Americain in parisi

[maugein96]

Sorry for the deliberate mis-spelling.

Hoping to sort of kill two birds with one stone with this one.

Remember those old French films with the uber romantic accordion music in the background? Three voice musette with tear jerking haunting melodies? Then something happened. Same music, same tunes, but the accordion sounded different. Or did anybody really notice?

Francois Parisi, one time backing player to Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, and others, was changing the whole Paris accordion sound along with Galliano, Jean Corti, Denis Tuveri, Marcel Azzola, Daniel Colin, and various others.

At one time I would have been critical of their intentions. Imagine Scottish players being told to drop their three voice musette for two voice americain?

Thats precisely what these guys did, yet it was probably only accordion buffs who noticed the difference. It wasnt new, as some players had dropped three voice musette in the 30s, but they were identified as playing swing rather than musette.

A series of three albums was made in the 90s all having the title Paris Accordeon under the La Lichere label, and most of the tracks were made with dry tuned accordions. The divide between swing and musette had actually been over for some time, but those three CDs served to further diminish the popularity of the three voice musette accordion. Players like Bruno Lorenzoni went public on French TV and said that three voice musette was only suitable in situations where the player was playing for dancers in the open air, or in folk music.

So all we smoothies followed the trend and dropped the three voice accordion like a stone.

These days French TV is full of youngsters playing three voice musette again, although it never really died in the north and in Belgium.

I suppose we all have to make our choice, but my ear has grown accustomed to the drier tunings.

Here are two clips of Francois Parisi for dry tuning lovers. In the second clip astute observers will possibly be able to work out what hes doing with that Stradella 80 bass. The recent post on jazz left hand prompted me to post the second clip.

He uses two different instruments in the clips, both made by Fratelli Crosio. The second instrument is of considerable vintage, probably only has a two voice treble, and has bellows straps with front mounted couplers. It wasnt made for the French market, but is obviously the instrument of choice for the tune he is playing.

https://m.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB#/watch?v=drCN3GRkuIk

https://m.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB#/watch?v=W1qCTgbSAOk

 

[losthobos]

Formidable.... just checked his version o dark eyes too....
I get sucked between that tight americain tuning and the more traditional wetter.. odd it may be but I'm sure the wetter is better for slower tunes and the americain is great once your flow is up to scratch...

 

[donn]

https://m.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB#/watch?v=drCN3GRkuIk
https://m.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB#/watch?v=W1qCTgbSAOk

Apparently those links are fine for some browsers, but the way I read it they dont conform to standard URI syntax, so nothing to be embarrassed about if your browser doesnt. (I believe the fragment introduced by # is constrained to options that can be effected locally, where this one obviously refers to an item that needs to be downloaded.)

This edit to the first one worked for me:
... and so should this for the second:

 

[maugein96]

I know exactly what you mean. It takes a fair bit of experience to play slow melodies without the three voice. You need to get the timing just right. Parisi also manages to get some great "reed bending" stuff out of his prolific bellows work, and not a lot of players can do that.

He was relatively unknown before the 90s, probably on account of the fact he was backing up such big names. The only two accordions I've seen him play are the old relics in these clips, and I don't think he ever made any albums.

I spent many years wondering whether I had done the right thing dropping three voice, but eventually I became a convert to the dry brigade. Mind you every now and then a young player gets a three voice swinging a bit and I get the doubting cap on again. Not many of the older players could swing the old musette waltzes with a three voice musette, and the most successful of them was Edouard Duleu. He collaborated with Andre Astier and Joss Basselli with several compositions. They played them dry tuned and he always used pure musette, with a characteristic swing in his playing. He wasn't a jazz player at all and chords were for the backing band, but his playing haunted me for years.

At the end of the day we should all try and do our own thing, and play in our own individual styles. I used to try and sound like my idols but eventually realised I never would.

 

[maugein96]

Hi Donn,

Apologies for the links. Looks like they only work in the UK.

I'm on holiday at the moment in an old thatched cottage in deepest Buckinghamshire, England.

Everything is great apart from the Internet which is crap, when it works!

I'm also using a UK spec tablet instead of my laptop.

 

[simonking]

There first clip has a nice fairly sweet sound I think, not a thrashing musette to my ears.

The second clip I've seen before (the recording quality is not on a par with the other clip but you can still hear the difference). This isn't what I would call dry tuning at all - and the instrument he's using looks and sounds a bit old and shonky. But he gets away with it because his playing is so bloody good and fast enough that you don't have time to take too much offence at the awful tuning!

 

[maugein96]

Hi Simon,

As usual I've cocked something up. The accordion in the second clip appears to be a two voice "musette", probably made for the Italian market. I always associate Francois Parisi with drier tuning and forgot about this accordion being wet tuned.

If you think the sound quality and tuning on the second clip is bad, look in You Tube for him playing the first clip in a building. It is absolutely shocking. I'd better not post another link in case people have bother with it too. Never use a kindle fire on this forum.

Incidentally, the first clip appears to have been multi-tracked, as well as being heavily edited.

There is a guy called Jacques Ferchit who is of French/Lebanese descent, and he plays a similar "romantic" style, to the tune in the first clip. You'll get him on You Tube, if you want to hear more Parisian schmaltz.

He is principally a composer of film music, but is also a very accomplished accordionist. Not bad for a part time player, although he has made a few albums.

 

[Ganza]

Parisi also manages to get some great "reed bending" stuff out of his prolific bellows work, and not a lot of players can do that.

He was relatively unknown before the 90s, probably on account of the fact he was backing up such big names. The only two accordions I've seen him play are the old relics in these clips, and I don't think he ever made any albums.

I saw Francois play in Paris last year, in a little jazz club. He played "Ballad du Paris" in the restaurant upstairs in the interval, then came down and joined the jazz band for a couple of songs.

I emailed him before the gig asking where he was playing and that's how I heard about it. I can never understand why artists don't update their websites with gigs - it cant be too hard to do?!

Anyway, I had a chat to him (a bit of English and a bit with my French friend translating), he's a lovely fellow. I was there with some friends and my girlfriend from Brazil. He then dedicated "Girl from Ipanema" to us!!!

About his accordion, he confirmed that it's a LMM and he has never had to change the reeds!!!

 

[maugein96]

Hi Ganza,

He's one of those players who just seems to trundle along at his own pace. He should really be up there with Galliano and the like, but maybe he just doesn't want to. He was one of a group of "Italian" French accordionists who successfully revived the accordion in the early 90s. Two of the others were Marcel Azzola and Denis (160kph) Tuveri. Denis point blank refused to play to any dance tempo and rattled through everything at top speed. His wife Lina Bossati was part of a duet with Marcel Azzola, and accompanied him on piano. Denis died in 2009, and was definitely one of the lesser known "big names". I used to have copies of several of his compositions which were written in an almost illegible scrawl. I never got round to playing them as my fastest accordion could only do 140kph!

In all my years I've never met any big name French player (or even little name player), so at least you have something to remember about your visit to Paris!

The fact that he was playing in a jazz club probably answers my own question about his lack of exposure. Very few European jazz accordionists indeed ended up being well known, even when the accordion was more popular.

I think I remember reading about your meeting with Francois, and it must have been great to hear him playing live.

Lucky devil!

 

[maugein96]

FWIW I put the You Tube clip on, got the accordion out, and discovered that the track has been so badly edited that it is way out of tune (flat). I had to find another clip of Francois playing in the lounge of Catania Airport in Sicily, when I was able to work out that it starts in D major. Think I'll need to get a copy of the score otherwise it's a non starter. As usual I got the first few bars down, then it all got too complicated, even at that slow pace!

Just in case anybody else tries it.