accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 05:59 AM

Whatever you can, would be appreciated - but I don't intend to try to get you to do anything you don't want to.... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 04:37 AM

G'day Robin,

No specific bibliography would make much sense ... there almost as many sources to those paragraphs as there are words! I have read widely ... and that is an 'averaged out' sythesis ... but most of it is in standard texts (insofar as such exist on button accordions!).

Indeed a lot of individual books have fairly loose information (or loads of national bias) ... and this is mostly drawn on the reasonably agreed bits. If you want to follow it up ... I might be able to point to a few sources ... after some study off-line!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Dec 03 - 11:45 PM

Useful Bob,

any pointers to Biblio References? Web would be nice, but anything would be helpful. Especially on the P/A.

My Uni tutors always preferred "Primary Documentation" ... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 04 Dec 03 - 08:42 PM

G'day Foolestroupe / Robin,

I don't remember seeing this thread when it appeared 5½ years ago. I guess it's a bit late to help kelli's paper on the accordion in late 1880s!

However, the generally conceded "inventor" of the (button) accordion was Buschman, Germany, ~ 1821 ... with a lot of improvements by Daimian, in Vienna ~ 1829.

Sometime in the 1830s the French (being French ...) devised the "French Accordion", which was essentially the same, but the notes worked in the opposite direction (though the 'cabinet work' was very nice!) ... which may indicate a preference for playing in the Dorian mode ... popular in areas with dark, gloomy Catolicism! (These French accordions were also called "Flutina / Flautina / &c" depending on the makers). Flutinas were certainly around for a few decades ... and beyond the French borders ... Con Klippel, who founded a family band still running in the Upper Murray Valley, at the foot of Australia's Snowy Mountains arrived in 1857 - playing a Flutina. (The band, today, mainly plays single-row, 4-stop Hohners in "C".)

It seems to have been the French who decided to make a piano keyboard accordion - with notes sounding the same in either direction, starting about 1850 - but the arrangement for an adequate bass end was perfected by the Italians (presumably around Stradella, which is the name for the bass system) in the 1880s. These new "piano accordions" where inevitably much bigger / complicated / costly and didn't appear much as amateur / folk instruments until the late 1920s.

Bit of history .. hope it interests someone!

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: Dead Horse
Date: 04 Dec 03 - 03:35 PM

This may be of some help
http://accordions.com/bonteecajun/#cajun

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Dec 03 - 05:52 PM

Any updates?

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: CarolC
Date: 30 Sep 00 - 03:36 AM

Cool

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 11:25 AM

The point that the guitar wasn't recognised as a legitimate instrument by the musicians' union is an interesting one. Were there any musicians' unions for African-Americans in Harrison County, Texas in the 1890s? However, whether or not there were any is irrelevant as Huddie Ledbetter was given the accordian as a present from his uncle Terrell in 1895, when he was only seven years old.

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: Earl
Date: 12 Mar 98 - 10:03 AM

There is one paragraph about accordion in _Nothing but the Blues_ by Lawrence Cohen. He says that accordions were popular among southern blacks in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but there were very few commercial or field recordings made. He mentions that John Lomax recorded Blind Jesse Harris in Livingston, Alabama in 1937.

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: chet w
Date: 11 Mar 98 - 09:41 PM

Also check some of the zydeco folks, like Clifton Chenier and Queen Ida and Beau Jocque. Great accordian, great blues.

Chet W.

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From:
Date: 11 Mar 98 - 06:36 PM

I imagine Leadbelly used the windjamer for playing at local dances before the days when he would be interested in joining the musicians union.

I am not surprised about the guitar. Those were the days of James C. Petrilla. He probably thought that it was only played by blacks. For example, It was national union policy that blacks and whites must not appear on the same stage together.

Murray

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 11 Mar 98 - 01:12 PM

According to what was common wisdom of the time, Lead Belly's accordian playing (and his even rarer piano picking was a sop to the Musician's Union; he wanterd to join, and they didn'tr recognize the guitar as a legitimate instrument.

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: chet w
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 10:34 PM

Check www.hohnerusa.com and www.kharps.com

both have books/resources about the accordian. If you just punch in "accordian" on Yahoo it will lead you to thousands of sites.

Good luck Chet W.

Subject: RE: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 11:10 AM

I don't know if it's of any use to you - it's not really the right period - but the young Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) was playing a windjammer accordion at the end of the nineteenth century. Also, you might like to take a look at E. Annie Proulx's recent novel 'Accordion Crimes', which, as well as being an entertaining read, also features a limited bibliography of sources used to write the book, some of which might of use to you.

Best of Luck Brian

Subject: accordions in blues/ballads in Mississippi
From: kelli
Date: 09 Mar 98 - 10:35 PM

Hello I am writing a paper on the button accordion and the significance of it during the late 1800's. Being more specific, during the time periods of 1870-1880, can anyone help me with documentation or knowledge of other accordion players. I have found information on Walter 'Pat' Rhodes and 'Blind' Jesse Harris.

I would appreciate any information on the accordion also. I can only get an approximate area of invention(germany) but no names of inventors or craftsmen.

Thanks ...