so when people say accordion how many
people think of either polka or folk
music really how many you think of rock
funk pop electro jazz 1 all right
that’s not bad that’s more than I
expected well I’m gonna try to change
that idea today that the because the
accordion really can do everything and
it is in so many cultures around the
world really except the United States as
John said yes I am a three-time world
champion on the accordion motivated much
by growing up in North Island and seeing
all the Championships of the Patriots
and the Red Sox and everybody else so
that was a great motivator and the fact
that you know we’re a culture is like
gonna win not the participation Joe they
got a win and and also I don’t think
John even knows us last year I broke the
Guinness world record for the longest
accordion playing thank you 32 hours and
14 minutes so I think if I went to play
32 hours right now John would throw me
over the Green Monster be an interesting
story so let me give you a brief history
very oversimplified history of the
accordion I was originally developed in
China and Germany depending on what form
of accordion you would call an accordion
because there are so many different
kinds of accordions and we can only
really play one of them also Leonardo da
Vinci actually designed an accordion 500
years ago had bellows and it actually
had keys kind of incredible another
thing that he did so immigrants brought
it over to America in the 1800s and then
in 1909 a certain Italian Guido Darrow
brought the piano accordion to the
United States because he thought this
would be a way to market the accordion
let’s put in a piano on it because
everybody knows a piano a normal
accordion has buttons here and it worked
and he became wildly popular in the
1910s and 20s and into the 30s and that
died out a little bit but it was still
normal to play accordion and then dick
Contino
became incredibly popular in 1948 by
winning this national kind of American
Idol is show of the day and that lasted
until the 60s when
kids decided I’m not doing what my
parents do I’m doing the opposite and
the parents played accordion and they
played this new thing called guitar that
was now really hip so basically by the
late 60s if you you know wanted to get a
girl to go on a date we you did not play
the accordion and you did not get hired
playing accordion so most accordion
players switched to the piano and it
died then and it’s still kind of dead at
this point again this is more an
American history every other country
kind of has its its own history in
Brazil it’s very popular in France it’s
very popular in Russia it’s very popular
in China it’s becoming incredibly
popular so it has it has all different
histories let me explain actually this
is a really fun example everybody see
the bullpens over here at Fenway Park
okay this is how I’m going to explain
the public image of accordion and what
the accordion can actually do yes we’re
gonna use the bullpen in 2007 and 2013
last two times Red Sox won the World
Series they had two very dominant closes
in Oh seven it was who Jonathan Papelbon
and he came out to this song that I’m
sure you all know
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
and then he would come out and take them
out and probably to get the safe now
that is what most people think about
cats accordion it’s Irish okay anything
but there’s nothing really going on and
playing just a couple of chords and a
couple of notes and that’s how the
accordion is mostly used even in today’s
world cuz people will say in interviews
oak or do you know that the accordions
coming back isn’t it
kind of kind of not really it’s seen
more but it’s not being used it’s like
they’re using it as let’s buy a Ferrari
488 and drive ten miles an hour to the
grocery store we’re not really using it
correctly now in 2013 does anyone
remember who the closure was 2013 koji
uehara who had arguably the greatest
season of a reliever in baseball history
and he came out to a very different song
which I can still play on the accordion
but you would not expect to play in the
[Music]
so NASA never come out – so there is a
wide range I can play pretty much
anything in the middle if I give you
some other examples of music maybe that
you would expect on accordion would be
maybe this one something like that we
can do maybe
well of course yes but I try not to do
that music so much there is this that
kind of thing
there is also since we’re here I might
as well do this
[Music]
Red Sox much unless I saw an astro set
so maybe there’s a lot of doom people
[Music]
so you can have your own bunch of places
in here also of course we did we did
some techno there as I can be my own
jazz trio
[Music]
and then the drum and the bass player
always together which is great because
it’s all controlled by my left hand you
can also play tracks on here which I
never do but you can do that use it as a
boom box at your party which is a fun
little item to use and of course like I
was doing before lots of different
techno music or things like that you do
this so you don’t need to hire a DJ
anymore you just need to hire an
accordion player this is this is all we
need but again if you really want it we
can so I do all that as well but what
I’m trying to do kind of in my career is
just make the accordion cool again as it
was as it was very very cool in this
country and and even believe it or not
when the accordion was coming down in
the 50s and the guitar was coming up
there was a period of time where they
were both equally popular and there was
an accordion guitar magazine because
they were they were equally popular
impossible to imagine say the guitar and
accordian there were thousands and
thousands of students at massive empires
of studios and then it just kind of died
off but the instrument is really amazing
in the fact that I can play 14 notes at
the same time including percussion and
other things but also I can control the
sound completely at all milliseconds
[Music]
even when I was playing the organ it’s
still controlled by the bellows so the
thing is it’s really the only instrument
that you can control the sound at every
millisecond and play this many notes so
you have the variability of the voice of
the violin but the amount of notes of a
piano and guitar so it’s kind of you
know next time you see accordion think
think a little bit more it’s not just
the Polka instruments and I’m trying to
you know I play a lot of different
famous music artists and I’m trying to
show everybody especially in the
recording industry as well that instead
of just going on Ableton or something
and typing in all these different
electric sounds you can actually have a
actual musician play these sounds and
and make it sound more like a human
actually play them so no but thank you
very much [Applause]
people think of either polka or folk
music really how many you think of rock
funk pop electro jazz 1 all right
that’s not bad that’s more than I
expected well I’m gonna try to change
that idea today that the because the
accordion really can do everything and
it is in so many cultures around the
world really except the United States as
John said yes I am a three-time world
champion on the accordion motivated much
by growing up in North Island and seeing
all the Championships of the Patriots
and the Red Sox and everybody else so
that was a great motivator and the fact
that you know we’re a culture is like
gonna win not the participation Joe they
got a win and and also I don’t think
John even knows us last year I broke the
Guinness world record for the longest
accordion playing thank you 32 hours and
14 minutes so I think if I went to play
32 hours right now John would throw me
over the Green Monster be an interesting
story so let me give you a brief history
very oversimplified history of the
accordion I was originally developed in
China and Germany depending on what form
of accordion you would call an accordion
because there are so many different
kinds of accordions and we can only
really play one of them also Leonardo da
Vinci actually designed an accordion 500
years ago had bellows and it actually
had keys kind of incredible another
thing that he did so immigrants brought
it over to America in the 1800s and then
in 1909 a certain Italian Guido Darrow
brought the piano accordion to the
United States because he thought this
would be a way to market the accordion
let’s put in a piano on it because
everybody knows a piano a normal
accordion has buttons here and it worked
and he became wildly popular in the
1910s and 20s and into the 30s and that
died out a little bit but it was still
normal to play accordion and then dick
Contino
became incredibly popular in 1948 by
winning this national kind of American
Idol is show of the day and that lasted
until the 60s when
kids decided I’m not doing what my
parents do I’m doing the opposite and
the parents played accordion and they
played this new thing called guitar that
was now really hip so basically by the
late 60s if you you know wanted to get a
girl to go on a date we you did not play
the accordion and you did not get hired
playing accordion so most accordion
players switched to the piano and it
died then and it’s still kind of dead at
this point again this is more an
American history every other country
kind of has its its own history in
Brazil it’s very popular in France it’s
very popular in Russia it’s very popular
in China it’s becoming incredibly
popular so it has it has all different
histories let me explain actually this
is a really fun example everybody see
the bullpens over here at Fenway Park
okay this is how I’m going to explain
the public image of accordion and what
the accordion can actually do yes we’re
gonna use the bullpen in 2007 and 2013
last two times Red Sox won the World
Series they had two very dominant closes
in Oh seven it was who Jonathan Papelbon
and he came out to this song that I’m
sure you all know
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
and then he would come out and take them
out and probably to get the safe now
that is what most people think about
cats accordion it’s Irish okay anything
but there’s nothing really going on and
playing just a couple of chords and a
couple of notes and that’s how the
accordion is mostly used even in today’s
world cuz people will say in interviews
oak or do you know that the accordions
coming back isn’t it
kind of kind of not really it’s seen
more but it’s not being used it’s like
they’re using it as let’s buy a Ferrari
488 and drive ten miles an hour to the
grocery store we’re not really using it
correctly now in 2013 does anyone
remember who the closure was 2013 koji
uehara who had arguably the greatest
season of a reliever in baseball history
and he came out to a very different song
which I can still play on the accordion
but you would not expect to play in the
[Music]
so NASA never come out – so there is a
wide range I can play pretty much
anything in the middle if I give you
some other examples of music maybe that
you would expect on accordion would be
maybe this one something like that we
can do maybe
well of course yes but I try not to do
that music so much there is this that
kind of thing
there is also since we’re here I might
as well do this
[Music]
Red Sox much unless I saw an astro set
so maybe there’s a lot of doom people
[Music]
so you can have your own bunch of places
in here also of course we did we did
some techno there as I can be my own
jazz trio
[Music]
and then the drum and the bass player
always together which is great because
it’s all controlled by my left hand you
can also play tracks on here which I
never do but you can do that use it as a
boom box at your party which is a fun
little item to use and of course like I
was doing before lots of different
techno music or things like that you do
this so you don’t need to hire a DJ
anymore you just need to hire an
accordion player this is this is all we
need but again if you really want it we
can so I do all that as well but what
I’m trying to do kind of in my career is
just make the accordion cool again as it
was as it was very very cool in this
country and and even believe it or not
when the accordion was coming down in
the 50s and the guitar was coming up
there was a period of time where they
were both equally popular and there was
an accordion guitar magazine because
they were they were equally popular
impossible to imagine say the guitar and
accordian there were thousands and
thousands of students at massive empires
of studios and then it just kind of died
off but the instrument is really amazing
in the fact that I can play 14 notes at
the same time including percussion and
other things but also I can control the
sound completely at all milliseconds
[Music]
even when I was playing the organ it’s
still controlled by the bellows so the
thing is it’s really the only instrument
that you can control the sound at every
millisecond and play this many notes so
you have the variability of the voice of
the violin but the amount of notes of a
piano and guitar so it’s kind of you
know next time you see accordion think
think a little bit more it’s not just
the Polka instruments and I’m trying to
you know I play a lot of different
famous music artists and I’m trying to
show everybody especially in the
recording industry as well that instead
of just going on Ableton or something
and typing in all these different
electric sounds you can actually have a
actual musician play these sounds and
and make it sound more like a human
actually play them so no but thank you
very much [Applause]
Please follow and like us: