This guy drives to the mall and parks his car in the parking lot and leaves his accordion in the back seat in plain view....
when he returns he find that someone broke the window in his car as he is explaining to the cop...what happened asked the cop did they steal the accordion....no replies the guy...dam it...they left another one in the front seat.....
Tony Rome

ACCORDIONS are ILLEGAL in San Jose, California. I have to keep mine in a closet at all times
Bebop

So, we have two accordeons? Where is the Polka band???

------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

HEY ! HEY! HEY! ... when I started taking music lessons at the age of 13 yrs, the accordion was the instrument of coice .... my PARENTS choice .....
t.

Defintion for perfect pitch:

When you throw the accordian into the dumpster and it hits the banjo.

Scott ... thats accordiOn .... thank you ...
t.

Tony,
I taught Accordion in 1952, sold many of them. Had about 100 students that I taught from the time school was out to the adults bedtime around 11PM. This was in Bremerton Washington where I was Navy. I had a band made up of these students that was all and only accordions.
Joe Stancato owner of a huge big accordion store in Los Angeles furnished me with all the 12 bass I needed to start new students and then the 120 bass Enrico Rosselli accordions to sell to the advanced students. Dick Contino came up and played for us a couple of times and this resulted in even more students. It was kinda fun while it lasted but I have never missed it since I got transferred out
PS. My Accordion sits in its case and is a table for my CD's
Bebop

BeBop .... I started studying accordion around '54 ... I played in an all accordion orchestra in contests and concerts... played classical music such as 1812 Overture, Capriccio Italien, Beethoven's 5th, etc. ... all of us playing the original classical orchestra parts ... Greatest thrill in this area was playing a concert in Carnegie Hall in NY, NY !!!...
Get that box out of the case and SQUEEZE IT !!! ...
t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 08-29-2005).]

Bought a "no name" imported accordion at
last year's summer NAMM. Don't know anything about it (Lots rows of buttons), but it will occupy a place of honor next to my cytar(sp?), Kona Blaster electric uke, etc. Haven't opened the case since I acquired it over a year ago. Bellows have probably already started to come apart.

Crazy? Nah, I just LOVE instruments!

Russ

Russ ... As I said to BeBop ..."Get that box out of the case and SQUEEZE IT !!!"

t.

MY shoulders hurt too bad from squezzing that box already. I have just as good accordion samples in my KN7000 anyway and it don't hurt my shoulders. I don't have to stand up with it, and it never runs outta air
Bebop

Yes, old boys!

An accordeon in a world of synthesizers is like a gramophone in a world of CD players! Hang it on the wall, frame it and get a bright smile every time you look at it!!!

I started my musical carreer on an accordeon for children as I was 4 years old but it only resulted in a strong desire to learn piano as I was 5 years old...
At least I started to play guitar as I was 15 years old and that's what I'm still doing today...
Regards, Danny

[This message has been edited by Sheriff (edited 09-07-2005).]

Hi folks , Just discovered this site .

I love the Accordion gags .....very funny and will use some of them when I'm gigging !!

Bebop , I didn't know you were a squeeze box player in your youth !!! it was the hey day for the accordion in those times .

My good friend Dick Contino is still going strong !! I attended the Las Vegas Accordion Convention ,it was his 75th birthday celebration WoW can that pensioner play ,He blew all the younger accordion dudes away !!! with his showmanship and performance , The Legend Art Van Damme was also in great form ,as was Tony Lovello.
I think you guys are right about the accordion , people want a full modern sound.
i keep busy with gigs using by Elkavox or Concerto digital /midi accordion.
I have a very good modern sound because I use via the midi my Technics Kn7000 (need I say More )
I would not even think about doing these gigs with a conventional accordion .
My gigs require a full and danceable modern sound .

Unfortunately I'm never ever going to be a keyboard player .

Tony mads , would love to read more about your accordion exploits Wow fancy playing the carnigie hall , I've only managed to have a look round the hall, last year on my holiday in New York !!! it was great !!

Regards to you all ....Giovanni (uk)

I have to type this in for all you accordion players to read.
The Week's Most frightening Story!
In Kimberly, British Columbia, (Western Canada) trying to establish a Guiness book record, 644 people at a music festival this summer played their accordions simultaneously for half an hour
644 is not a type that is correct
Bebop

Tony Lovello is a friend of mine...he was the general manager of the Campbell House Inn here in Lexington, where I played in the early 80's. He as a former member of the Three Sons. His brother, Sam, I think, was a producer for He Haw!Tony has had a hearing problem for years, so he only played for private parties at the Inn and organized and played for New Years. He played a Petosa accordion, and I met up with a represntative of the company, Joe Petosa, at the Inn. That's where I found out about Solton (now Ketron). Bought my MS 60 from Joe (Petosa Music is still a Ketron dealer in Seattle), and have been a Ketron fan every since.

Petosa is a great supplier, If you're in the Seattle area. Tony is a great "old school" showman, complete with puffy shirts, etc.


Regards,


Russ

Here's the only accordion joke I know:

Question:
What's the difference between accordions at a polka fest and an Uzi gun?

Answer:
The Uzi stops after 40 rounds.

HI ALL,
I just read another release in the morning paper about a NEW accordion record being set.
A month after the one above I wrote about setting a record, another group in St. John's Newfoundland broke the record by 989 accordions playing.
Gives me the shudders just to think about it
Bebop

The comic Pete Barbutti is an ex accordion player. His joke is...Do you know how to put an accordion on? Like this...oh baby your so cool, man I really dig you, you just blow me away, I love ya, you're so hip.

Peter (also an accordion player)

Back in the day, I was raised on Art Van Damme and The Three Sons ... still have a lot of 'vinyl' of theirs some of which I've recorded on CDs ... loved The Sons version of "Twilight Time" ... in fact the VERY first band I had was named 'The Twilighters' and that was our theme song ... at 15 yrs of age !!! ... I knew a guy who wanted to BE Art Van Damme ... copied his style to a T ... even the solos !!! ... when he learned a song he did it in every key ... all with block chords ala Art ...
t.

Never really got into accordion, but it was always interesting to listen to my friend Tony Lovello talk about the Three Sons and to here him play. Evidently he was an original member and toured and recorded with them right up to the end. The first arrangers I heard were the Auto Orchestra
(usually used by guitar players with bass pedals) and the Petosa accordion tony used. Both were products manufactured in Italy by
a company I understand to be a predicessor of Solton (Ketron).

Lovello is an interesting fellow, and evidently still active, as was mention earlier on this thread.


Russ

Russ, that would be Crumar.

More history..I was a Crumar dealer in 84..I carried the whole line.
My distributor stocked me with the new digital keyboard.."Bit one"[a Ketron product]..Solton had the MS4, TS4[rack] and MS50..Lou[Bell/Duo} was the distributor for Solton, but not the Ketron and Crumar lines..I am pretty sure that they were manufactured at the same facility..

The other Italian line back then was Siel..I actually sold more Siel products..They had some great products and some great ideas and stats on paper[adds], that turned out to be bombs..We use to tell our customers to save the box[made it easier to ship back to the distributor when they go south]..The big seller for us was the DK-600[Stevie Wonder used one for a while[I think his equipment manager told him it was a DX7]..

As you may guess, my Bread and butter line was Roland.Jupiters, 106's, JX8p,JX10,MKS series[the good old days]..

[This message has been edited by Fran Carango (edited 10-18-2005).]

When I was in my teens I was taking piano lessons from a teacher who mostly taught accordion. On Monday nights there was band practice... 40 accordions and one piano... me! I blame all my quirks and irregularities to the experience.

Glenn

What's an accordion?! I thought they were what they use to fan the fire's flames.

It's that squeeze box Mamma plays on her chest.

BEBOP,

I was just scanning the posts....I have one of those Enrico Rosselli 120 bass accordions in it's case. Has the Stancato School logo on the case. It actually plays excellently. My 13-yr old son thought it was one of those things like the Suzanne Sommers Thigh-Master......hmmmmmm. I told him that when he gets interested in girls, he'll be back wanting to borrow that accordion to woooooooo his lady. We'll see....

About 25 years ago, when I was about 10 years old, I asked my parents if they would send me to music school. "Yes, I want it, I would like to play the guitar" was the sales pitch.....

My mother said something like "it is accordion or nothing, this is a fine instrument, guitar and others are not good instruments" quoting her PERSONAL preference, which I had to take or leave.

Of course I denied, saying that "accordions are only for the blind" because every other time I had been on a public transport, a blind man (or someone pretending to be blind for added effect), armed with an accordion, would come and play, begging for coins. Most people obliged, so the torment of their ears would stop.

I changed my opinion on accordion after many years, actually liked very much the soundtrack of "Amelie" the French movie, but I still bear a grudge for that "accordion or nothing".

Still, sometimes, when I hear an accordion, I look up to see if the player is wearing black glasses.