edited by BARRY KERNFELD

 

Accordion. A portable keyboard instrument of the reed organ family. It consists of a bass button keyboard played with the left hand, which also operates a bellows, and a treble keyboard (with piano keys or buttons) played by the right. The instrument is suspended by straps from the player's shoulders.

 

The accordion has a long, undistinguished history in jazz. The obscure player Charles Melrose provides an early example of jazz accordion solos on the recording Wailing Blues/Barrel House Stomp ( 1930, Voc. 1503) by the Cellar Boys, a sextet that also comprised Wingy Manone, Frank Teschemacher, Bud Freeman, Frank Melrose, and George Wettling. Buster Moten played second piano and accordion as a member of Bennie Moten's orchestra: his solo on Moten's Blues ( 1929, Vic. 38072) demonstrates that the instrument's sweet sound tails to capture the raw emotions of the blues. Another obscure jazz accordionist was JackCornell, whorecordedwithlrvingMills(1929, 1930). In Europe, where the musical traditions more often allowed the instrument to be used in ensembles doubling as dance bands and jazz bands, there emerged accordionists of some importance; these included Kamil Behounek, who recorded as a soloist in 1936, Toivo Kärki, Nisse Lind and the Swiss pianist and accordionist Buddy Bertinat, who belonged to the Original Teddies (1936-48) and also played accordion on many recordings with his own swing quartets and quintets ( 1 940-48).

 

The first jazz accordionist to become well-known was Joe Mooney, who led an acclaimed swing quartet al clubs on 52nd Street in New York (1946-7). Other swing accordionists included Mat Mathews, a member of the Dutch group the Millers (1947-50), and Art van Damme (b Norway, Ml, 9 April 1920). The pianist George Shearing plays fine bop solos on the accordion on the recording Cherokee/Four Bars Short (1949, Dis. 107), and there were a number of important bop accordionists in the 1950s and early 1960s, including Mathews (after his move to the USA), van Damme (who continued to lead a bop group into the 1980s), Leon (Robert) Sash (b Chicago, 19 Oct 1922), Pete Jolly, and Tommy Gumina. The accordion has no place in jazz-rock and is virtually unused in free jazz, although the Willem Breuker kollektief has employed it to humorous etfect.

BARRY KERNFELD