Brands or models often associated with a specific style

[Morne]

The Hohner Morino has (historical) associations with both Scottish and Oberkrainer styles. I was trying to think of other such strong associations, but I couldn't come up with any. Maybe those guys just talk a lot more about it. :lol:

Are there any other examples where a brand or a specific model line was often used or tied to a style or genre or even a localised scene?

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Morne,

I'm afraid I have no information about this subject, though I can contribute one small fact.

Around the Folk Clubs which Brenda & I frequent, there are very few accordions to be seen. One or two guys do play accordions which look like battered old biscuit tins. These are tiny 8 Bass models, the make of which is unknown to me.

However limited these accordions may be, the guys who play them knock out some amazing tunes.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[wout]

In know guerrini superior models are really popular in the balkan styles. Dallape as well altho I dont know specific models from dallape.

 

[JerryPH]

Well, in my experience, the Hohner Morino and Gola free bass accordions are well associated with classical music. We see the small CBA with Mexican flag colours often associated with, of course, Mexican folk music, we see Cavanolo, Maugein associated with French musette music. Just a couple thoughts off the top of my head.

That said, I don't see any great reason not to be able to play any style of music with any accordion as long as it physically has the range needed to play the notes of the song. The musician is the defining factor more than the instrument. For example, on YouTube, there is a Gola player that plays songs from video games (Super Mario, etc...). I found it strange, but there it is... lol

 

[Morne]

Thanks everyone. I should perhaps add that I was aiming more at the idea of the "legendary" instrument. In the case of the free bass instruments, I don't feel like they've attained quite the legendary status as the Morino in the examples I mentioned (which is not to imply that they are not well known). Similarly with the French instruments - while they are mostly localised to that scene, I don't think they have that status either. Although I don't follow the latter at all, so I might be wrong.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but my feeling was that the Morino attained a bit of an elevated status in some places due to the popular players of the time, like Jimmy Shand for Scottish and Slavko Avsenik for Oberkrainer. So much so that people look for "a Morino like [player XYZ]".

 

[maugein96]

Hi Morne,

EDIT:-

I had to delete the content of my original reply to your post, as I never read the post properly and ended up going into a spiel about famous players, rather than instruments. I think you have covered the whole topic with the Hohner Morino, as if we are talking about "legendary" in the generic sense, that's the only box that springs to my mind. I would also say that I had been playing for quite a few years before I knew what a Hohner Morino was.

Whilst there are hundreds of folk and classical styles worldwide where a certain make and/or model is the preferred choice, the instruments concerned are not universally known.

Sorry I could not be of more help, but the question is a very difficult one.

 

[debra]

Harry Mooten is associated with Bach's preludes and fuga's on the Hohner Gola, and Mie Miki with more renaissance and baroque music on the Gola. It is not an association between Gola and baroque, but is specific to these players.
Harry Mooten was also part of the jazz scene where the Gola was also popular.
Seminov is a strong advocate of Pigini but if I'm not mistaken Pigini made a special instrument with russian reed plates for him. This is not exactly a "one-off" but one of probably a few more off. There are more odd combinations. On a Jupiter site you can see a technician adding bayan reed plates to a Bugari PA. These modifications all make it hard to really associate a specific instrument type with a type of music as we may easily be mistaken about the actual instrument "type" and be disappointed when getting that instrument type.
A very good example of a musician associated with a music style and his accordion is Richard Galliano with the Victoria (cassotto and convertor). He plays mostly jazz but also Bach and classical music but he does demonstrate the rather specific Victoria sound very well.
The Hohner Morino (especially N and S series) are very popular in mostly German accordion orchestras and gives these orchestras a specific sound, not just a result of the Morino sound but also a result of the combination of typical German compositions and arrangements and a dynamic range that seems to be a bit more limited than you get from more modern Italian instruments.
Often it's hard to lay your finger on it, but listening to a player or an orchestra for an hour easily makes you realize what is typical about the player-instrument combination. And if you are still interested and enjoying it after an hour you know that you are finding your own niche (in listening).

 

[donn]

It's a fairly common phenomenon in traditional folk, though, isn't it? It's just that the boxes are diatonic, there, and hence out of scope of this discussion.

 

[artelagro]

Maugein96 withdrew part of his article because it swung too much towards the artist rather than the accordion.
I know very little about button boxes but didn't J. Shand have a significant input to the design of this model?
In this part of the country the Shand Morino is well respected but a Morino is just another (very) good quality box.
Over to you George.
Garth

 

[debra]

Having different brands and models of accordion for different types of music is a luxury we may take for granted all too easily. Ask any Russian bayan player what instrument is best for jazz, which for classical, which for folk, etc.... and the answer will always be a bayan. When there is only one type of instrument it will have to do for all types of music.

 

[JerryPH]

When there is only one type of instrument it will have to do for all types of music.

My mechanic used to say that when all you own is a hammer, every screw looks like a nail... lol

 

[Morne]

John and Donn, I dont mind the drift too much. I admit my question was somewhat badly worded and vague. I was interested in finding out whether there are other such legendary associations or whether I have a bit of a bias because of all the online reading I did when getting my Morinos (i.e. they possibly just write/talk about it more). But there are even some events for Morino lovers:
<YOUTUBE id=dbszX_1QfYM url=></YOUTUBE>

 

[wout]

Thats probably only the case for the M series. It is i guess more a tribute to slavsko avsenik who invented oberkrainer and always played a morino M, then for the actual instrument. I can only think of the morino (avsenik and shand) that has such a specific 'fanbase'.

 

[wout]

But if you meet a true Balkan player i think most of Them would swear by either guerrini or dallape (look at some sevdah bands on YouTube for example)

 

[maugein96]

Garth,

I did mention Jimmy Shand in my original post. However the Hohner Shand Morino is a different instrument altogether from the normal Hohner Morino that Morne was talking about, which I believe existed in two basic versions, as Paul De Bra has mentioned.

The one Jimmy designed with Hohner was known as the Shand Morino, and was a British Chromatic bisonoric three row on the treble side, with the normal unisonoric Stradella bass on the left, albeit with a non standard button arrangement.

The reason I deleted the entire content of the post you are referring to was that Morne was looking for accordions of worldwide fame, and the Shand Morino fell short of that by quite a margin, given the fact that only a few hundred appear to have been made. One thing that was peculiar to them was that the reeds (not sure if treble, bass, or both) were of a squarer profile than normal, perhaps more like a Russian bayan. They have sometimes been described as sounding "not to everyone's taste".

I tried to do my bit for the Scottish accordion before I re-read the original post.

In your own words, Garth,

Ca canny,

John W

 

[artelagro]

Thanks JW, It's coming clearer
Garth

 

[JerryPH]

I think a lot of what is being discussed is very much based in locality. If I might embarrass myself, I never even heard of a Shand Morino or Slavsko Avsenik before coming here. All Morinos I ever saw (perhaps a couple dozen) were all Free Bass models and all were classical only instruments at the Conservatory... and to boot for every Morino I saw, there were 5 Golas.

Guess I was very sheltered... lol

Speaking of Golas, anyone note the Gola in that video in between the sea of Morinos?? :lol: :lol:

 

[maugein96]

Jerry,

I think you're right on that score. Various instruments were very well known locally, but would be unlikely to be readily identified elsewhere. I believe Morne lives in South Africa, and despite the fact that I had a great aunt from CapeTown I don't know anything at all about accordion music there.

Slavko Avsenik I can relate to, as there was a Bier Keller culture here in the UK way back in the 70s/80s, and that was the style of music they played in them. However, I never realised Slavko Avsenik was Slovenian until I got into accordion music. We all just thought he was a German with a non-German type name, as a lot of the lyrics to his tunes were in German. There was also an American guy you've probably heard of named Frankie Yankovic, who was of Slovenian descent, and I've heard a few of his records, which were accredited as being in the original Slovenian style.

However, Frankie's style was definitely different from Avsenik's. Maybe his folks were from a different part of Slovenia, or more likely his music was slightly "Americanised".

To further illustrate how the word "legendary" can be very deceptive, I once asked my niece and her husband, who live in Northern Norway, if they knew of any sources where I could buy music by the great Norwegian accordionist Toralf Tollefsen. They both advised me they had never heard of him, yet he only died in 1994. I had heard him play on Norwegian radio in the short time I lived there, and fortunately you can still hear him on You Tube. He is unusual for a Norwegian in that he plays C system CBA instead of B, but he was from Fredrikstad near the Swedish border, where C system is most common. He played a Hagstrom Skandia, but I bet few people on here will have heard of that "famous" accordion. It was the Swedish "Shand Morino" (at least the top of the range Skandia was, as there were several versions).

However, in later life he was also famous for playing a Hohner Morino with that extra three rows of bass buttons that people with short fingers like mine could never hope to reach.