Jean Corti videos

Cuimean

Someone took a bunch of excellent videos of one of Jean Corti's recent Parisian concerts:

















Oy vey...that's enough for now. There are more on YouTube...check 'em out.

Stackabones

Wow. Just watched the first one. Very cool. I'm a noob when it comes to accordion. Who is Jean Corti? Can you tell me something about him. Digging the vids!!!

Cuimean

My knowledge of his history is a bit spotty. I believe he's grouped with the third generation of musette accordionists (the first being Vacher, Peguri, etc.; the second being Viseur, Privat, etc.; the third also including guys like Armand Lassagne). He's probably best known for his work with Jacques Brel. After some time spent in relative obscurity, he was asked to sit in the the Parisian musette/punk band Têtes Raides, which has been a great boon to him. He has released two albums on Têtes Raides' record label in the last few years: "Couka," with Christian Escoude on guitar, and more recently, "Versatile," with a smorgasbord of guests from the French jazz and pop scenes.

Anyone else have any more detailed information? Brandon, I'm looking in your direction....

brandoneon

Nice work Rod! I was recently in Paris, but had to leave the day before this concert so I was pretty bummed out. (BTW: I have this bet with my girlfriend that Mon Slip will release this concert as a CD or DVD, given the rarity of his performances, his stature in the world of French accordion, and his age.)

Your summary of Jean Corti is good ... the only other things I can add are little pieces of trivia: he's of Italian descent, like a lot of other early musette accordionists (ne Cortinovis); he was childhood friends with Joseph Colombo, who composed the waltz Nany for him (Nany is Corti's nickname, he also plays this on the Paris Musette collection); he got burned out traveling the world with Brel in the mid '60s; and he did some Piaf-styled performances with Catherine Ringer (from Les Rita Mitsouko) in the early '90s - I've seen a video of them performing "L'accordeoniste" on youtube. I should add that in my opinion he's one of the most lyrical French accordionists, and one can definitely tell from listening to him that he places more emphasis on finding the perfect note/phrase than playing with speed/virtuosity.

I may scan a recent interview with him and post it here ...

I'm really glad that some of these old accordionists are still around (Corti: 78; Azzola: 80), still making beautiful music, and still impressing the young folk.

cheers,
Brandon

Stackabones

Thanks! 8)