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American
accordionists have had a substantial influence on the accordion
worldwide this century. Here are the details of just some
of the accordionists who have had a profound input.
John
Kimmel recorded the first record on a diatonic accordion in
1903. He continued to make records until 1929. Born in 1866,
he was of Irish-German descent.
In 1916
the San Francisco Accordion Club was set up with 39 members.
Among those were Olinto Di Lucca, Guiseppe Frigone and Paolo
Mascagni.
One famous
accordion family were the three Marconi brothers: Victor,
Valentino and Ernesto, who performed worldwide during the
1920's.
Pietro
Frosini was the first known American chromatic accordionist.
He was born in Sicily in 1885. His father was an accordion
enthusiast and encouraged Pietro to begin lessons on the diatonic
when he was six. He changed to the chromatic system three
years later. He emigrated to the USA in 1905 and in about
1908 he began to compose. Over the next 40 years he composed
and arranged an enormous range of music for the accordion.
He also taught many well-known accordionists, before passing
away in 1951.
Pietro
Deiro was the younger of the two Deiro brothers and was born
in 1888. Under the influence of his older brother he began
to play the accordion in Germany in 1905. In 1907 he moved
to the USA where he was the first accordionist to use the
chromatic model with piano keys. He began recording in 1910
and one of his most famous songs "Pietro's Return"
was recorded in 1914. He wrote many compositions, studies
and transcriptions, and even opened his own publishing house.
He is sometimes called the American 'Father of the Accordion'
and died in 1954.
Guido
Deiro, Pietro's older brother, was born in 1886. When he was
nine, he began to teach himself the accordion and at fourteen
started playing professionally. Guido made two records in
1911. Around the same time he performed in theatres all over
the world, including Great Britain, Australia and Canada.
During the 1920's he continued to record and played the accordion
in movie soundtracks. He died in 1950.
Anthony
Galla-Rini was born in 1904. His father and two sisters played
with him in a family orchestra called the Galla-Rini Four.
He later accompanied artists such as the Marx Brothers. In
1938 he helped set up the American
Accordionists' Association (AAA) with Pietro Deiro, Charlie
Magnante, Joe Biviano and Pietro Frosini. He left the
association after a difference of opinion and in 1939 became
an accordion teacher at the New York Galanti Accordion Conservatory.
In 1941 he was one of the founders of the Accordion Teachers
Guild. From 1945 he worked on film soundtracks and toured
internationally. Now retired, he still presides on competition
juries all over the world.
Dr Willard
Palmer was born in 1917, and began teaching himself the accordion
after learning the piano. At sixteen, he became the first
professional accordionist in the state of Mississippi. After
the war he published (with Bill
Hughes, his best student) a series of workbooks which
have sold more copies worldwide than any other accordion tuition
series. In 1946, Palmer formed a trio with Lew Manno on the
double bass and Bill Hughes on the accordion. He established
himself as a music editor, and gave conferences on the accordion
throughout the USA and Canada. He also wrote hundreds of studies
for the accordion and the piano. See an
article for more information about Dr Willard Palmer.
See also Tom
Collins Celebrity Interview
for interesting information about famous accordionists.
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