JeffJetton
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We're celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States so I figured this song would be appropriate...
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Some Thanksgiving Music
- Thread starter JeffJetton
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Nice rendition Jeff. Your Tiger is in great shape & has very tasteful sound.
I was working for a Titano dealer when the well known Palmer & Hughes pair convinced the American accordion importer
Ernest Deffner to import a new unique designed accordion model for the US market. Thier design suggested was for a
lightwheight accordion with a slanted keyboard & Quint tuning. Ernest Deffner imported his brands Titano (Victoria) &
PANaccordion (Crucianelli) and the maker of the Tiger design was given to the Crucianelli factory. They wer imported here
with different badges - The Tiger & Titano badge went to Titano dealers and the badge Tiger went to PANcordion dealers.
There are a few Tigers out there with badge names other than Titano and Tiger. These different badge names were for
non stocking dealers of Deffner products such as Sano, Excelsior, & Bell for example. If purchasing enough Tiger model
accordions Deffner would import them with a different badge name & color of their choice. No matter of the badge name they
were ALL made by Crucianelli of Italy.
I was working for a Titano dealer when the well known Palmer & Hughes pair convinced the American accordion importer
Ernest Deffner to import a new unique designed accordion model for the US market. Thier design suggested was for a
lightwheight accordion with a slanted keyboard & Quint tuning. Ernest Deffner imported his brands Titano (Victoria) &
PANaccordion (Crucianelli) and the maker of the Tiger design was given to the Crucianelli factory. They wer imported here
with different badges - The Tiger & Titano badge went to Titano dealers and the badge Tiger went to PANcordion dealers.
There are a few Tigers out there with badge names other than Titano and Tiger. These different badge names were for
non stocking dealers of Deffner products such as Sano, Excelsior, & Bell for example. If purchasing enough Tiger model
accordions Deffner would import them with a different badge name & color of their choice. No matter of the badge name they
were ALL made by Crucianelli of Italy.
I see the text of Jeff's post, but no music or link to music. Is it just me (my computer. etc.)? I am not having trouble seeing any of the other "I Did That videos" I have tried.
Thanks, Jim.
JeffJetton
Prolific poster
Hey Jim, it's an embedded Instagram post, so maybe that's what's causing the trouble.
Here's a direct link. Hopefully that'll work better?
JeffJetton
Prolific poster
Interesting! I'll update the text of my IG post to point out that the "true" maker was Crucianelli.
(And yeah, I lucked out finding my Tiger. It was really well taken care of over the years and somehow managed to avoid the faded paint that I see on a lot of them.)
Thanks, Jeff. Great playing.
96Bass
Well-known member
Very nice playing and arrangement. I like your LH accompaniment.
Gravy Waltz was co-written by Steve Allen who holds the world record for having composed the most songs.
96Bass
Well-known member
What is theory behind the slanted keyboard on the Tiger?
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As far as the question on the Tiger's slanted keyboard, Well maybe I should start with the Tiger model accordion's original inception.
At the time the team of Palmer & Hughes were already advisors to the firm of Ernest Deffner in development of Titano (Victoria) accordions.
The team of Palmer & Hughes with the late accordion tech & designer Emil Baldoni (my first mentor) had already taken a design of a bass
machine (quint convertor) to Victoria of Italy to refine Emil's design to become a design still used today on many accordion brands.
The copyrighted convertor Quint bass design resulted in a fine profit so Deffner of course respected any suggestions on the accordion developments & designs they purposed.
Well it was the 60's and the so called "Golden Age of The Accordion" already began it's demise. Accordion organ models of this period
such as Cordovox & Accorgan kept the accordion's usefulness & popularity alive. The available Acoustic accordion models in this time
period suffered however.
The team of Palmer & Hughes came up with an idea that the introduction of a "Unique" model of an Acoustic accordion might just enhance
the popularity of the accordion.
This "Unique model purposed would have these features -----
(1st) Have the interior Quality of a Semi Pro accordion with a large student model size & weight.
(2nd) Have a 4 reed 120 bass machine & the treble containing 3 reeds - one set tuned in fifths (Quint).
(3rd) The PA keyboard have black keytops with white sharps & flats.
(4th) Have a slanted keyboard (a feature used in some accordions of the 20's but for the 60's Unique.
(5th) Have unique body colors.
(6th) have a factory installed pickup.
(7th) Offer it with the same price as a quality student model accordion of the 60's time period.
Deffner decided to go forward with offering an accordion model with the Palmer & Hughes suggested unique features and gave the
design features to his two firms that produced his accordion brands Titano (Victoria) & PANcordion (Crucianelli for the feasibility
and cost of producing a Unique accordion with these features. Crucianelli had a student model line (Video) that would be easily
adapted to incorporate all the features of this new "Unique" accordion model. These Video models only needed the reed blocks
altered to accept a set of quint reeds and in lieu of a cellulose covering, a coat of automobile enamel paint. With the exception
of the color orange all the colors used were the same as Ferrari sport cars of the time.
Unfortunately these Tigers did not catch on and many sat on dealers shelves gathering dust and sold close to cost.
At the time the team of Palmer & Hughes were already advisors to the firm of Ernest Deffner in development of Titano (Victoria) accordions.
The team of Palmer & Hughes with the late accordion tech & designer Emil Baldoni (my first mentor) had already taken a design of a bass
machine (quint convertor) to Victoria of Italy to refine Emil's design to become a design still used today on many accordion brands.
The copyrighted convertor Quint bass design resulted in a fine profit so Deffner of course respected any suggestions on the accordion developments & designs they purposed.
Well it was the 60's and the so called "Golden Age of The Accordion" already began it's demise. Accordion organ models of this period
such as Cordovox & Accorgan kept the accordion's usefulness & popularity alive. The available Acoustic accordion models in this time
period suffered however.
The team of Palmer & Hughes came up with an idea that the introduction of a "Unique" model of an Acoustic accordion might just enhance
the popularity of the accordion.
This "Unique model purposed would have these features -----
(1st) Have the interior Quality of a Semi Pro accordion with a large student model size & weight.
(2nd) Have a 4 reed 120 bass machine & the treble containing 3 reeds - one set tuned in fifths (Quint).
(3rd) The PA keyboard have black keytops with white sharps & flats.
(4th) Have a slanted keyboard (a feature used in some accordions of the 20's but for the 60's Unique.
(5th) Have unique body colors.
(6th) have a factory installed pickup.
(7th) Offer it with the same price as a quality student model accordion of the 60's time period.
Deffner decided to go forward with offering an accordion model with the Palmer & Hughes suggested unique features and gave the
design features to his two firms that produced his accordion brands Titano (Victoria) & PANcordion (Crucianelli for the feasibility
and cost of producing a Unique accordion with these features. Crucianelli had a student model line (Video) that would be easily
adapted to incorporate all the features of this new "Unique" accordion model. These Video models only needed the reed blocks
altered to accept a set of quint reeds and in lieu of a cellulose covering, a coat of automobile enamel paint. With the exception
of the color orange all the colors used were the same as Ferrari sport cars of the time.
Unfortunately these Tigers did not catch on and many sat on dealers shelves gathering dust and sold close to cost.
Last edited:
JeffJetton
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Thanks!
The authorship of "Gravy Waltz" is interesting. The song was initially composed as an instrumental, by Ray Brown alone, and first recorded in 1962 by guitarist Herb Ellis and his band. Brown gets sole credit on label and liner notes of that album.
It wasn't until a year or so after that that Steve Allen put out a recording of it, featuring his "Steve Allen Show" house band led by Donn Trenner (and with Herb Ellis on guitar!) At that time, Allen wrote lyrics to it and was thus able to claim a portion of the songwriter's credit, even though the recording under his name was also an instrumental. Go figure!
Part of me wonders if that might have even been a prerequisite for Allen recording the piece? "Sure, I'll put out a version of your tune, Ray Brown, but I want half of the songwriting credit in exchange. Give me a second to whip up some lyrics..." I mean, if it's Steve Allen, it's probably a wise financial choice to go along with it. Half of the royalties from a whole lot of sales is better than 100% of a dribble of royalties.
I guess this was common practice back then. There are a lot of TV show theme songs, for example, that "officially" have lyrics, even though you never hear them.
- Bonanza: "We gotta right to pick a little fight, Bonanza!"
- The Andy Griffith Show: "Well now take down your fishing pole, and meet me at the fishing hole..."
- Star Trek: "Beyond the rim of the starlight, my love is wandering in starflight..."
JeffJetton
Prolific poster
It actually makes a whole lot of sense. It's a much more natural angle to play the keyboard from, as you can probably imagine if you just bring your hand/wrist over from your side as if miming playing an invisible accordion. The hand "wants to" play at an angle like that. No need to awkwardly stick your elbow out like you do (or at least should be doing) with a flat keyboard.
As a bonus, the angle creates a a bit of room in the back, such that the strap tucks nicely underneath when storing it in the case.
96Bass
Well-known member
Thanks for the interesting information. Great post.
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