The Cotati
Accordion Festival honored Art Van Damme this last weekend.
It gave me and a few other members of the club the golden opportunity
to talk to him at length about his music, the history of jazz
and many other neat topics.
First
let me say that Art has a mind like a steel trap. He remembers
names, dates and hundreds of neat anecdotes that make for a
fascinating telling of musical lore.
Art started
out as a classical accordionist for about ten years before switching
over to jazz. He played with many famous names over the years.
He himself was listed as one of the top ten jazz musicians for
something like ten years.
He said
he never practiced...played so many gigs he didn't have to.
Said in his entire married life he probably never played more
than five or six hours at home. In fact since he retired he
has played his accordion for a total of about ten minutes! He
said he doesn't get any enjoyment out of playing for himself.
Another
interesting comment was that the only treble reed he used was
the bassoon reed. He often stripped out the other reeds from
his accordion. He has an early (about 1954) American made Excelsior
that was one of his favorite accordions. He had previously removed
the other reeds so when he recently found them in storage in
his house, had them reinstalled in the accordion. He played
the ten minutes to see how they worked out....that was it.
Maybe
once he gets tired of retirement he might be persuaded to play
again....but I suggested along with some other club members
that he should consider writing an autobiography. Perhaps if
others encouraged him to do the same it might happen. It would
be a fascinating story!
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