The World Accordion to Phil
Wednesday, 9th March 2011 BBC2 Scotland, 8 – 9pm
B&F March 2011
You may never think of the accordion in the same way again after seeing The World Accordion to Phil. Phil Cunningham, Scotland’s foremost exponent of the instrument, reveals how the ‘squeezebox’ has thrived all across the globe.
Beginning with the accordion’s ‘ancestors’ in China, Phil travels continents to show how ‘the piano of the poor’ was embraced with passion by Parisian workers, Celtic musicians, Tex-Mex virtuosos who mixed Mexican and German influences, European gypsies and many, many more – and all with amazing musical results.
Along the way he hears a red-silk clad female accordion group in china interpret The Big Country movie theme, plays the world’s largest accordion in Italy, is moved to tears by classical accordion in Russia, and finds out about some of the peculiar instruments which accompany the accordion, such as scallop shells, two-stringed Chinese fiddle and the ready-to-wear washboard. He also learns about how the accordion has fuelled the rise of international dance sensations such as the Argentinean tango and the Czech polka, and reveals how a famous Hollywood siren fell for America’s most celebrated accordion player.
Rhil says, “I’ve played the accordion for over 40 years and I often think of it as a Scottish instrument – but that’s just not true. “The humble accordion can be found at the heart of so much great music right across the world. The accordion has always been a favourite instrument of the working man. It’s cheap, cheerful, loud and portable. And it is often the impoverished workers and migrants who made the music that the world would grow to love. Poor communities had precious little but they did have music, and quite often it was spectacular.”
In the first episode – East to West – of this 4-part series, he travels to china to explore the very early antecedent of the accordion – a free reed instrument called the ‘sheng’, which is believed to date back 5,000 years. Says Phil, “In the family tree of accordions, melodeons etc, the sheng if definitely the daddy. Discovering the origins of the accordion has made me look at it afresh. I thought I knew the instrument inside out but I’ve got so much still to learn about its incredible story.”
The incredible story then jumps millennia and continents to Vienna – as Phil notes “the birthplace of my beloved accordion” to see how this sophisticated city of the 1800s developed the accordion we know today. And from here to the town of Castelfidardo in Italy, where he meets up with pal Robert Rolston, who had an accordion business in Aberdeen and Motherwell, but who now lives there manufacturing the instrument amid a locale of dedicated craftsmen.
If Italy is the high end ‘Ferrari’ of accordion manufacture, it is in Trossingen in Germany where the ‘cheaper Volkswagen for everyman’ is the life-blood of the town. Phil finds out about not just a manufacturing for the masses story of the local Hohner factory but also a major marketing drive. Through inventive advertising and branding, as well as mass manufacture, Hohner was at the forefront of squeezebox domination of the world for over a century, exporting their wares across the globe. To illustrate the hold of the accordion, the programme returns to China which despite its early musical developments did not take wholesale to the accordion until the rise of Maoism when the instrument helped spread the message of the Revolution, by musical groups traveling across the land. The legacy is evident in the outdoor session of the Baidi Children’s Orchestra – replete with the instrument – and on a Sunday afternoon stroll in Jinghshan Park in Bejing’s Forbidden City, where every other person seems to be totting an accordion.
Says Phil, “I think I’m going to feel very at home here….”
In the second episode of the series, which takes Phil Cunningham on a magical musical tour of the accordion across the world, the focus is on The Celtic Coast. Beginning in Galicia in Spain, he goes on to travel through the Asturias, the Basque Country, Brittany, Cornwall and Ireland – seeing how communities across the area have bonded with Celtic music as part of their identity.
Stars of the world folk music scene featured include Galician piper Carlos Nunez, the Asturian band Tejedor – who 11 years ago gave a special invitation to a certain Mr Phil Cunningham to produce their album – and from the Basque country the band Oreka TX, master of the txalaparta, a huge wooden xylophone.
In Bilbao, he sees scallop shells used as a musical accompaniment along with the accordion, and in Brittany he and his squeezebox take to the water for some traditional shanties. In Cornwall he dons traditional garb and gets in the midst of a sea of accordion players thronging through the streets as part of Padstow’s Obby Oss celebrations. And in Ireland he goes to the odd pub, and catches up with his two favourite accordion players – the legendary Joe Burke and modern day squeezebox superstar Sharon Shannon, who has performed with Jackson Browne and Steve Earl and for President Bill Clinton.
Says Phil, “I’m really convinced that there is a beautiful and exciting connection between all these Celtic nations. If you’re in Galashiels or Galicia, you’re connected….”
“If I’ve learned one thing on my travels it is that Celtic music has become so much more than music alone. It’s developed into a real symbol of identity, something that can really help to hold a small community together.
“And of course, the best part of the whole thing has been discovering how my own instrument has played such an important part all across the music of Celtic Europe. I love the way that the accordion has managed to squeeze its way into their respective cultures. And I love the fact that it has become a valid and valued part of their Celtic identities.”
Phil Cunningham then journeys through for great European capitals – Paris, Bucharest, Moscow and Prague – telling the story of the people’s instrument, the accordion.
Played in the backstreets and bars, “the piano of the poor” distracts people from their difficult lives and the poverty around them but would then outgrow its modest beginnings to become a musical sensation. A case in point, and the beginning of this third part of the series, is the Musette music of Paris.
It is a type of accordion playing which first thrived amongst the poor immigrant populations in the backstreets, becoming part and parcel of the notorious nightclub scene. The latter reached its heyday in the thirties, attracting the rich and famous, turning the musette music into a Parisian emblem.
Phil visits the most notorious of the Clubs, the Balajo, in the Rue de Lappe. “The Club is one of the last in Paris where the spirit of Musette lives on. Little has changed since its heyday in the thirties when every night this run-down street came alive with a subversive new form of music that the locals loved. It was the haunt of pimps, prostitutes, gangsters and hard-working girls, who – for the evening – would become glamour girls and leading men. Celebrities began to appear at the Club – Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, and George Raft were just a few of the stars who chose to slum it at Balajo’s.
“It might not be so apparent nowadays, but back in the day, in the 30s and 40s, this music was super cool, real cutting edge stuff, dripping with attitude. It was the original street music and in the city of light people turned to the dark underbelly of Musette.”
Among those keeping the music alive are the band Les Primitifs du Futur and legendary French accordionist Marcel Azzola who over the years has played with singer Edith Piaf and for film maker Jacques Tati.
From the faded glamour of Musette in Paris, Phil turns his attention to a city where accordion music is still very much alive and vibrant and part of a community spirit. In the Romani suburbs of Bucharest he gets in touch with leading Roma band Mahala Rai Banda (which translates as Noble Band from the Ghetto). Then in Russia, he finds the music of the country’s peasants has been taken to the classical heights – in a Russian permutation of the accordion called the Bayan – with a personal one-to-one performance by world renowned Bayan player Viatcheslav Semiionov. And how at the other end of the spectrum, it is popularized by sequin-clad pop duo called Bayan Mix, who play to thousands and enjoy all the trappings of stardom.
Says Phil, “You would imagine that because the accordion came from peasant origins that it would be given an inferior place in society. In actual fact, that was what gave it power.
“The Russians have a different attitude to the accordion. It’s something to be valued. I’ll second that.”
Keeping up-tempo, this episode programme goes out with a party. Phil then arrives in the Czech Republic to chase up the legend of a peasant girl who unwittingly created a global dance sensation. In a small town outside Prague he follows in the tiny dancing ‘half steps’ of a peasant girl called Anna who accidentally created the polka.
As his journey concludes in the final part of travels across the world via accordion week, Phil Cunningham traverses The Americas.
He travels from the Louisiana bayou through Texas, then south to Brazil and Argentina to discover why American immigrants fell in love with the accordion. And how immigrant music was soon ‘naturalised’ as American music. Among those he trades tunes and stories with and Mark and Ann Savoy, the ‘first family’ of Cajun music, a style that developed from the ‘Arcadians’ – the original French immigrants to North America. Also in Louisiana he speaks to Nathan Williams, who demonstrates the blues-influenced Zydeco style of accordion and washboard. In Texas he meets up with Flaco Jiminez, star of the Tex-Mex style, a fusion of Hispanic and German music. Flaco has worked with Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.
Says Phil, “In Texas and Louisiana, the accordion had established itself as the instrument of choice among the immigrant communities. It successfully adapted to the musical styles of different ethnic groups: the Hispanics, African Americans and the Cajun French. But there was even more to come. The accordion was set to reach a huge audience.
“By 1920, the population of the United States had reached a hundred million. In the years before the birth of the commercial cinema, this huge country was entertained by touring musicians, performers and variety acts. It was called vaudeville.
“And the new piano – the accordion would become a huge part of vaudeville, thanks entirely to the talents of one remarkable Italian immigrant.”
This immigrant was an accordion-playing Italian count otherwise known as Guido Deiro, a kind of rock star of his day and a household name who secretly married an aspiring young actress by the name of Mae West, appearing with her on the vaudeville circuit. The BBC Production Team tracked down his son, also named Guido Deiro, and Phil and he met in San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre.
In Brazil Phil uncovers Forro music, and searches for the legendary Scottish influence to this addictive dance music. He meets the one-time Grammy-nominee Heleno dos 8 Baixos, who explains the importance of the simple eight button accordion to the Forro craze that’s sweeping Brazil and the world.
Finally in Argentina, Phil discovers the bandoneon, the accordion at the heart of the mournful sound of tango music. He meets Horacio Ferrer, one of the Tango world’s most celebrated lyricists and enjoys the sights and sounds of the ‘Confiteria Ideal’, the legendary haunt od Buenos Aires’ “Tangueros” – people who devote their lives to the music, poetry and dance of tango culture.
Scotland’s top squeezebox player – who first touched the instrument when he was 3-year-old, when he got one as a Christmas present, concludes, “I’ve been amazed at how important this instrument has become to so many different cultures. And all around the world. I’ve been overawed by music and musicians. “After playing for more than 40 years – to be honest – I didn’t know if the accordion still had the power to surprise me. But it most certainly did.”
Beginning with the accordion’s ‘ancestors’ in China, Phil travels continents to show how ‘the piano of the poor’ was embraced with passion by Parisian workers, Celtic musicians, Tex-Mex virtuosos who mixed Mexican and German influences, European gypsies and many, many more – and all with amazing musical results.
Along the way he hears a red-silk clad female accordion group in china interpret The Big Country movie theme, plays the world’s largest accordion in Italy, is moved to tears by classical accordion in Russia, and finds out about some of the peculiar instruments which accompany the accordion, such as scallop shells, two-stringed Chinese fiddle and the ready-to-wear washboard. He also learns about how the accordion has fuelled the rise of international dance sensations such as the Argentinean tango and the Czech polka, and reveals how a famous Hollywood siren fell for America’s most celebrated accordion player.
Rhil says, “I’ve played the accordion for over 40 years and I often think of it as a Scottish instrument – but that’s just not true. “The humble accordion can be found at the heart of so much great music right across the world. The accordion has always been a favourite instrument of the working man. It’s cheap, cheerful, loud and portable. And it is often the impoverished workers and migrants who made the music that the world would grow to love. Poor communities had precious little but they did have music, and quite often it was spectacular.”
In the first episode – East to West – of this 4-part series, he travels to china to explore the very early antecedent of the accordion – a free reed instrument called the ‘sheng’, which is believed to date back 5,000 years. Says Phil, “In the family tree of accordions, melodeons etc, the sheng if definitely the daddy. Discovering the origins of the accordion has made me look at it afresh. I thought I knew the instrument inside out but I’ve got so much still to learn about its incredible story.”
The incredible story then jumps millennia and continents to Vienna – as Phil notes “the birthplace of my beloved accordion” to see how this sophisticated city of the 1800s developed the accordion we know today. And from here to the town of Castelfidardo in Italy, where he meets up with pal Robert Rolston, who had an accordion business in Aberdeen and Motherwell, but who now lives there manufacturing the instrument amid a locale of dedicated craftsmen.
If Italy is the high end ‘Ferrari’ of accordion manufacture, it is in Trossingen in Germany where the ‘cheaper Volkswagen for everyman’ is the life-blood of the town. Phil finds out about not just a manufacturing for the masses story of the local Hohner factory but also a major marketing drive. Through inventive advertising and branding, as well as mass manufacture, Hohner was at the forefront of squeezebox domination of the world for over a century, exporting their wares across the globe. To illustrate the hold of the accordion, the programme returns to China which despite its early musical developments did not take wholesale to the accordion until the rise of Maoism when the instrument helped spread the message of the Revolution, by musical groups traveling across the land. The legacy is evident in the outdoor session of the Baidi Children’s Orchestra – replete with the instrument – and on a Sunday afternoon stroll in Jinghshan Park in Bejing’s Forbidden City, where every other person seems to be totting an accordion.
Says Phil, “I think I’m going to feel very at home here….”
In the second episode of the series, which takes Phil Cunningham on a magical musical tour of the accordion across the world, the focus is on The Celtic Coast. Beginning in Galicia in Spain, he goes on to travel through the Asturias, the Basque Country, Brittany, Cornwall and Ireland – seeing how communities across the area have bonded with Celtic music as part of their identity.
Stars of the world folk music scene featured include Galician piper Carlos Nunez, the Asturian band Tejedor – who 11 years ago gave a special invitation to a certain Mr Phil Cunningham to produce their album – and from the Basque country the band Oreka TX, master of the txalaparta, a huge wooden xylophone.
In Bilbao, he sees scallop shells used as a musical accompaniment along with the accordion, and in Brittany he and his squeezebox take to the water for some traditional shanties. In Cornwall he dons traditional garb and gets in the midst of a sea of accordion players thronging through the streets as part of Padstow’s Obby Oss celebrations. And in Ireland he goes to the odd pub, and catches up with his two favourite accordion players – the legendary Joe Burke and modern day squeezebox superstar Sharon Shannon, who has performed with Jackson Browne and Steve Earl and for President Bill Clinton.
Says Phil, “I’m really convinced that there is a beautiful and exciting connection between all these Celtic nations. If you’re in Galashiels or Galicia, you’re connected….”
“If I’ve learned one thing on my travels it is that Celtic music has become so much more than music alone. It’s developed into a real symbol of identity, something that can really help to hold a small community together.
“And of course, the best part of the whole thing has been discovering how my own instrument has played such an important part all across the music of Celtic Europe. I love the way that the accordion has managed to squeeze its way into their respective cultures. And I love the fact that it has become a valid and valued part of their Celtic identities.”
Phil Cunningham then journeys through for great European capitals – Paris, Bucharest, Moscow and Prague – telling the story of the people’s instrument, the accordion.
Played in the backstreets and bars, “the piano of the poor” distracts people from their difficult lives and the poverty around them but would then outgrow its modest beginnings to become a musical sensation. A case in point, and the beginning of this third part of the series, is the Musette music of Paris.
It is a type of accordion playing which first thrived amongst the poor immigrant populations in the backstreets, becoming part and parcel of the notorious nightclub scene. The latter reached its heyday in the thirties, attracting the rich and famous, turning the musette music into a Parisian emblem.
Phil visits the most notorious of the Clubs, the Balajo, in the Rue de Lappe. “The Club is one of the last in Paris where the spirit of Musette lives on. Little has changed since its heyday in the thirties when every night this run-down street came alive with a subversive new form of music that the locals loved. It was the haunt of pimps, prostitutes, gangsters and hard-working girls, who – for the evening – would become glamour girls and leading men. Celebrities began to appear at the Club – Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, and George Raft were just a few of the stars who chose to slum it at Balajo’s.
“It might not be so apparent nowadays, but back in the day, in the 30s and 40s, this music was super cool, real cutting edge stuff, dripping with attitude. It was the original street music and in the city of light people turned to the dark underbelly of Musette.”
Among those keeping the music alive are the band Les Primitifs du Futur and legendary French accordionist Marcel Azzola who over the years has played with singer Edith Piaf and for film maker Jacques Tati.
From the faded glamour of Musette in Paris, Phil turns his attention to a city where accordion music is still very much alive and vibrant and part of a community spirit. In the Romani suburbs of Bucharest he gets in touch with leading Roma band Mahala Rai Banda (which translates as Noble Band from the Ghetto). Then in Russia, he finds the music of the country’s peasants has been taken to the classical heights – in a Russian permutation of the accordion called the Bayan – with a personal one-to-one performance by world renowned Bayan player Viatcheslav Semiionov. And how at the other end of the spectrum, it is popularized by sequin-clad pop duo called Bayan Mix, who play to thousands and enjoy all the trappings of stardom.
Says Phil, “You would imagine that because the accordion came from peasant origins that it would be given an inferior place in society. In actual fact, that was what gave it power.
“The Russians have a different attitude to the accordion. It’s something to be valued. I’ll second that.”
Keeping up-tempo, this episode programme goes out with a party. Phil then arrives in the Czech Republic to chase up the legend of a peasant girl who unwittingly created a global dance sensation. In a small town outside Prague he follows in the tiny dancing ‘half steps’ of a peasant girl called Anna who accidentally created the polka.
As his journey concludes in the final part of travels across the world via accordion week, Phil Cunningham traverses The Americas.
He travels from the Louisiana bayou through Texas, then south to Brazil and Argentina to discover why American immigrants fell in love with the accordion. And how immigrant music was soon ‘naturalised’ as American music. Among those he trades tunes and stories with and Mark and Ann Savoy, the ‘first family’ of Cajun music, a style that developed from the ‘Arcadians’ – the original French immigrants to North America. Also in Louisiana he speaks to Nathan Williams, who demonstrates the blues-influenced Zydeco style of accordion and washboard. In Texas he meets up with Flaco Jiminez, star of the Tex-Mex style, a fusion of Hispanic and German music. Flaco has worked with Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.
Says Phil, “In Texas and Louisiana, the accordion had established itself as the instrument of choice among the immigrant communities. It successfully adapted to the musical styles of different ethnic groups: the Hispanics, African Americans and the Cajun French. But there was even more to come. The accordion was set to reach a huge audience.
“By 1920, the population of the United States had reached a hundred million. In the years before the birth of the commercial cinema, this huge country was entertained by touring musicians, performers and variety acts. It was called vaudeville.
“And the new piano – the accordion would become a huge part of vaudeville, thanks entirely to the talents of one remarkable Italian immigrant.”
This immigrant was an accordion-playing Italian count otherwise known as Guido Deiro, a kind of rock star of his day and a household name who secretly married an aspiring young actress by the name of Mae West, appearing with her on the vaudeville circuit. The BBC Production Team tracked down his son, also named Guido Deiro, and Phil and he met in San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre.
In Brazil Phil uncovers Forro music, and searches for the legendary Scottish influence to this addictive dance music. He meets the one-time Grammy-nominee Heleno dos 8 Baixos, who explains the importance of the simple eight button accordion to the Forro craze that’s sweeping Brazil and the world.
Finally in Argentina, Phil discovers the bandoneon, the accordion at the heart of the mournful sound of tango music. He meets Horacio Ferrer, one of the Tango world’s most celebrated lyricists and enjoys the sights and sounds of the ‘Confiteria Ideal’, the legendary haunt od Buenos Aires’ “Tangueros” – people who devote their lives to the music, poetry and dance of tango culture.
Scotland’s top squeezebox player – who first touched the instrument when he was 3-year-old, when he got one as a Christmas present, concludes, “I’ve been amazed at how important this instrument has become to so many different cultures. And all around the world. I’ve been overawed by music and musicians. “After playing for more than 40 years – to be honest – I didn’t know if the accordion still had the power to surprise me. But it most certainly did.”