THE ACCORDION PLAYS JAZZ - ITALY
| Written
by: |
| Simone
Zanchini, Jazz Accordionist |
| |
| Publication: |
| General
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| Date
written: |
| 09
December 2000 |
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The Accordion
Plays Jazz - Italy Traditionally relegated within the confines
of popular and entertainment music, the accordion suffered throughout
the years a singular fate: as an outcast both in the world of
"serious" music, which regarded it as not being noble enough,
and in the world of popular music consumed by young people, who
saw it as old-fashioned. To escape this situation the accordion
has often had to pay a very high price.
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While the bandoneon gradually came to be perceived as the instrument
of tango in Argentina, the accordion was brought from Europe across
the Atlantic ocean towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Italian expatriates took it to the United States, where it found
its cradles in San Francisco, Chicago and New York.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the accordion was used primarily
in orchestral groups, although it also had its niche role in the
ragtime genre. The pioneers of this early movements are Charlie
Creath (who actually played a number of instruments) and the Italian-American
Tito Guidotti. In neither case, however, we can talk about jazz
yet.
Significant appearances of the accordion took place in this period
thanks to Joe Smelser and Charles Magnante, two swing soloists
who played in very prestigious orchestras, including those of
Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. More or less all of the musicians
mentioned above preferred a style ranging from the musette (a
term which indicates a specific French accordion style) to the
swing which was at its most popular in this period.
Other important artists of the time include Gus Viseur, Toni Murena
and Joe Privat.
In Italy the jazz accordion is historically confined to the work
of Gorni Kramer, a swing accordionist whose contribution was picked
up, among others, by Wolmer
Beltrami and Peppino
Principe. The most important contribution to the modernization
of the instruments was given by June Garner and Alice Hall (1917).
The latter, Belgian by birth, might be considered the first "be-boy"
accordionist, having played with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker,
and was famous for the amazing energy that she used to put in
her improvisations.
This takes us to the first real exponents of the jazz accordion
era, and who deserve this label due to the fact that they were
real leaders, capable of drawing to this newly introduced instrument
a range of musicians of great calibre. The accordionists in question
are Art Van Damme and Mat Mathews.
Van Damme recorded more than forty albums, and still plays live
from time to time, while Mathews, the least "be-boy" of the two,
heralded a style of evident Californian origins. Both accordionists
have played with jazz musicians of international stature, including
Joe Venuti, Archie Shepp, Kenny Clarke, Art Farmer and many others.
Italian-French accordionist Richard Galliano is currently the
prime exponent of the jazz accordion world. His main merits consist
in the ability of finding a balance between tradition and innovation,
and of mixing several different genres: from French musette to
Argentinean tango (which he knows full well, having been a student
of Astor Piazzolla's), all filtered through his extraordinary
virtuoso skills and trademark accuracy. The jazz accordion scene
in Italy is currently represented by the opposing styles of Gianni
Coscia and Antonello Salis. Coscia,
formerly a student of Gorni Kramer's, has largely drawn from the
accepted academic tradition of accordion interpretation; while
Salis has taken a much more non-conformist approach to his style
of jazz accordion and piano performance, and his moulding these
instruments to his artistic goals.
The considerable distance that still separates traditional and
avant-garde musicians suggests that the possibilities of the accordion
within this musical genre are still largely to be explored.
In this sense, the main problem is that the accordion has been
used very little so far to produce modern jazz and true innovation.
Beyond doubt, the most influential avant-garde jazz accordionist
of today is the Slovak-born American Guy Klucevsek (b. 1947).
Klucevsek started experimenting with jazz in the seventies alongside
John Zorn before achieving notoriety in the quartet led by Bill
Frisell, and collaborates nowadays with the most important avant-garde
jazz musicians of our time (as well as with Frisell and Zorn,
he plays with Antony Braxton, Don Byron, Dave Liebman). In a movement
whose territory is still largely uncharted, with an instrument
whose potential is yet to be fully realised, there are many non-specialists
and pseudo-accordionists who are taking advantage of a situation
which (from the point of view of modern jazz) is still dominated
by profound ignorance, and whose main lines of development still
grow out of the traditional and surpassed roots of the accordion.
The main issue is that the accordion over the years has built
its own "personal" world, largely isolated from the key instruments
of jazz (trumpet, saxophone, etc.) which should in fact taken
as a model both for their historical importance and for the personalities
who managed to ensure their continuous growth.
Simone Zanchini
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