Interesting Contemporary Accordionists

Jack

Ionica plays on Alors?...Voila! with Tchavolo. I'll check the collection when I get home tonight...

Best,
Jack.

Ando

Has anyone heard "Hotel Bergerac" by Papillon, an outfit with Koen De Cauter and Gwen Cresens? Jean Corti is on there, too.

Les P'tits Belges have a new one, too.

More info at Koen's site: http://www.decauterfam.be/nl/index.htm

Cheers,
Ando

Cuimean

"Hotel Bergerac" is great. It's in the same vein as Les P'tits Belges' "Come Prima" album (i.e., a mix of musette, chanson, and swing), but with the emphasis more on accordion than on guitar. The guitar playing that's there is tasty, though; Mr. De Cauter plays rhythm and a few solos on acoustic, and another gentleman whose name escapes me at the moment plays electric. The accordion playing is top-notch as well.

Ando

I knew I could count on you, Cuimean. Thanks! Notice that the P'tits Belges have some live recordings, too. I'll try to find them.

What's going on over there in Brittany? Salty stuff. Cliff Furnald's www.cdroots.com has some Breton accordion jazz here: http://www.cdroots.com/france.shtml.

Cheers.

Cuimean

Wow, great news! I've been listening to a lot of Koen De Cauter stuff lately. It's really excellent. One thing I've been noticing about the rhythm playing on his albums is that it's really laid back. I've been playing some Django and Dorado Schmitt stuff for my bandmates, and they've commented on how the rhythm guitars glide along on top of the beat, really pushing things forward. The De Cauter stuff seems to be a bit more behind the beat, which I think is atypical of this style. But then again, he seems to do a lot of things that are atypical to this style; that's what makes his stuff so unique.

I posted something in the "Yves Menez" thread about a couple of Breton swing gavotte albums I recently picked up. I haven't heard much other Breton stuff lately. There are a few things on CD Roots that look really interesting. Some of it, however, seems to have succumbed to the same slap-bass and lite-rock illness that's befallen much Scottish and Irish music.

Going back to the beginning of this thread - Rachelle Garniez appears on the new Jenny Scheinman album, along with Bill Frisell. I've read reviews that say it's pretty wild stuff.

Anyone picked up the new Marcel Loeffler album? How would you say he compares to Ludovic Beier?

Ando

Without a drummer, swing is relative. The rhythm guitar can be behind so the soloist can sound more driving. Or vice versa. Right? Without a reference point, the differential and its consistency is what matters.

The worst thing is to drag down the tempo without meaning to. Miles Davis said "Bad time is like death." Ouch.

brandoneon

Just wanted to add some more accordionists to the list. There's David Riviere who plays with "Les pommes de ma douche". They have 2 excellent albums in the gypsy jazz vein, including a tribute album to Charles Trenet. I also really like Rene Sopa, who was a student of Richard Galliano's father and this connection is very obvious in his music. For musette music, Jean Corti has a great one called Couka with Christian Escoude playing guitar. I've always felt that Patrick Saussois's band Alma Sinti does a great job straddling jazz, musette and chanson, and his accordionists are always top-notch too (including Jean-Claude Laudat and Daniel Colin). Moving away from jazz and musette, David Venitucci has a great solo album of contemporary music where he plays a free-bass accordion.
Happy listening!

Cuimean

Thanks for the recommendations! "Couka" is great. For some more atypical Corti stuff, try his recordings with Têtes Raides and Loïc Lantoine. I recently picked up a CD by an accordionist whose name escapes me at the moment; it's really great solo stuff, with a bunch of originals and a few Monk covers!

When I'm home later today, I'll post names of the TR & LL tracks that Corti plays on and I'll dig up the name of that other guy.

I've seen a Sopa CD at my local record store. I'll have to pick it up the next time I have some cash at my disposal.

Keep those recommendations coming!

brandoneon

Hmm, a solo CD with Monk covers ... could it be Francois Castiello? I've been searching for his solo album to no avail, but he has some MP3s on his site, including Epistrophy.
Thanks for the tip about Les Tetes Raides, I'll look into them.
Regarding an earlier post, the new Marcel Loeffler album is good. His playing is quite different from Ludovic Beier. LB's playing is quite flashy (which suits accompanying Angelo Debarre). I think ML's style is closer to Gus Viseur's jazz playing. There are some good pluses to the new album: he's joined by Bireli Lagrene and Marcel Azzola on a few tracks.
As for some other suggestions, Jean-Claude Laudat also has some solo albums that are really nice, in the chanson/musette tradition. These are called "Mon Pote le Gitan" and "Le Jazz et la Java". Daniel Colin has a good solo album with Patrick Saussois called "Passion Gitane". If you like Edith Piaf, Marcel Azzola has an album dedicated to her with very modern arrangements.

Cuimean

brandoneon wrote:

Hmm, a solo CD with Monk covers ... could it be Francois Castiello?

That's the guy! It's a pretty interesting album. The Monk tunes are pretty unhinged.

I just looked through some of my CDs and found Corti on the following tracks:

"L'hermaphrodite" - Têtes Raides, from Le bout du toit
"Parazite" - Têtes Raides, from Chamboultou
"Gratte poil" - Têtes Raides, from Gratte poil
"Les vieux" - Têtes Raides, from the Jacques Brel tribute album "Aux suivants"
"Le Manneken Pis" - Loïc Lantoine, from Badaboum

There's a web page for Corti & "Couka" on the label's website:

http://www.monslip.fr/home.php

Skip the intro and press the "Mon Slip" button, then the "Corti" button.

I've heard good things about Jean-Claude Laudat from some other folks on this forum. I'll keep an eye out for the CDs you mentioned.

Have you ever heard Rony Verbiest? He's on the Jokke Schreurs Trio's self-titled album. I believe he has also recorded at least one solo album. His playing doesn't totally blow me away, but he's still quite good and worth a listen.