Update your websites!
As posted earlier, we rather sadly discovered this month that most accordion websites or blogs that come up in standard online searches haven’t been updated in a few years -- as in a decade -- much less updated to tout National Accordion Awareness Month 2016.
Did a whole slew of accordion website publishers recently die or something? Did they forget to give somebody a password? We hope not.
In the meantime, the only site that covers the history of National Accordion Awareness Month (NAAM) is Tom Torriglia’s All Things Accordion.
So, to close out NAAM 2016 research and posts, we emailed Torriglia some questions and he was gracious enough to answer. The email exchange went sort of like this:
Anything Accordion: I was wondering if you could explain a little how National Accordion Awareness Month (NAAM) got started.
Tom Torriglia: [In 1989] the idea for National Accordion Awareness Month grew out from the need to help publicize the band I was playing in (Those Darn Accordions) and people's perception of the instrument.
Those Darn Accordions, circa 2013 L to R: Michael Messer, Suzanne Garramone, Paul Rogers, and Lewis Wallace. Photo credit: Fair Use from en.wikipedia
(TT: cont.) If I could get people to think the accordion was cool, they would think the band was cool. Most people had no idea how difficult it is to play the accordion, had pre-conceived notions of the types of music you could play on the accordion and besides watching Lawrence Welk, had no exposure to the accordion.
AA: How did you envision doing these things?
TT: My goal was to try to shift people's perception of the instrument by presenting fun facts "outside the squeezebox," as it were. For example, to present the accordion as the most cross-cultural instrument in the world - and then to go on and explain why.
AA: The idea seems to have caught on for a while.
TT: At first, interest was tremendous in National Accordion Awareness Month and I would do interviews with radio stations and newspapers from all over the world. Then, interest waned.
AA: Why was that?
TT: Why? Well, because I think I did a good job! I got enough awareness out there that people didn't think of the accordion as this clunky, old wheeze-bag of an instrument any more and that it had gained acceptance within the mainstream consciousness as a unique instrument capable of being played in multiple genres. And, having people like Lucy Liu playing the accordion and "Joan" on Mad Men strapping one on, didn't hurt.
AA: So, did people in general have positive reactions to the accordion from that?
TT: Eventually, the perception of the accordion and the people who play it and the music they play went from ewwwwwwww, to ahhhhhhhhh.
AA: Since it's now been about six years or so since widespread -- and popularly seen -- reminders of accordions have been around, do you think it's time to rejuvenate the Awareness Month? We're not suggesting you personally, but the artists and followers in general?
TT: I think anyone can, if motivated, breathe some life into Accordion month for whatever purpose. The month can be used to further careers, like it did mine. People can use the month to draw attention themselves and what they are doing with the accordion. In fact, I encourage them to do so. For example, people can release albums upon which they play the accordion and say that in honor of the month, here's a new release featuring the accordion.
AA: So, we're going to say that NAAM has been resting, but apparently you and your band haven't. When did you move from the U.S. to Italy, are you still playing, and if so, do you have a current album you'd like to mention?
TT: I moved to Italy three and one-half years ago. Yes, I am still playing, I still get to the accordion capital of Italy, Castelfidardo, every chance I get to see old friends and new accordions, and I do have a current, self-titled album (at this point) coming out August 15 that will contain 10 new, really fun Italian-American songs. The readers are always welcome to check on its progress and get ordering information at my website.
Grazie, Tom! We'll be on the lookout. And here's a too short little youtube of Tom Torriglia talking about National Accordion Awareness Month and playing his accordion.
So, since Accordion Awareness Month is still being recognized and celebrated, here's hoping accordion related website owners will do a little site maintenance during the coming year and be ready for June 2017. National Accordion Awareness Month is not dead, and should continue as an effective way to keep educating the ever changing public and inform their musical interests. Here's to continued success!
We needed a party theme with music and a menu. Guess who figured it out.
Back in early May 2016, and totally unrelated to blog work, we were brainstorming a theme for one of our visiting parties to take place in June. That's when we stumbled across the National Day Calendar site.
This site claims it has scoured the Internet since 2013 for mentions of just about every national day of somebody’s something to commemorate or celebrate. The database is searchable by day, week or month.
So, we clicked on June to find that three favorite things share this month. How much luckier could June (or us down to the wire on our party plans) be? It’s National Iced Tea Month. It's National Soul Food Month. AND June is National Accordion Awareness Month. Not difficult to pick the theme, music, and menu for the visiting party with those three!
But here would be a question: Besides the month of June, do accordions have anything in common with iced tea and soul food? How about the Bon Ton Soul Accordion Band for a big YES? And still going strong in their revival years: Their version of R&B? With this group as our soundtrack, this is going to be a great visiting party!
What?
We went looking for who, what, and where kinds of sites that might list activities, events and dates where accordion lovers will be building awareness during June's National Accordion Awareness Month (NAAM).
Rather odd: Most results are more than ten-years old. What can this mean? We're not interpreting a lack of current year mentions online as the demise of National Accordion Awareness Month. No indeed! A lack of info online just slightly tweaks our blogging direction for this month.
Recall that our parent blog was originally a project for a liberal studies degree class that answered an assignment to find out as much as you can about a country by tracing the history of a musical instrument. Paraphrasing, what do we find out about accordions if we look for as much as we can about the history of June being National Accordion Awareness Month.
So instead of today's post being about the fabulous number of year 2016, up-to-date sites participating in programs or publications or concerts specifically geared to generating accordion awareness, the discovery is that there are one or two comparatively recent contributions.
The Most Recent Award goes to Lit for Kids, a site not aimed at musicians or accordion mechanics, but at parents and teachers supporting children's interests through books.
According to the "about" section of the website & blog, owners Ruth Shagoury and Meghan Rose, love teaching, kids, and books. Shagoury teaches teachers at Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Oregon), and Rose is a parent and Internet guru type who specializes in startups.
In their June 7, 2014 edition of Lit for Kids, they not only wish their readers "Happy Accordion Awareness Month," they also provide a short synopsis of an accordion related book. Available on amazon.com, Mendel's Accordion by Heidi Smith Hyde and illustrated by Johanna Van der Sterre.
According to Lit for Kids, Mendel's Accordion follows a klezmer musician and his family's migration to a new country. Over a generation or two, interest in and enjoyment of "grandpa's music" wanes and his once happy accordion eventually is forgotten in a dusty closet until years and years later, a great grandson becomes "aware" of what the accordion is.
If Accordion Awareness Month seems a bit under played this year, and needs some energizing re-tuning, then Mendel's Accordion is an ironically fitting book to read for the occasion. The story shows that interest in playing the accordion has typically waxed and waned since the instrument was invented. It seems that accordion interests revitalize when a particular type of music becomes popularly vogue, and fortunately during the periods of pop disinterest, the accordion heritages are maintained by individuals who know the importance of preserving artistic components of their cultures.
For instance, at the bottom of the June 2014 post on Lit for Kids, Shagoury and Rose include a link to PBS's online archive of the excellent series, "Accordion Dreams." The series follows the accordion's historical travel from German origins into what is now the State of Texas and documents the button accordion's merge with Mexican musical traditions.
However, klezmer music originates with the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe, and when it reaches the New York area, these accordions begin to play klezmer music inflected with turn-of-the 20th century American jazz.
So, for the beginner who has to look up just about every term related to the object of our curiosity, it turns out that klezmer isn't yet another name for the accordion instrument, but is the name of a type of accordion music! Well, we had to go find some to listen to, didn't we?
Looking turns up -- seriously:
And it is, but while this 2011 post on Accordion Uprising is chock full of links, on the day we explored, some links are troublesome, and some don't play on all browsers. Still the information is definitely a "mother-load" of fascinating accordion history and includes leads to authorities on klezmer music.
Fine info, but what does klezmer music sound like?
Examples are numerous on youtube! We like this 4 minute "Mazal Tov Wedding Medley - Jewish Klezmer Music" from the album, The Klezmer – Clarinet & Violin Best famous Jewish Music.
However, this quiet interlude featuring Jo Brunenberg playing accordion and accompanied only by a violone is a favorite now: "Klezmer music - Yiddisch Mazurka - The Brides Waltz - violone accordion acordeon musica"
Listening to the klezmer music selections is a huge step out of our culture bubble, but we actually heard some refrains recognized from movies and TV programs. Does this mean maybe there's open heart hope for us yet? To properly celebrate National Accordion Awareness Month, let's assume so!
And so also begins our blog!
The Anything Accordion blog is kicking off our celebration of National Accordion Awareness Month 2016 by introducing the format we’ll (try to) follow on a rotating basis (probably the term, "random basis," is more descriptive) throughout the year for future posts.
- A lesson module on the history of the accordion because we figure if you know the history of something, you’ll be more inclined to understand it. In the case of the accordion, it needs all the understanding it can get.
- A brief bio of an accordion player -- famous and not yet famous. Feel free to suggest people.
- Links to some ways National Awareness Month has been celebrated in the past. Let us know in the comment section what accordion related events are on your celebration calendar for the current year!
- A link to the “song of the week” and why it’s notable -- or not. Comments welcome!
June is National Accordion Awareness Month (NAAM)
The parent of this blog, yona677beta.blogspot.com, was born in 2006 as a history of the accordion learning module for a Liberal Studies graduate school class taught by Dr. Marsha Paludan at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Accordion-ing to All Things Accordion, National Accordion Awareness Month was "established in 1989 to help spread the word about the resurgence in popularity in the accordion and to educate people about the accordion."
So to participate, during the month of June 2016, we'll be updating and migrating information and links as posts from the parent blog to this blog. Looking forward, and on no particular set schedule, we'll be adding anything that strikes our historian/listener fancy accordion-ingly.
Even after ten years, we still consider ourselves novices and are certainly latecomers to celebrating June with the accordion world. Please feel free to comment on posts and add any announcements for June events that celebrate National Accordion Awareness Month!
Cheers!
