Serge Desaunay and the Trad revival.

[dunlustin]

I've been tempted to post this for a while but also wanted to keep it just for me. My better me won:


Forty five years on his life style hasn't changed a lot and he's still a great ambassador for the music. Serge is little known outside of France (save maybe Ireland) but is one of the prime movers in the revival of diatonic playing in the 70s - one of the first to go to Castelfidardo to have his reeds swapped and the tremolo tamed.
In France the Trad Revival was very political (small P). The Groupes Folkloriques were about maintaining and exhibiting the traditions whereas Les Folkeux
were about doing it.
In Central France in the 70s, the diatonic tradition had not died out and was ready for a revival. Many older 'accordionneux' stuck with the older ways - a big Hohner Club like the Morino Club was the dream machine.

 

[Pipemajor]

Loved this video from French TV.
The village looks a lot (it's not) like the one I have a house in, in La Creuse, where I used to spend 7 months (prior to Covid and Brexit) every year.
There are still characters like these there, although they don't have the long hair and flair trousers anymore.
There used to be a TV channel purely for the Limousin area which broadcast a show, every Sunday, called (if I remember correctly) 123 Musette, which was solely French accordion music . They also had documentaries most afternoons featuring a local area , showing the cottage industries and local crafts men and women at work.
The local radio station had a show , also every Sunday, with a live accordion and alto sax, where they take live requests from the public and play them. These were usually the older generation wanting to hear the tunes from their younger days.
I just wish I was there now!!

 

[Dingo40]

Dunlustin,
Thanks for sharing the clip ??
It somehow reminds me of the French cinematic dramatisations of the various adventures of Asterix and Obelix?

 

[rhythmbox]

I've a couple of CD's by Desaunay... "Apres la Pluie" and "La Passagere"... Quite different from most of my other 100 or so musette discs, but I really like them...very atmospheric...

 

[TomBR]

The two-stroke rattle in the opening seconds is a bygone sound now!

 

[dunlustin]

Maybe a Solex.
... and so much more besides.

 

[jozz]

thanks for sharing!

bit too heavy and loud for the soft purr of a Solex