Coming Soon Archives

November 2009: World Accordion

Say what you will about the accordion (and many have said things that we couldn’t say on the radio), it is portable, an instant one-man band, and loud enough to be heard over the crowd at dance parties. Those characteristics helped propel the accordion and related free reed instruments (concertina, bandoneon, harmonica, melodica) around the world and into a many different styles of music. Invented in Germany in the early 1800s (but, it’s a small world after all, and apparently inspired by the older Chinese instrument, the sheng), the accordion quickly became popular; and, by later in that century, accordion manufacturing was in full swing. Then, as waves of European immigrants began to fan out to many different corners of the world, they took the instrument with them. Today the accordion can be found virtually everywhere and appears in everything from traditional music to classical and avant-garde jazz settings. Styles that incorporate the accordion include tango, polka, forro, zydeco, tarantella, conjunto and more. Acclaimed players include Astor Piazzolla, Riccardo Tesi, Kepa Junkera, Guy Klucevsek, Clifton Chenier, and Flaco Jimenez, and such not-so-famous players as John Lennon, Richard Nixon, James Stewart, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Dickens and Mahatma Gandhi. Throughout the month of November, Global Village will scour the planet for a variety of remarkable and diverse squeezebox sounds.