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http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=22-Mar-2013&lang=en&s=6924
http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=22-Mar-2013&lang=en&s=6924
22-Mar-2013
Al Iorio (1919-2013), New Jersey – USAby Rob Howard |
 Amedeo ‘Al’ Iorio, veteran accordion builder and mechanical engineer from Cresskill, New Jersey, died on Monday March 4th at the age of 94. Al Iorio’s father, Candido, an Itaian immigrant, opened an accordion shop in New York City in 1907, and Al grew up in the accordion business, designing, buidling and selling instruments. Al Iorio was one of the first pioneer designers of the electronic accordion, and in the 1950s developed the ‘Accorgan’, thanks to an embedded chip. "If Al had never put in those electronic sounds, the accordion would not have been recognized as an instrument that could be played in many musical groups," said Norman Seaton, President of the National Accordion Association. Al Iorio's family began in the music business in the mid-19th Century in Italy. Al, with a mechanical engineering degree from Hoboken's Stevens Institute of Technology, transformed his father’s NY accordion shop, renamed it the ‘Iorio Syn-Cordion Musical Instrument Co.’, and moved it to an Englewood industrial park. Al Iorio was a lifelong champion of the accordion. "The accordion will never die out," he said in a newspaper interview in 2002. "There's still a lot of business out there, and the new computerized keyboards are always advancing themselves." As for his own musical prowess, Mr. Iorio "didn't go out and do gigs or anything," said a niece, Denise Grasing of Leonia. "But he played the accordion well enough to be able to demonstrate it and sell it." Al Iorio continued on after the business closed. "His garage was full of accordion parts, and you could always call him," said Guenadiy Lazarov, owner of Accordion Gallery, a sales and service business in the Landing section of Roxbury. "He was proud of his family's legacy, and it was a blessing for him to still do what he enjoyed." Mr. Iorio, an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II, is survived by his wife, Gloria; a sister, Norma Ferraro of Long Island; a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter. His son, Ken, who co-owned the family business, died in 1996. |