The Jolly Caballero was posted in another thread. Thought I'd start a new one for any accordion people in the group.

Listening to the JC reminded me of how pleasurable and how different it is hearing accordion music......and......how difficult that instrument is to master (that's why accordion jokes tick me off).

Personally speaking, if I was young enough I'd pick up that accordion and start again where I left off.

And the Frosini songs bring back a lot of memories too. What a prolific songwriter he was.....many of his original compositions on the level of Jolly Caballero.

Note they all use button accordions

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accordion videos and comments:

Youtube accordion page:

Jolly Caballero search

Jolly Caballero played on piano.....



one of the more dynamic Jolly Caballero versions.....



she's good but she's playing her emotions mechanically.....performance date 2012: they're still listening to accordion concerts somewhere in the world! (Olive Blossoms......another great Frosini number).....



the master himself (though you'd never know it!).....



completely swept up in what he's playing....feeling every note...somewhat in a musical trance the way musicians should be.....



good player but sloppy as heck....he does NOT feel the music as the previous player does....no separation between the notes.....the accordion isn't miked.....



she's a good player but proof that "good playing" is not enough.....you need emotion, energy, pizz-azz, and great stage prescence to put a song over effectively

This French player is a superb musician. A great jazzer. I met him at NAMM a few years ago when he demonstrated the Roland V accordions. The V accordion or any other midi accordion can do things that you just can't on a keyboard. Every part played by the player, and yet still sounds like a small ensemble. Well, the accordion by nature is a bit like an arranger; you press one chord button, but it plays three notes...

I'm very impressed with this FR8x. I played the earlier models and was NOT impressed, but they seem to have come a long way now. I play a lot of French musette music and I couldn't tell that FR8x wasn't a real accordion. Plus the string bass adds so much to fill out the sound.

I'm playing more accordion these days on jobs. But as good as I am on accordion, I can't put out that kind of a sound. I think I'm going to have another look at that box.

I met Ludovic Beier at one of the shows, and when I heard him play my eyes almost popped out of my head. He plays a lot with Angelo using a Roland MIDI accordion among other things.