Another episode in the ongoing derision of the accordion, from Everybody Loves Raymond.
Ray throws a bachelor party for his brother, Robert, at the lodge. Even though it's supposed to be a second, improved party, it's pretty lame. The banner is printed with the wrong name, there is no booze and no strippers, and of course... includes an accordion player.
I have no idea if the director knew that he was making the scene look extra stupid or not. Notice that the player's right thumb is held behind the accordion case. This is not how an accordion is played... so it's obvious that the music was faked.
This is a thin connection with accordion! The background music strongly features one, but I think the accordion will not be the main point of interest. Enjoy!
This comes from a 1950-1960s local children's television show called Lunch with Casey, aired in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The PBS Los Angeles Holiday Celebration special aired tonight. This program features the best hour of acts from the previous year's event. The production of the L.A. County Arts Commission actually lasts for six hours! I have to say that this is the most interesting holiday program I've seen yet this year.
The range and quality of the acts was spectacular. If you like traditional children's choirs there was one. If you wanted Gospel, it was there. On the other extreme was a ballet dancer who used two fabric banners suspended from the stage rigging as props for a dance routine, or a new interpretation of a portion of the Nutcracker that combined ballet and break dancing.
But the very first act was the Zydekats, led by Lisa Haley, who perform traditional and contemporary Americana/Cajun/Zydeco arrangements. Lisa sings and plays violin, but an accordion is strongly featured in the backup band. This picture was taken off my TV screen, but if you follow the link below you can see a short video about them at PBS.
The accordionist is playing a 72-bass piano accordion.
If you thought it was exciting to see an accordion on the Amazing Race, Season 14, Episode 1, you were ecstatic in Episode 4 this past Sunday. There were no fewer than three accordions! First of all we see this fellow playing what appears to be a chromatic button accordion. This is where all the teams have to stack huge piles of wood, in Siberia!
Just a few minutes later in the program... hours later in real life... the weather has cooled off, and the musicians have a fire. Our same accordionist is still at it. But now he has a smaller red accordion, rather than a black one!
Most amazing of all is the Russian dancer. He is playing a 2 or 3 row diatonic accordion (I can't quite see which with the fuzzy picture). But I'm here to tell you that playing and dancing simultaneously is quite a feat of coordination!
Accordions are very popular internationally, so it should really be no surprise to see them so often. There was also an accordion at a German town in Episode 2, but I haven't taken time to pull that picture out yet.
Did you notice that there was an accordion being played to welcome the finishers in Interlaken, Switzerland, on the Amazing Race, Season 14, Episode 1 last Sunday?
This is called a chromatic button accordion. See, it has buttons for the right hand instead of keys, as mine does in the post from yesterday. Chromatic accordions are more popular in Europe, while Piano accordions, like mine, are more likely to be seen in the United States.
Here's a closeup of the "keyboard," in this case called a buttonboard.
If you start watching and listening, you'll discover accordions being used in LOTS of places on television!
