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Seriously demented box-squeezers
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Subject: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Grab Date: 04 Jun 07 - 08:09 PM I mean, what were they thinking? It's an accordian! The first thought on most people's mind when they see an accordian is "let's have a bit of folk music then". You'd have to be pretty sick for your first thought to be "I bet I could do the Toccata and Fugue and Flight of the Bumblebee on that". But some people just don't know any better. The mad, dangerous, stupidly talented nutters that they are... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmTG9wTfrzk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbuIZ-5-8o Graham. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Midchuck Date: 04 Jun 07 - 08:32 PM Don't EVER let him near a banjo! Peter |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 05 Jun 07 - 12:49 AM I disagree... it's a musical (sic) instrument and is capable of playing anything. For instance, there is one Mudcatter whom I knew for several years before he confessed to playing the melodeon. He is a 'dyed in the wool, grow me own wassails' folkie now, but has a penchant for playing Mozart on the melodeon. Sitting in a session with him once, he segued perfectly from a morris tune into Papageno's song from the Magic Flute. People played along without even realising they were playing the dreaded 'classical' music. However... I must also agree partly. He is seriously demented but that's for a whole heap of other reasons! LTS |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: GUEST Date: 05 Jun 07 - 03:07 AM Two words: Belshazzar's Feast.
Thanks. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: GUEST Date: 05 Jun 07 - 03:54 AM and there was, of course, AWOLs mass melodeon rendition of the "Radetsky March" (J.Strauss) and the opening of "Also Spake Zarathustra (Richard Strauss) with 20 plus playing "parts" like a choir!!! at the Goose and Firkin pub Sunday sessions in Southwark in the mid-late 80s
Thanks. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Surreysinger Date: 05 Jun 07 - 04:11 AM Now that latter I would really like to have heard!! |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: GUEST,Ralphie Date: 05 Jun 07 - 04:26 AM Having been involved with the AWOL session SS, I really don't think that you would have wanted to hear it. Now, Portsmouth Sinfonia.... Yo, way to go!! |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: mouldy Date: 05 Jun 07 - 04:45 AM Bill Sables does a very good rendition of the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Verdi (on a D/G). He'll play the William Tell Overture on banjo or box! Andrea |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: George Papavgeris Date: 05 Jun 07 - 05:31 AM That's nothing - I too can play the William Tell Overture on a banjo. It's a little hard balancing, but as long as I can fit my feet on top of it, it's fine. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Surreysinger Date: 05 Jun 07 - 06:43 AM ROFL .... like that one George! |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 05 Jun 07 - 07:45 AM ... would end up a bit flat though, George... |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 05 Jun 07 - 08:06 AM Guest 3.54 and Surreysinger - I was involved in more than one of those sessions.... it was indeed a joy to behold. You can hear AWOL play the Radetsky March if you are able to find a copy of 'Buddy, can you spare a QebZog?' by the Hackney Martians. I'm sure Ralphie can find a tape or CD somewhere... and I'd be interested in another copy too, I've played mine to death! It's not as chaotic as the Goose and Firkin sessions were (I suspect the addition of several pints of Dogbolter made it "special"), but it's a haunting memory of how life in the Goose used to be. LTS |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Micca Date: 05 Jun 07 - 08:11 AM That Guest was me at work, Liz, and several pints of dogbolter definately enhanced the musicality no end,,Surreysinger the Tymps part of Zarathustra was "recreated" by pounding on the tables and stanping on a single skin floor above a celler, nice effect! |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Celtaddict Date: 05 Jun 07 - 08:25 AM Gary Buttery in Connecticut plays 'Flight of the Bumblebee' and some impressive jazz riffs on a tuba. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Surreysinger Date: 05 Jun 07 - 08:30 AM Hmmm... thanks Micca ....but was it musical?? |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 05 Jun 07 - 08:33 AM Oh it was very musical! So was the journey home after several pints of Dogbolter! LTS |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: treewind Date: 05 Jun 07 - 08:35 AM OMG, now I remember Ralphie playing me the Hackney Martians when we stayed with him. And I haven't seen AWOL for far too long. I miss that madness, not living in London any more. I had a quick look at some of those other videos - Jose Feliciano attempting the Flight of the BB on guitar wasn't a bad effort either! As for the Bach - that's typical classical accordion playing. There's a lot of it about, nothing to do with folk music. I like the way the fugue started on the LH buttons - very neat. I've heard some very nice Scarlatti played like that too. Those are "free bass" Accordions where the left hand buttons give several octaves of pure notes and I believe the button layout is similar to the 5 row RH layout. Totall different form the folk accordion Stradella bass with one octave of notes and ready made oompah chords. Anahata |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 05 Jun 07 - 09:04 AM Alas, that kind of madness has passed along the way... it's a different sort of madness now and the Goose is no more. LTS |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 05 Jun 07 - 09:26 AM A couple of years ago at the Toowoomba Accordion Festival, I watched a guy play many 'normal Piano Acordion Classical pieces' on a Button Box - could not tell the difference with eyes closed.!!! He learnt to play these pieces from his father. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: dick greenhaus Date: 05 Jun 07 - 11:59 AM For a mind-bending experience, listen to Bob Webb play ragtime on a Duet Concertina. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Celtaddict Date: 05 Jun 07 - 01:08 PM Bob is amazing all right. Who is the woman who plays rounds with herself on one concertina? I can picture her. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: CarolC Date: 05 Jun 07 - 03:07 PM Brilliant! Thanks for posting those, Grab. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Rockhen Date: 05 Jun 07 - 03:21 PM Just caught this thread and seen the videos. *^&%"&........WOW, dead impressed and gonna try playing a few similar (but much slower!) tunes myself, but NOT in public, ever, I expect! |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Tim theTwangler Date: 05 Jun 07 - 06:16 PM It would take the hairs right of your chest. |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Herga Kitty Date: 05 Jun 07 - 06:45 PM Flight of the Bumblebee, Toccata and Fugue sounded pretty good, actually. It was the Vitaly Dmitriev - Zolotaryov - Partita no.1 that made me think, "seriously demented" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEeShA-u5Ik&mode=related&search= Kitty |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Dave Earl Date: 05 Jun 07 - 07:15 PM "by the Hackney Martians" Liz that' |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Dave Earl Date: 05 Jun 07 - 07:16 PM Sorry Hit the wrong button Meant to say Thats where I grew up |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: The Borchester Echo Date: 05 Jun 07 - 07:29 PM Yes, well it's all very well to play the D min Toccata & Fugue on a 160 button accordian but c'mon, what you really need is Lea Nicholson doing the 4th Brandenburg on English concertina. It took week upon week of downtime at Livingstone Studios. The Concertina Record |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: redsnapper Date: 05 Jun 07 - 07:56 PM Thanks for the link Diane, I enjoyed hearing that again immensely (and may well buy the CD!) RS |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Rowan Date: 05 Jun 07 - 09:39 PM Somebody may be able to correct me on this but my recollection is that John Kirkpatrick's very first LP included a Bach Fugue played on an Anglo, in a successful attempt to demonstrate that the then popular belief (that English Concertinas were the only concertinas worth learning because Anglos were only "toys") was incorrect. The first time I witnessed Flight of the Bumblebee played on an accordion was in about 1965, when a touring Russian played it at the Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne. Again from recollection, it was a piano accordion miked internally and with a 'free chromatic bass'. It was the latter revelation that helped stick the event in my mind, along with the effect of a bee buzzing around inside the instrument. Cheers, Rowan |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: elfcape Date: 05 Jun 07 - 10:09 PM I'll never forget the evening party at Chaplain Valley, back in the early '80s when Ali Anderson was the only concertina player in a field of Quebecois, Cajun and Irish accordians. Poor guy. He didn't have any common repertoire to speak of. But one night the old time fiddlers were gathered on the porch and, squatted down and bent double so he could hear himself, Ali was trying to play along. Boy were his fingers flying! |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: katlaughing Date: 05 Jun 07 - 10:55 PM Great stuff, Grab, thanks! |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: treewind Date: 06 Jun 07 - 07:00 AM John Kirkpatrick played Mattheson's Gigue (not Bach) on Jump at the Sun. The original was in E minor (I have a printed copy) and he transposed it to A minor to fit the range of the instrument, and made some small tweaks to make it playable. It is indeed a 4 part fugue, played and recorded (as the sleeve notes on Jump At The Sun are at pains to point out) without the benefit of multi tracking. He re-recorded it on the Anglo International CD set released recently. I tried to learn it once. With practice I could get up to and including the entry of the 4th voice. As I was also transcribing it from a recording, it got too difficult after that. Not only 4 parts but it starts getting harmonically complex from that point onwards and I just couldn't work out what all the notes were. Anahata |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 06 Jun 07 - 07:05 AM You should remember that the original 82 note Duet was built so that a world class player could play certain Classical pieces thereon... |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: Liz the Squeak Date: 06 Jun 07 - 10:40 AM Jim Couza often plays Bach's 'Jesu, joy of man's desiring' on hammered dulcimer. It's so far the only rendition of any Bach music that I've found pleasing. I hate Bach, and 'Jesu, joy' even more so. LTS |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: concertina ceol Date: 06 Jun 07 - 11:49 AM Anahata said: John Kirkpatrick played Mattheson's Gigue (not Bach) on Jump at the Sun. It is indeed a 4 part fugue, played and recorded without the benefit of multi tracking. He re-recorded it on the Anglo International CD set released recently. Ceol: Yes I saw him play it last autumn down in Lewes - it was very impressive and the only thing I have ever seen John sit down to play - he made a remark about needing to go into a zen like state of semi-conciousness to be able to relax enough to play it - he wasn't joking either - mind bogling stuff. The tune he wrote recently called "on the pulling down of parky's shower curtain rail" is equally impressive and modulates into and through about 5 keys in the B part before returning to the original tune in the A part. I suppose you might call it a "traditional" style tune but the effect of the modulation makes it seem quite "un folk". [It's on the Sultans of Squeeze CD] I've also played Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring on the Anglo C/G - I just happen to have the sheet music and I like it :-) |
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Subject: RE: Seriously demented box-squeezers From: GUEST,banjoman Date: 06 Jun 07 - 12:27 PM All box players are demented as far as I know (from a banjo player who is happy to play anything the band wants to play which often includes beethoven motzart etc |
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