Many years ago, in a different life, I think I was an accordion-playing, unicycle-riding, juggling busker. I wanted to do each of these things individually, not together. In late 1998, just before my first kid was born, I bought an accordion. Soon thereafter I received another accordion from a friend as a gift, and in February 2001 I started taking lessons at The Acme Accordion School in Westmont, NJ. As I am wont to do, I have become a bit fetishistic about all things accordion and have been collecting old pictures and music and such. This page is where I share.
Enjoy.
     
 

For Christmas 2001, I made a little cd for friends and family (people who can deal with this fetish of mine) and I have a few of the tunes posted here in mp3 format.
I'll be posting more as I learn them.
We're taking requests.

(requests so far: Hungarian Rhapsody no5 and The Pixies "Here Comes Your Man.")
     

click on the pictures for larger views
   These were my first two accordions. The one on the left is a Colombo Grande Vox from about 1954, and the one on the right is an Iorio Candida, from probably the late 1950's. They are both "ladies's size," meaning a 17" keyboard, which proved to be too small for me, and they both have 3 sets of reeds, which gives a pretty limited range of sounds for the melody. When I bought the new accordion (see below) I traded-in the green Colombo and had the white Iorio tuned and cleaned. While it's more limited in range than the Colombo, it has a real sweet musette sound. The Colombo was kinda honky and hollow. It was incapable of ever making anyone swoon or cry.
     

click on the picture for larger views
 

This is the accordion I bought on May 29, 2001. It's a Titano Cosmopolitan from around 1968. It's got a 19" keyboard and 4 sets of reeds on the treble side, giving it a much larger range (note the eleven buttons just above the keyboard as compared to the other accordions' five and two). It's also about eight pounds heavier than the other two. I had it tuned to a musette sound, for those Frenchy songs. I can't imagine that I'll ever need to buy another accordion again, but one never knows...

UPDATE: One never knows is right. See below.
     

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October, 2005: Sometime in the summer of 2002 I stopped taking lessons when life got in the way. I didn't pick up an accordion for two years and in August 2004 I sold the Titano in order to get a bike. The logic being that the accordion was one more thing to keep me in my house, by myself, while the bike was to get me OUT of the house, with others. It worked.
In 2005, however, I realized that I really missed playing the music and the Iorio wasn't going to do it for me, what with the small keys and all. In October I went up to Main Squeeze Accordions in New York and bought one of Walter's last 911 models (named after the Porsche). This is a MUCH smaller accordion (72 bass buttons, 26 treble keys, 14 lbs) and will facilitate the taking it places and general spontaneous practicing that I need. It came with the red grill but Walter gave me a green one as well.
I miss the incredible sound and range of the Titano, but I don't miss the weight. When and if I get really really good, I'll maybe look into something really really nice.


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Questions and comments should be sent to Brian, the administrator, at brian@MrBiggs.com

Thanks, and rock on, people.