Jack the Sailor and I had a lovely dinner at a local Thai restaurant yesterday evening. It was our first time at that particular restaurant.   As one might expect, I tend to notice whenever there is an accordion playing within my earshot, anytime, anywhere. Last week we were eating at a local Mexican restaurant and, of course, I had to make sure everyone at the table with us was aware that the music being piped in for our enjoyment featured an accordion. It's what I do.

Anyway, by the end of our meal at the Thai restaurant, the only people left in the place besides JtS and me were the employees. (In Columbus Georgia, on a Sunday evening, everybody eats at the Texas Steakhouse.) The hostess (who may also have been the owner) was quite friendly, and we got into a very interesting discussion about music. During our meal, I had been listening to the restaurant's piped-in music, and I noticed that it featured some beautiful accordion playing. JtS said he figured the music was Thai "pop" music.

I mentioned the accordion to the hostess. She didn't know what I was talking about until I pantomimed the motions of accordion playing to her. She said she had never heard the name "accordion" before, and then she told me what they are called in Thailand. Phonetically, it sounded like she said "Pei Pay", but I have no idea how it would be spelled. She then told me about a wind instrument that is traditional in Thailand that has some things in common with accordions. She said she didn't know the English name for the instrument, and I neglected to get the Thai name for it. I'm thinking it was probably this instrument, called a "Kaen". Here's some interesting information about the Kaen from a website I found in a Google search using the words "Thailand" and "accordion":

Musical Instruments of Southeast Asia (Scroll down to "Thailand & Burma Kaen; Thai Mouthorgan")

"The Kaen is the oldest form of the freereed family, the great great grandaddy of the harmonica and accordion. This type of instrument goes back to at least 1100BC (the harmonica and accordion only go back to the 1830s). Made of bamboo with a brass reed in each tube. All the tubes are affixed in a wooden body with black pitch. You blow and suck on the mouthpipe on the body and cover the holes on the tubes to play melodies and chords. Powerful sound and you can play western music as well as Asian."

I think that's really interesting.

So I've been thinking about freereed instruments around the world. And I've been thinking about accordions around the world. I don't think I heard any accordion music at the Ethiopian restaurant where JtS and I ate in Georgetown (Washington DC) a couple of weeks ago (which isn't to say they don't have accordions in Ethiopia). But it seems like most of the international restaurants we go to have some sort if accordion in the music mix being piped in.

So which countries have them and which don't? Anybody know? Anybody have any interesting stories about finding accordion (or other freereed) music in unexpected places?