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http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=18-Mar-2016&lang=fr&s=11536
http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=18-Mar-2016&lang=fr&s=11536
18-Mar-2016
by Rob Howard
|
 Brooklyn Accordion Club were the subject of the following article published this week in The Village Voice, written by Jessica Leigh Hester.A drum and tambourine keep time, a banjo player starts plucking, and two fiddlers raise their bows. The stars of the afternoon, though, are the rest of the musicians, who shrug on their shoulder straps and, some more gracefully than others, lift their accordions. "That instrument is so nice, it's making my eyes water," one player murmurs to himself as he ogles his neighbor's souped-up, 23-pound "Cadillac" machine. And then they're off, alternating between galloping hora rhythms and tinkling melodies. "Make it pretty now," says Sy Kushner. The 72-year-old leading today's ensemble picked up the accordion as a kid in the Bronx, where it starred in his neighborhood synagogue — not exactly the coolest place for inspiration, but inspiration nonetheless. After a lifetime pressing keys, he's not letting his eager students off easy. "Relax. Take a few deep breaths." He swoops his hands through the air in big arcs. "I want to squeeze more out of you." The players have hauled out their instruments for a klezmer workshop hosted by the Brooklyn Accordion Club, which since 2013 has convened about once a month above Cobble Hill's Local 61 café. The late risers brunching downstairs can hardly hear the exuberant tunes wheezing above their heads. Right now it's klezmer, but before too long it might be Jimmy Buffett — the open-mic portion of the afternoon. |