --> 00:44:14.756
♫ Because I've got it all

00:44:20.538 --> 00:44:23.455
♫ And the bad boys

00:44:26.120 --> 00:44:30.203
♫ We never win cuz we don't play

00:44:33.008 --> 00:44:37.175
♫ So take a picture it will
last a whole lot longer

00:44:47.002 --> 00:44:51.085
♫ And you can look at it someday

00:44:53.536 --> 00:44:57.119
♫ When you feel stronger.

00:44:58.801 --> 00:45:00.540
- The people that I'm closest to now,

00:45:00.540 --> 00:45:02.153
I know through playing music.

00:45:02.153 --> 00:45:05.312
I have a band, it's a 14 piece all female

00:45:05.312 --> 00:45:07.582
accordion orchestra called
Main Squeeze Orchestra,

00:45:07.582 --> 00:45:09.502
and the people in the orchestra

00:45:09.502 --> 00:45:10.966
are some of my closest friends.

00:45:10.966 --> 00:45:13.796
The Main Squeeze Orchestra
was formed by Walter Kuehr,

00:45:13.796 --> 00:45:16.252
he owns an accordion shop
on the Lower East Side

00:45:16.252 --> 00:45:17.314
in Manhattan.

00:45:17.314 --> 00:45:20.133
- Yeah, the shop is known by
everyone who plays accordion

00:45:20.133 --> 00:45:22.114
in New York and, and outside.

00:45:22.114 --> 00:45:25.603
This shop is 16 Years old,
and it can't over the years

00:45:25.603 --> 00:45:27.103
a good reputation.

00:45:28.161 --> 00:45:31.078
I think, I practically know
everyone here in New York

00:45:31.078 --> 00:45:33.011
who plays, and its fun.

00:45:33.011 --> 00:45:34.094
They know me.

00:45:35.274 --> 00:45:38.167
The motto is, main squeeze
for all your accordion needs,

00:45:38.167 --> 00:45:41.750
and if we don't have
it, you don't need it.

00:45:45.855 --> 00:45:47.810
John Lennon’s son, Sean came in,

00:45:47.810 --> 00:45:51.977
Cyndi Lauper, I met Al
Yankovich, Weird Al Yankovich,

00:45:53.072 --> 00:45:54.648
I met some famous guys like,

00:45:54.648 --> 00:45:58.815
like these and some come
in just to buy some straps.

00:46:01.637 --> 00:46:02.951
Yeah, one of my two bands is called,

00:46:02.951 --> 00:46:05.599
The Last of the International Playboys.

00:46:05.599 --> 00:46:09.642
The size of the band
and the instrumentation,

00:46:09.642 --> 00:46:13.809
had to I do it with my taste
for big band and Latin music.

00:46:15.994 --> 00:46:17.994
I like a big rich sound.

00:46:19.047 --> 00:46:22.285
The first record we did, we called it,

00:46:22.285 --> 00:46:26.368
Vegas Jazz, Latin Lounge
and Secret Agents Swing.

00:46:27.506 --> 00:46:30.476
- He had this dream that
he was the conductor

00:46:30.476 --> 00:46:32.137
of an all female accordion orchestra,

00:46:32.137 --> 00:46:34.383
and he just started
recruiting from students

00:46:34.383 --> 00:46:36.746
who had come to him for lessons.

00:46:36.746 --> 00:46:38.777
- It took almost a year and then I had it.

00:46:38.777 --> 00:46:40.874
But I was working on it day and night,

00:46:40.874 --> 00:46:42.772
and I was completely obsessed with that.

00:46:42.772 --> 00:46:44.849
I had the shop, so I was practically like,

00:46:44.849 --> 00:46:49.016
spider in the web trying to
recruit all those players.

00:46:52.059 --> 00:46:53.719
- [Rachal] Suddenly people
aren’t looking at you

00:46:53.719 --> 00:46:54.896
like the dorky,

00:46:54.896 --> 00:46:56.274
accordion player,
everyone is kind of like,

00:46:56.274 --> 00:46:58.857
oh, the cool accordion player.

00:47:02.311 --> 00:47:05.644
(marching band playing)

00:47:18.128 --> 00:47:22.564
- Rikers Island is a
prison in Queens, New York.

00:47:22.564 --> 00:47:24.147
"Slavic Soul Party"

00:47:25.186 --> 00:47:28.180
Going with Brass Band
there, Slavic Soul Party,

00:47:28.180 --> 00:47:31.389
I'm thinking to myself,
I'm gonna go perform

00:47:31.389 --> 00:47:34.493
with my accordion at a prison.

00:47:34.493 --> 00:47:37.452
You know I was feeling
not too comfortable going

00:47:37.452 --> 00:47:40.088
with an accordion, they’re
gonna make fun, and say,

00:47:40.088 --> 00:47:43.671
hey, play a polka, not
that polkas are bad.

00:47:44.660 --> 00:47:46.199
So we started playing.

00:47:46.199 --> 00:47:48.154
Then the leader of the band said,

00:47:48.154 --> 00:47:51.421
“Peter why don't you play a solo?

00:47:51.421 --> 00:47:54.502
I'm doing all this kind of
flashy stuff, what am I playing?

00:47:54.502 --> 00:47:56.089
I don't think that's gonna work.

00:47:56.089 --> 00:47:57.459
So all of a sudden I just stopped

00:47:57.459 --> 00:47:59.331
and played this song called "All My Life"

00:47:59.331 --> 00:48:01.392
from K-C and JoJo.

00:48:01.392 --> 00:48:02.475
"All My Life"

00:48:06.219 --> 00:48:07.383
So I just started a few bars of that

00:48:07.383 --> 00:48:09.330
and everyone started going berserk.

00:48:09.330 --> 00:48:11.042
They were like, yeah!

00:48:11.042 --> 00:48:11.921
- [Roberta] Wow.

00:48:11.921 --> 00:48:13.419
- Yeah, because they knew the song,

00:48:13.419 --> 00:48:15.953
and they all started singing along to it.

00:48:15.953 --> 00:48:17.614
By the end of the day everyone was like,

00:48:17.614 --> 00:48:18.833
I do lot of rapping.

00:48:18.833 --> 00:48:19.866
When I get out of here,

00:48:19.866 --> 00:48:22.713
I want to use the accordion
on some of my recordings,

00:48:22.713 --> 00:48:24.796
this can be a new thing.

00:48:30.198 --> 00:48:34.606
- Some were ethnic bands
from, from Cajun music to,

00:48:34.606 --> 00:48:37.606
to Klezmer, and Kumbaya and Merengue

00:48:39.580 --> 00:48:41.897
and they all have accordions.

00:48:41.897 --> 00:48:43.987
- You know we're all in this together.

00:48:43.987 --> 00:48:47.999
- It's worldwide and has
all these different forms

00:48:47.999 --> 00:48:51.499
from the Bandoneon and to the Concertina.

00:48:52.760 --> 00:48:55.677
(accordion music)

00:49:23.361 --> 00:49:26.084
(clapping and cheering)

00:49:26.084 --> 00:49:28.347
- Thank you, thank you very much, all.

00:49:28.347 --> 00:49:29.347
"El Choclo"

00:49:55.736 --> 00:49:57.713
- There are actually people out
there who are trying to say,

00:49:57.713 --> 00:50:00.581
well, we have to make the
accordion respectable,

00:50:00.581 --> 00:50:01.600
and classical.

00:50:01.600 --> 00:50:05.467
When, right now the accordion
is in the most ripe position,

00:50:05.467 --> 00:50:09.066
to drink in and everything
that can be expressed

00:50:09.066 --> 00:50:12.168
through the accordion all over the world.

00:50:12.168 --> 00:50:15.253
It's in one of the most prime
places it could ever be in

00:50:15.253 --> 00:50:18.131
the history of it's continuous evolution

00:50:18.131 --> 00:50:21.946
or what I call evolution
by permanent transition.

00:50:21.946 --> 00:50:24.446
"Boudreaux Crosses the Danube"

00:50:49.450 --> 00:50:52.801
- One of the groups that I
perform in is called Gypsy Groove

00:50:52.801 --> 00:50:56.968
and the style of music that
they do from Django Reinhardt

00:50:58.031 --> 00:51:00.210
just started around in the 30's.

00:51:00.210 --> 00:51:01.793
Django was a gypsy.

00:51:02.886 --> 00:51:06.431
He heard Duke Ellington and
he said, I want to play Jazz.

00:51:06.431 --> 00:51:07.727
He was a guitarist.

00:51:07.727 --> 00:51:11.894
Came up with this kind of
a hybrid of gypsy jazz.

00:51:20.057 --> 00:51:23.304
Another group I play in, Hot Pstromi,

00:51:23.304 --> 00:51:27.399
explores common elements
between Klezmer and Roma music,

00:51:27.399 --> 00:51:29.420
also known as gypsy music,

00:51:29.420 --> 00:51:33.087
including Middle Eastern
scales and rhythms.

00:51:35.916 --> 00:51:37.292
- The world isn't around any more.

00:51:37.292 --> 00:51:39.179
The world's below pleated.

00:51:39.179 --> 00:51:43.346
The world is expanding, the
world is contracting constantly.

00:51:49.254 --> 00:51:53.082
So many culture's all meshing
and colliding together.

00:51:53.082 --> 00:51:55.960
I mean, the accordion
is the icon of all that.

00:51:55.960 --> 00:51:57.985
- And it's gonna have a continuing future,

00:51:57.985 --> 00:52:02.152
because it can be anything,
really any kind of music.

00:52:07.165 --> 00:52:09.332
- There was a period that I worked a lot

00:52:09.332 --> 00:52:12.332
with the drones meaning long sounds.

00:52:14.383 --> 00:52:17.550
So I would practice with my instrument

00:52:18.505 --> 00:52:22.672
to be able change bellows
is inaudibly as possible.

00:52:23.657 --> 00:52:24.745
You know, that's pretty hard.

00:52:24.745 --> 00:52:27.392
It's just like trying
to sing in a long tone

00:52:27.392 --> 00:52:30.514
and then take a breath and
sing another one, right?

00:52:30.514 --> 00:52:34.681
So, so I was, I was practicing
this for a long time.

00:52:35.843 --> 00:52:39.176
I still do that and I can sustain a tone

00:52:40.392 --> 00:52:44.559
for a very long time because
I know how to move slowly,

00:52:48.130 --> 00:52:52.493
and to take the bellows
with me and bring it back.

00:52:52.493 --> 00:52:54.826
So that's what I'm doing right now,

00:52:54.826 --> 00:52:58.243
is playing my imaginary accordion, right?

00:53:03.763 --> 00:53:05.477
Out of that practice, a lot of different,

00:53:05.477 --> 00:53:07.977
of my sonic meditations came.

00:53:11.314 --> 00:53:14.397
(long holding notes)

00:53:22.626 --> 00:53:24.705
My own music is for the purpose of,

00:53:24.705 --> 00:53:26.205
expanding my mind,

00:53:28.834 --> 00:53:33.001
I mean, to change my mind and
to change my own patterns.

00:53:36.059 --> 00:53:38.289
And having the intention
that the sounds that I make,

00:53:38.289 --> 00:53:42.122
to make music would have
a beneficial effect.

00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:55.565
And then I got the sense that
if you listened long enough,

00:53:55.565 --> 00:53:58.286
you began to discover a whole world

00:53:58.286 --> 00:54:00.953
that was contained in one sound.

00:54:11.605 --> 00:54:14.678
- She was the first to be
a really highly regarded,

00:54:14.678 --> 00:54:19.250
original thinker whose main
instrument was the accordion,

00:54:19.250 --> 00:54:23.417
and whose primary work as a
composer was with the accordion.

00:54:24.575 --> 00:54:26.273
And she's a brilliant improviser

00:54:26.273 --> 00:54:29.523
as well in her own meditative language.

00:54:30.817 --> 00:54:33.484
(droning notes)

00:54:53.522 --> 00:54:56.328
I tended to lean more towards

00:54:56.328 --> 00:55:00.054
the Slovenian American
tradition because that's where,

00:55:00.054 --> 00:55:01.628
my family was from.

00:55:01.628 --> 00:55:04.313
From the very beginning
I had this these two

00:55:04.313 --> 00:55:08.014
sort of of complimentary
and contradicting loves

00:55:08.014 --> 00:55:09.812
which was for the folk
side of my instrument,

00:55:09.812 --> 00:55:13.612
the a popular side and the classical side

00:55:13.612 --> 00:55:14.912
which was less known.

00:55:14.912 --> 00:55:19.020
Eventually I was introduced to
contemporary accordion music

00:55:19.020 --> 00:55:20.685
and classical music for accordion,

00:55:20.685 --> 00:55:24.806
written by living composers
and that's where I became

00:55:24.806 --> 00:55:27.750
a composer because I fell
in love with that music

00:55:27.750 --> 00:55:30.154
which was written for my instrument,

00:55:30.154 --> 00:55:33.654
and did not have to be adapted in any way.

00:55:37.479 --> 00:55:40.896
I found my voice as a musician with that.

00:55:42.516 --> 00:55:45.599
(accordion playing)

00:56:43.301 --> 00:56:44.759
I don't consider myself as missionary.

00:56:44.759 --> 00:56:46.333
I play the accordion, because I love it,

00:56:46.333 --> 00:56:47.808
and because it's my voice,

00:56:47.808 --> 00:56:49.933
and it's my way of relating
to the world around me.

00:56:49.933 --> 00:56:53.283
So I don't do it to, to change minds,

00:56:53.283 --> 00:56:55.170
I do it to share what I found,

00:56:55.170 --> 00:56:56.653
to be the beauty of the instrument

00:56:56.653 --> 00:56:59.236
and the music that it can make.

00:57:20.147 --> 00:57:22.397
(clapping)

00:57:26.205 --> 00:57:27.850
When I started really getting interested

00:57:27.850 --> 00:57:30.339
in contemporary classical music,

00:57:30.339 --> 00:57:32.977
one of the first composers
that I really gravitated to

00:57:32.977 --> 00:57:36.609
was Georgy Ligeti,
Hungarian, Romanian composer

00:57:36.609 --> 00:57:39.921
who wrote music that was very intricate,

00:57:39.921 --> 00:57:43.085
but also really his own sound world.

00:57:43.085 --> 00:57:46.756
A lot of his music was used
in the, in the movie 2001.

00:57:46.756 --> 00:57:50.196
So it was very atmospheric,
sometimes almost meditative.

00:57:50.196 --> 00:57:52.542
I just love his music and after he died,

00:57:52.542 --> 00:57:55.819
I wrote this piece in tribute.

00:57:55.819 --> 00:57:57.652
"My Walk with Ligeti"

00:58:23.454 --> 00:58:25.763
Sometimes I'll think about
a particular technique

00:58:25.763 --> 00:58:29.132
on the accordion that I want to explore.

00:58:29.132 --> 00:58:33.137
The Ligeti piece is just splitting
your hand into two parts.

00:58:33.137 --> 00:58:35.215
And what can you do if
one part of your hand

00:58:35.215 --> 00:58:37.048
is playing one thing.

00:58:41.095 --> 00:58:45.262
And the other part of your hand
is playing some thing else.

00:58:52.600 --> 00:58:54.433
So in a sense the piece is an etude.

00:58:54.433 --> 00:58:57.359
I do think about the particular
aspects of the accordion

00:58:57.359 --> 00:58:59.147
when I'm writing tunes.

00:58:59.147 --> 00:59:01.805
"The Grass it is Blue,
Ain't Nothin’g But a Polka"

00:59:01.805 --> 00:59:04.069
It's really a polka, but it's
kind of a blue grass polka

00:59:04.069 --> 00:59:05.532
because it uses a blue scale.

00:59:05.532 --> 00:59:07.933
I premiered that piece
in a big festival called,

00:59:07.933 --> 00:59:10.586
New Music America, and there
were all these new music

00:59:10.586 --> 00:59:13.340
type people in the audience
and they were clapping in two,

00:59:13.340 --> 00:59:15.564
because it's started off
like a traditional polka.

00:59:15.564 --> 00:59:17.232
And then I went into this
place where the hands

00:59:17.232 --> 00:59:19.315
are in different majors.

00:59:23.899 --> 00:59:26.245
And then the clapping just sort of went,

00:59:26.245 --> 00:59:29.329
and started, well, started
falling all the apart,

00:59:29.329 --> 00:59:32.526
nothing like seeing in a
bunch of avant-garde types,

00:59:32.526 --> 00:59:33.996
just trying to find out were the beat was.

00:59:33.996 --> 00:59:36.830
And it's really the first
piece I had written,

00:59:36.830 --> 00:59:40.069
that I absolutely had a
blast while I was writing it

00:59:40.069 --> 00:59:42.652
as a sort of serious composer.

00:59:43.685 --> 00:59:45.436
But then as I started
collaborating with dancers

00:59:45.436 --> 00:59:48.406
and theater companies, I
had to have other concerns

00:59:48.406 --> 00:59:50.805
because they had very specific needs,

00:59:50.805 --> 00:59:52.524
needed a three minute piece.

00:59:52.524 --> 00:59:53.730
Well, how can I write
a three minute piece,

00:59:53.730 --> 00:59:54.563
I’m a minimalist.

00:59:54.563 --> 00:59:56.040
After three minutes I'm just getting,

00:59:56.040 --> 00:59:58.132
you know, the tuning of,

00:59:58.132 --> 00:59:59.978
of the chord that I'm interested in.

00:59:59.978 --> 01:00:02.568
But then when I started doing, it, I said,

01:00:02.568 --> 01:00:04.358
oh, well, I could use
some of these dance forms

01:00:04.358 --> 01:00:06.032
that I grew up with as a kid.

01:00:06.032 --> 01:00:08.032
Polkas, waltzes, tangos.

01:00:09.679 --> 01:00:13.943
And after that, joy and fun
was another thing to explore

01:00:13.943 --> 01:00:17.110
as well as somber, serious meditative.

01:00:23.991 --> 01:00:25.657
What I found out was that I could write in

01:00:25.657 --> 01:00:26.926
those social dance traditions,

01:00:26.926 --> 01:00:31.217
but still have a contemporary
voice as a composer.

01:00:31.217 --> 01:00:32.792
And it was a kind of breakthrough for me,

01:00:32.792 --> 01:00:36.959
because I had always kept
those things very separate.

01:00:39.629 --> 01:00:41.879
(clapping)

01:00:47.897 --> 01:00:49.480
"Air in G, JS Bach"

01:00:57.789 --> 01:01:00.317
- Now I'd like to use the accordion,

01:01:00.317 --> 01:01:01.428
as on a separate church organ,

01:01:01.428 --> 01:01:04.609
because my music is
something almost mystical.

01:01:04.609 --> 01:01:08.776
So what happened here was
the my illuminated accordion.

01:01:14.327 --> 01:01:17.920
So many years ago, I was
performing at somebody's house

01:01:17.920 --> 01:01:21.496
and he said, “Nicole,
your whole look is great,

01:01:21.496 --> 01:01:24.155
"it's very stylized, but really one thing

01:01:24.155 --> 01:01:26.379
"you have to work on is the accordion,

01:01:26.379 --> 01:01:29.290
"because it looks too heavy,
your character is so light,

01:01:29.290 --> 01:01:30.741
"there is a such a lightness about it,

01:01:30.741 --> 01:01:34.388
"and your accordion looks so
heavy, with the big straps."

01:01:34.388 --> 01:01:35.842
My accordion was black.

01:01:35.842 --> 01:01:38.470
A friend of mine is a sculptor,

01:01:38.470 --> 01:01:40.279
who was working a lot with plexi glass,

01:01:40.279 --> 01:01:43.292
and at some point I
thought, that's what I need,

01:01:43.292 --> 01:01:44.734
I need a transparent accordion.

01:01:44.734 --> 01:01:46.260
A week later I was at the a party,

01:01:46.260 --> 01:01:47.736
and I went run into to Walter Kuehr,

01:01:47.736 --> 01:01:50.613
who has this very nice accordion
shop and so I told him,

01:01:50.613 --> 01:01:52.722
”Walter, have you ever thought of making

01:01:52.722 --> 01:01:54.122
"a transparent accordion?

01:01:54.122 --> 01:01:54.955
"I’m dreaming of having one?"

01:01:54.955 --> 01:01:57.158
And he said, "Yes, actually
we're working on that

01:01:57.158 --> 01:01:59.296
"with Paul Lincoln."

01:01:59.296 --> 01:02:02.080
Who I knew already, he
was an artist and he said,

01:02:02.080 --> 01:02:03.721
"I've solved the problem.

01:02:03.721 --> 01:02:05.666
"I'm gonna make the accordion for you,

01:02:05.666 --> 01:02:08.065
"and in exchange I would
like you to be part

01:02:08.065 --> 01:02:10.240
"of my new project and play in my movie."

01:02:10.240 --> 01:02:11.425
And I thought, wow.

01:02:11.425 --> 01:02:14.108
So he did this film called Undine's Curse.

01:02:14.108 --> 01:02:17.587
It was part of an installation
called Hyperbaric–Hyperbolic,

01:02:17.587 --> 01:02:21.561
about breathing and kind
of coming to life in way,

01:02:21.561 --> 01:02:23.625
from the sponge to the birds.

01:02:23.625 --> 01:02:26.664
It was very, isoteric,
playing the link accordion.

01:02:26.664 --> 01:02:30.581
(singing in foreign language)

01:03:12.169 --> 01:03:14.461
My friend, his father is an electrician.

01:03:14.461 --> 01:03:15.708
So he learned all the tricks as a kid,

01:03:15.708 --> 01:03:19.582
and he loves to play around
with LED's and stuff like this

01:03:19.582 --> 01:03:20.583
and so helped me.

01:03:20.583 --> 01:03:23.491
He did the lighting of the link accordion.

01:03:23.491 --> 01:03:27.158
(singing foreign language)

01:04:13.832 --> 01:04:14.947
I guess it looks very impressing,

01:04:14.947 --> 01:04:18.200
the big bag and the front
basket and the accordion

01:04:18.200 --> 01:04:19.254
on the back and everything,

01:04:19.254 --> 01:04:21.783
but it's just a question of balance.

01:04:21.783 --> 01:04:23.851
That So I like to have
something very self contained.

01:04:23.851 --> 01:04:27.349
Being able to go around on
my bike if the gigs you know,

01:04:27.349 --> 01:04:29.060
don't pay thousands of dollars,

01:04:29.060 --> 01:04:32.810
is something that helps
me to make it viable.

01:04:37.312 --> 01:04:39.127
- I like to think of the accordion as

01:04:39.127 --> 01:04:43.379
the kind of the character
actor of musical instruments

01:04:43.379 --> 01:04:47.320
because there's a sincerity
and a sort of an absurdity

01:04:47.320 --> 01:04:52.112
that mix and tragic and
comedic at the same time.

01:04:52.112 --> 01:04:54.914
- I was intrigued by
her overall combination

01:04:54.914 --> 01:04:58.442
of song writing, playing,
persona, performance.

01:04:58.442 --> 01:05:00.898
Next time I was in New York, we went out

01:05:00.898 --> 01:05:02.907
on the Staten Island Ferry.

01:05:02.907 --> 01:05:05.432
I liked the idea of the
city in the background,

01:05:05.432 --> 01:05:08.885
and just her there in that context.

01:05:08.885 --> 01:05:12.249
- The last record I made
is called Melusine Years.

01:05:12.249 --> 01:05:16.242
Melusine is the name of a
character from the Middle Ages.

01:05:16.242 --> 01:05:20.118
In French lore, this woman
would turn into a mermaid

01:05:20.118 --> 01:05:21.118
once a week.

01:05:22.076 --> 01:05:25.008
Somehow that changing
into a different creature,

01:05:25.008 --> 01:05:27.547
a couple of times a week,

01:05:27.547 --> 01:05:31.624
it just sort of struck
me as an interesting way

01:05:31.624 --> 01:05:33.374
that people do exist.

01:05:34.935 --> 01:05:36.401
- [Phillip] Thematically it was wonderful

01:05:36.401 --> 01:05:37.569
because the accordion

01:05:37.569 --> 01:05:38.957
is an instrument of immigrants,

01:05:38.957 --> 01:05:41.668
and we were floating in New York harbor,

01:05:41.668 --> 01:05:44.668
the historic gateway for immigrants.

01:05:45.802 --> 01:05:47.107
And she's just in her own world.

01:05:47.107 --> 01:05:49.274
(singing)

01:06:07.695 --> 01:06:11.862
♫ Oh you shine in that beautiful setting

01:06:13.098 --> 01:06:17.265
♫ Just like the best
of the polished and cut

01:06:19.596 --> 01:06:23.763
♫ But my darling in case you're forgetting

01:06:25.215 --> 01:06:29.382
♫ You were natural-born anything but

01:06:30.784 --> 01:06:35.434
♫ Oh they'll line up to congratulate you

01:06:35.434 --> 01:06:39.601
♫ For successfully stealing the scene

01:06:41.644 --> 01:06:45.811
♫ And they'll all either
love you or hate you

01:06:46.920 --> 01:06:51.087
♫ For you'll always betwixt and between

01:06:52.345 --> 01:06:55.678
♫ Tourmaline tourmaline

01:06:57.805 --> 01:07:01.972
♫ Of all the green haired
girls I've seen today

01:07:03.892 --> 01:07:07.475
♫ You blow them all away.

01:07:18.978 --> 01:07:23.145
♫ Just like the rest
of us bath-water babies

01:07:24.648 --> 01:07:28.815
♫ You'll grab any old
line that you're thrown

01:07:29.961 --> 01:07:34.128
♫ Just promise me when
you get back to shore

01:07:35.135 --> 01:07:39.302
♫ That you won't tell a
soul where you've been

01:07:41.036 --> 01:07:43.684
- One thing about wearing
an accordion and singing

01:07:43.684 --> 01:07:46.911
is it does compress your lungs,

01:07:46.911 --> 01:07:50.912
and there's like a sound that
you kind of have to make,

01:07:50.912 --> 01:07:54.495
that fits into the sound of the accordion.

01:07:58.779 --> 01:08:02.512
- You're looking at a Roland, V accordion,

01:08:02.512 --> 01:08:04.490
and V being virtual.

01:08:04.490 --> 01:08:07.430
The instrument has the
appearance of being an accordion

01:08:07.430 --> 01:08:09.847
and indeed it acts like one.

01:08:18.140 --> 01:08:21.596
So in this instrument, there are models

01:08:21.596 --> 01:08:25.179
of a large variety of
accordions, Parisian.

01:08:26.549 --> 01:08:29.632
Oh, yes, here it is the old Paris...

01:08:35.269 --> 01:08:38.835
The bellows, even though
you hear air right now,

01:08:38.835 --> 01:08:40.584
because I'm using the air button.

01:08:40.584 --> 01:08:43.100
There's no air in there
going through any reeds,

01:08:43.100 --> 01:08:44.573
there's not a single reed.

01:08:44.573 --> 01:08:45.660
It's a computer.

01:08:45.660 --> 01:08:48.960
I mean, there's a computer
in this, in this instrument.

01:08:48.960 --> 01:08:50.478
The other night I played
concert and afterwards,

01:08:50.478 --> 01:08:54.531
there were two computer scientists,
they were a music buffs.

01:08:54.531 --> 01:08:56.353
The free jazz guy came up and he said,

01:08:56.353 --> 01:08:58.065
"Oh, that's was interesting.

01:08:58.065 --> 01:08:59.450
"What system is that that using?"

01:08:59.450 --> 01:09:02.953
And I said, "I don't
know and I don't care."

01:09:02.953 --> 01:09:04.307
- [Roberta] You just want to do the music.

01:09:04.307 --> 01:09:05.706
- I just want to play the music, yeah.

01:09:05.706 --> 01:09:09.206
" Improvisation / V Accordion"

01:10:30.957 --> 01:10:34.355
- [Roberta] What a range, I
mean, a range of possibilities.

01:10:34.355 --> 01:10:35.543
- Oh, yeah, really?

01:10:35.543 --> 01:10:37.381
- [Roberta] Types of
music and types of sound.

01:10:37.381 --> 01:10:38.214
- Yeah.

01:10:38.214 --> 01:10:39.047
- [Roberta] I'm sure you must feel like

01:10:39.047 --> 01:10:40.053
the possibilities are endless.

01:10:40.053 --> 01:10:43.450
- Well, there's a lot
more that can be done.

01:10:43.450 --> 01:10:46.450
(accordion playing)