>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. [ pause ] >> Hello, everybody. Hello. >> Hi. [audience responds] >> Hi. >> I'm Jennifer Cutting a folklife specialist in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. We're who's presenting this lecture today. And I'm the folklife reading room's unofficial accordion reference librarian. [laughter] So, it's great to see such a wonderful turnout today. Especially, from our local accordion community. I want to -- and I'm talking about Paul Oorts and Jim Besser. How many folks here actually play the accordion? How many of you will admit that you play the accordion? [applause] [laughter] Thank you for coming out of the closet about that. [laughter] So, I'd like to welcome you to the latest presentation in our ongoing Benjamin Botkin Lecture Series. And this series allows us to highlight the work of leading scholars in the disciplines of folklore, ethnomusicology, oral history, and cultural heritage while at the same time adding to the collections of the American Folklife Center's archive. Because every one of these lectures is filmed for later web cast on the American Folklife Center's website. And it becomes part of our permanent collections. So, this lecture is going to be available for viewing in a couple of months to people all over the world as well as to you if you'd like to hear it all over again. So, that brings me to this. If you don't want to be an unintentional star of this video, [brief laughter] please, take a moment to turn off your cell phones [brief laughter] and any other devices that make noise. Thank you so much. Today, I have the honor of introducing ethnomusicologist and author Marion Jacobson. Marion is a graduate of the Our Lady of Spain Parochial School. [laughter] "Ba-dump. Chu." [phonetic] No. She holds a Ph.D. in music and ethnomusicology from New York University and she is, herself, an accordionist. And Marion and I go back a very long way to a time before she was an ethnomusicologist or an accordionist. In 1994, Marion was a fast rising young music journalist for both the Washington Post and the Washington City paper. And I was a young band leader fronting an Anglo-Celtic folk rock band with, what else, an accordion. [brief laughter] So, when Marion came to my studio to interview me for a feature story, I noticed that she was unusually curious about both my accordion and about my being an ethnomusicologist. So, flash forward 18 years later. Here we are. And Marion is both an accordionist and an ethnomusicologist. [laughter] So, I can only deduce that during our day together in June, 1994, I transmitted to her some kind of insidious virus [laughter] that culminated in this -- this odd condition. So, [brief laughter] Marion is here today to speak about her new book "Squeeze This: A Cultural History of the Accordion in America" published by University of Illinois Press. And the American Folklife Center was so happy to play a small role in the production of this book by awarding Marion the 2009 Parsons Fund for ethnography fellowship so she could spend some time here at various divisions in the Library of Congress doing research for this book. We're very happy to see that research bear fruit. The book is receiving very wide critical acclaim all over the world. The Times Literary Supplement said, "This often maligned instrument has found a worthy champion in Jacobson. Her likable, informative, and readable book illustrated with superb color plates of classic instruments and performers looks set to remain the definitive work on the subject." And Maclean says, "An academic resource, a detailed history, and a quirky travel log. Time to roll out the barrel and uncork the champagne. With this book, the lowly squeeze box has begun to get its cultural due." And not just the critics but the people have spoken. Marion's "Squeeze This" Facebook page has drawn accordion fans from all over the globe and boasts almost 600 likes. [laughter] So, we encourage all of you to go to the -- the Facebook page for Squeeze This and enter into a conversation about today's lecture and about the book, itself. So, before we start, I'd like to thank the coordinator of our Benjamin Botkin Lecture Series Dr. Nancy Gross. [applause] Especially, for saying yes to this lecture. And to public events coordinator Thea Austen. There's Thea? Not in the room. Okay. And Dr. Stephen Winick for editing the notes on your flyer. Thank you. [applause] So, here's how it's going to work. Marion will speak for about 40 minutes, and then there will be 15 minutes for all of you to ask questions. Afterwards, we'll all go out there for the book signing. There are lots of copies of Squeeze This so you can take one home. And now because he -- we've got a lot to squeeze in and we're very strapped for time, [brief laughter] I will -- I will stop my bellowing. [laughter] Ooo... And present Dr. Marion Jacobson. [applause] >> Thank you, Jennifer. [applause] thank you Jennifer Cutting for that incredible introduction. [brief laughter] I am not worthy. I am not worthy. And also I would like to thank Dr. Nancy Gross and Theadocia Austen, and the staff of the American Folklife Center for giving me the honor of the Benjamin Botkin Lecture for 2012. I'd also like to mention my extended family which is filling up about half of this room. [brief laughter] Okay. It's clearly Jennifer's publicity was too successful and there's standing room only but my family, all musicians, music lovers have followed me over this quixotic dream of writing a book about the accordion -- cultural history of the accordion. I have to say that I loved every minute of this project which is -- was 10 years in the works. Even the constant digging for primary source materials [brief laughter] because not a lot of secondary sources, that is, full-length books by scholars on the subject were available. That was one of my goals; to sort of give the -- the accordion the presence, the -- the standing that it deserves in -- in the world of books on music. I loved the accordion from the moment I first put one on at -- about 11 years ago as a kind of dare to myself. It's a very awkward thing for a pianist to do. It's like you're playing a keyboard sideways. You kind of dance around with it until it makes an acceptable sound. [laughter] But I especially love the idea that with this one box, as a former pianist who is sort of classically oriented, you're able to play so many different types of music -- cajun, Tejano conjunto, lovely French waltzes -- by just flipping a couple of switches on the front of a -- the grill. What I also found fascinating and rich about this topic besides the instrument, itself, which is such a fabulous instrument, is the idea of the accordion. Today, I want to talk about -- mainly about the idea of the accordion, of the cultural baggage it has carried along with it on its wild ride throughout American history. Welcome to heaven. Here's your heart. Welcome to hell. Here's your accordion. [laughter] This familiar and hilarious cartoon really set the stage for my book and for our discussion today. First of all, it -- it touches upon what psychoanalysts might describe as America's dysfunctional relationship with the accordion. On the one hand, it's celebrated as a heritage instrument. Hey, there's even a couple -- there's even one in the Library of Congress's collection along with many other fine instruments. On the other hand, it's -- you know, it's complete low-brow kitsch. I think that divide reflects a uniquely American perspective on the instrument and how seriously many of us have taken the divide between high-brow and low-brow culture. And as a case in point, let me tell you. I was recently interviewed on Ireland talk radio. Things seems to go very well at first. The accordion jokes were flying back and forth. What's the difference between an accordion and an onion? No one cries when you chop an accordion. What do a lawsuit and an accordion have in common? Everyone's happy when the case is closed. [laughter] Then -- okay. So, that was fine. But then the -- the interviewer brought up the subject of Lawrence Welk and the subject of the instrument's -- no, that -- I'm sorry. I brought up the subject of Lawrence Welk. The interviewer had never heard of him. I began to introduce, well, the accordion hasn't been popular -- you know, there was a time when it wasn't really popular. There was complete silence, radio silence. It was clear that this news interviewer and probably the hundreds and thousands of Dubliners listening had no idea what I was talking about. To them, accordion jokes were just another subcategory of musician jokes. But here in America, especially when we're talking about America at a time -- around mid century -- accordion jokes and parodies are part of the narrative of decline and fall that we're talking about here. Okay. Excuse me a minute. [pause] Okay. Cartoonists and joke tellers aren't the only people to diss the accordion. Among those who write books about music and musical instruments, the accordion has been kind of persona non grata. Why is that? Was the question I asked myself at the beginning of this project when I showed up at the Library of Congress's music division digging around for those books that would help me sort of get the scholarly snapshot of the accordion; finding none in English except for a very outdated master's thesis. Compare that to the findings of -- that came up when I did a search for books on the guitar, about 387 in English. So, how is it that an instrument that's been part of so many world music traditions, so many people's lives that it can -- [inaudible] a crowd like this to the Library of Congress to hear a lecture get left out in the cold? To answer that question, I did some drawing of my own. I have to warn you you're going to have to deal with some high level data analysis here. [laughter] This is -- this is musicology on the left. Here, the people that write books about western classical music, dead composers, organs and pianos. The western instruments. Well, the accordion was invented in Vienna, a western country. So, why no books by musicologists on the topic? Well, to musicologists, the accordion suggests a novelty, an "otherness." The next group of people to overlook the instrument on the right, my people, the ethnomusicologists. Those are people that write about non-western exotic music. They produced books on the south African thumb piano, the didgeridoo, 16 books on the Indonesian gamelan. They tend to think the accordion is too western for ethnomusicologists to study or it suggests polka, kitsch. Some kind of weirdly nostalgic aberration in pop music. Now the newer discipline of popular music studies [brief laughter] which revolves around living people, all that music that is trendy and chart topping, for them, the accordion is just too cornball. When it comes to the American vernacular tradition studied by ethnomusicologists and folklorists and the scholars who work in the American Folklife Institute, I mean, we think of classical music, Tejano, conjunto, the polka. Ethnic dance traditions where the accordion has really been front and center for -- for many decades because of its portability, because of its versatility, and its unique sound. Despite what the music scholars think, when it comes to the broader picture of American vernacular musical life, it has played a central role right here where all these music -- Okay. [pause] So, today, I want to return to some questions that still enjoy after my book has gone to press. These are things that I'm still thinking about six months after publication. How did the accordion rise? And I think most of us who are here today can appreciate the fact that it did at a certain time. As well as the fact that it somehow lost its important status. And by the way, I try to exercise restraint in overstating the fall of the accordion. After all, I did some fieldwork in the polka heartlands of the Midwest and Texas. And there are many places out there in the U.S. where it's believed that when you get to heaven, you will get an accordion. [laughter] So... And finally, I'm going to take on what's been called the "revival," the "comeback," the "scrappy comeback" of the accordion. But first, let me introduce you to the subject of this talk. The piano accordion. Okay. And I have one sitting here to my left. And as you'll notice, it doesn't look like the one in the advertisement. Okay. We'll talk about why. In the '40s and '50s when America was enjoying unprecedented prosperity, the instrument that best expressed the mood of the country was not the piano, not the saxophone or the drums. It was an odd-looking, bulky contraption called the "piano accordion," not to be confused with the button accordion or button box which is another type of accordion. And the sales of this instrument -- the piano accordion exceeded the sales of all other band instruments combined. Okay. You can see some key words of the ad: "Beautiful," "glamorous," "expensive-looking," "popular," "affordable." An instrument for everyone which really sounds the main themes or the conditions for the accordions rise. [ Accordion Music ] In an era of wholesome family-oriented musical entertainment and especially in America's polka heartlands, the accordion was nothing short of a cultural icon. It enjoyed admiration so intense that it crossed musical boundaries. One noted jazz player Art Van Damme happened to play the accordion. Right here. In Nashville, Pee Wee King writes the chart topping hit the "Tennessee Waltz" and brings his western swing band to crossover fame; even hosting his own TV show alongside Lawrence Welk's for a time. And down below, the Philadelphia Accordion Orchestra tours the nation with its all squeezebox performances of Beethoven, Bach, and the classics. [laughter] Actually, in the '50s people laughed as well and would attend their concerts, get signed photographs from the conductor Jacob Neupauer and then sell them as novelties. In 1908, the piano accordion got its first taste of stateside popularity on vaudeville when Guido Deiro wowed audiences with opera overtures, waltzes, and eventually foxtrots played on his specially made rhinestone encrusted instrument. Most of Deiro's colleagues only knew the button accordion from which the piano accordion evolved. So, to compete with Deiro without having to learn the whole new piano system, some of those colleagues would paste fake piano keyboards onto the right sides of their instruments. [laughter] Deiro married and shared a billings with Mae West for a time until they split because Deiro drank and acted like a jazz age version of Charlie Sheen. [laughter] Dick Contino won national acclaim as the Valentino of the accordion playing "Lady of Spain" more than 40 times [laughter] Because of that Lady of Spain lives in infamy. [laughter] Accordion manufacturers promoted the instrument as the affordable piano -- the affordable parlor instrument particularly to white ethnic families in the American heartlands. You could sell multiple models to families like this boy's because new features were coming out every year that were supposed to make the instruments faster and more powerful or more unusual looking. Okay. They -- some of them had more than one keyboard. Those were earlier accordions. But, as you see, Johnny cannot play a full-sized accordion. This is huge. They had to buy a student one. And then later a bigger one to accommodate their growth spurt. Armies of door-to-door salesmen generated the -- the numbers by impressing middle class parents with on the spot talent tests which their children always passed with flying colors. That would be followed by the sales pitch and closing the deal on six months of lessons with the accordion included. The strategy was highly successful. In 1955, accordion sales peaked at 250,000. The accordion had come into its own as a uniquely American technology. An American -- evidence of creativity and know-how; as a shining example of -- of -- of ingenuity like the television which is unseen in this living room scene; the clock radio; and the car in the background of an accordion ad by Excelsior. Evolution. Okay. The accordion like some of the people who made it famous came from nothing. The first models invented in Europe were barely larger than harmonicas. Here's an 8-key model with no base buttons. Looking at the patent for the earliest accordion in 1829 one suspects that -- that its inventor Cyril Damien never intended it to be a real serious instrument. It was supposed to be a portable substitute for an orchestra providing a one-man band technology for picnics and parties. The word "accordion" is from the Italian word "accordare" to sound together. And Italian manufacturers took this seriously. It was like a race to see how many features you could pack into one box without the performer toppling over. The average size for a male in 1930 was, I think, 135 pounds. And these accordions weighed about 30 or 40 pounds. Just a quick look at the diatonic -- early diatonic accordions from all which -- all piano accordions evolved. And the addition of features like more base buttons -- 120 base buttons on the left in this one, I think. A triple keyboard which later got replaced by just -- you could just hit a switch and it would -- it would give you an octave range up. This is a three-octave one right here. And a curved keyboard. The ergonomic solution. [laughter] The Italians give to the world affordable, accessible, and beautiful accordions for the rising middle class to play. Kind of what the iPod is to the 21st century the accordion was to the late 19th and early 20th. The founding days of the accordion industry. The Italians also worked out how to manufacture efficiently and profitably in setting up the first large scale factories and distribution centers. That was well-timed with the waves that -- of immigration to the U.S. The sons and grandsons and granddaughters of these accordion factory owners brought their know-how and their other kin to set up the first accordion factories and accordion studios, places for instruction. Here's a Guerrini booth at the World's Fair in San Francisco in 1915. Guerrini was -- made the first piano accordions. The first piano accordions were made in the United States. And a few years ago I had the pleasure to meet someone who worked in the Guerrini factory in San Francisco Vince Cirelli now in his mid 90s. Adding to the accordion craze were the German immigrants who spread the button accordion tradition throughout the Midwest and the southwest planting the seeds of the polka and -- and -- and the heartlands and Tejano conjunto culture in the Texas borderlands. The accordion was not offered in public schools. So, the need for instruments, teachers, lessons, and a community of players converged in accordion studios that cropped up in American main streets of the places like Bethesda and Silver Spring and Tacoma park, Fairfax all had accordion studios and great teachers. They all tended to emphasize classical repertoire and technique and competitions. Now imagine hundreds of studios across the country especially on the coasts with hundreds and hundreds of students giving two recitals a year and a handful of them entering annual competitions. You'll have a feel for the scale and size of the accordion movement at mid century. Okay. Now that the accordion had spread in popularity, it needed to be elevated. It had to have proper repertoire and taste because that is a big concern for, you know, upwardly mobile families at mid century. Guido Deiro's brother Pietro on the east coast built an empire of accordion studios, publishing companies, and a recording label. He was proud enough of his success to offer these special coins bearing his profile. [laughter] Probably as incentives for students who practiced. In 1938, these immigrants who had become successful manufacturers, radio personalities, and accordion artists formed the American Accordion Association which recognized the talent in each other and the potential in the accordion. And that began an effort to rehabilitate the accordion that would lift it and themselves from obscurity. The accomplishments of this band of -- of brothers which I -- in my book, I call "the accordion industrial complex" [laughter] Because it involved the manufacturers in Italy and other places as well. Their accomplishments including arranging and composing, yes, sonatas. Seriously, Mr. Peno, [phonetic] a sonata for accordion, concertos, symphonies, and proper -- what was seen as proper classical repertoire for the instrument and staged the first all-accordion concert at Carnegie Hall in 1939. And I -- I -- part of this package was a kind of self-imposed -- a self-improvement program for accordionists so that the instrument could be made worthy enough to be part of the established -- if not part of the symphony orchestra, at least worthy of appearing on classical music stages. Carrying on the tradition were distinguished accordion artists in the classical and jazz field Welk and Floren. Especially, Myron Floren were -- provided the inspiration for many players that I interviewed who are my age or older to begin playing the instrument. Alice Hall, a female jazz -- a jazz artist. Leon Sash Quintet. And on the right, Charlie Magnante who was a staff accordionist on NBC radio for a while. That was a time when radio stations would have staff accordionists and you could tune in every week which was a family ritual for many Americans. Magnante you see was rewarded with a sponsorship deal from a leading accordion company Excelsior. These are just a few of the high profile artists that kept the accordion before in -- in full view of the public for a long time. Okay. The accordion is kind of [background music] Forest Gump of traditional music. Listen to Viola Tupeinin's "Jalasjarven" polka, finish American accordions Viola Turpeinin. [brief music] Okay. All right. She's one of three musicians whose pictures you're seeing here who played -- at first -- at first primarily within their own communities for parties and dances on button accordions. Frank Yankovic in Cleveland, Viola Turpeinin in Michigan's iron range, and John Brugnoli in the Italian cabaret seen in Manhattan's Times Square. In all of their repertoires of traditional music, the accordion had played a key role in driving the dance and the drink. Sometimes replacing brass and string instruments which had been traditional in those types of music but were hefty and expensive. The accordion provided the -- these players with -- with a -- an incentive to switch. The piano accordion replaced the button accordion as they crossed over to and -- and hit the pop charts. Franky Yankovic drew on jazz and pop to Americanize the Slovenian polka music that he'd grown up playing in Ohio. His group -- Frank Yankovic and His Yanks even won a battle of the bands against Duke Ellington. [laughter] Yeah. For Yankovic and many other ethnics who switched to the piano accordion, the -- the instrument became a status symbol. A tool for upward mobility and a -- a sign of generally being more modern and more musically, you know, in touch with -- with the scene. The popular traditions behind the accordion posed a problem for the accordion advocates. The operators of the accordion industrial complex. In the 1940s, the conversation about good repertoire, at least at that level of the accordion world, began to take on a very edgy pointed quality. One admired leader of the AAA wrote, "Musical tastes having been of a deplorably low standard in the past such musical banality as sharpshooters march and beer bar or polka should not be played in public or given as lesson assignments." In other words, stick to the classics. This proved to be a divisive strategy weakening the defenses of the accordion world at a moment when they needed all the strength they could get. [pause] Rock and roll sounded the accordion's death now. In 1963, these young men changed the landscape of American pop culture by opening the door for youth-oriented movement. It would've seem to us here today that Dick Contino might have already cracked open this door. He had hoards of screaming female bobby soxers running after him when he played "Flight of the Bumble Bee." [laughter] But not one of these young men has an accordion. I think our next slide which will feature a -- a music -- a music video, a film clip from an early rock band featuring an accordion at the front will put out there some of the issues that early -- rock accordions might have had with the instrument. Okay. I'll get back to that in a minute. All right. Seems like Teddy Randazzo will appear in a moment. [Background noise] Okay. Plays an accordion but doesn't know quite what to do with it. [laughter] [ Music playing ] >> Okay. So, you -- you get the idea. He probably used to play. He does play. You can see that he's moving the buttons on the left hand. But clearly, it's not working for him in this -- at this stage of his -- of his career. So, and I introduce you to Teddy Randazzo ex-accordion player. As you can see from the next slide, he's with his band but he has no accordion. I'd like to introduce you to some other ex-accordion players. A mini roll call of pop super stars who could play the accordion but stopped doing so. Connie Francis in the center. Bill Haley and the Comets. Okay. When they were Bill Haley and the Saddlemen before many of you know that they authored the first rock and roll chart topping hit "Rock Around the Clock" but that was after they dropped the -- the squeezebox. Even a Beatle -- John Lennon. John Lennon played but not publicly. [laughter] Why the cold shoulder for the accordion? Maybe those shoulders got tired. But maybe the issues that youth-oriented musicians were having with the instrument were starting to escalate. Okay. Clearly, Teddy needed a new accordion. Here's a late push to lure young people back to the instrument. The short-lived rockordion. These instruments were introduced to the public very briefly in the 1960s as a dramatic departure from the familiar strategy of pushing full-sized instruments, classical technique, and repertoire. In this ad, a group of four young men in Beatle's-style slim pants appear to be a rock band fronted by an accordion. Definitely not Welk's accordion. It had a slanted keyboard so you could see the fingers flying and the black keys. They were offered in lacquered fiat colors. And there's fire now a museum display at the World of Accordion Museums in Wisconsin. To find out about the fate of the so-called "tiger combo accordion," I talked to Faith Deffner, the chairman of the accordion company that manufactured them. She said the program didn't succeed because the accordion teachers saw rock as a passing fad. They just liked the music and refused to teach it. Also classical musicians couldn't take the instrument seriously because it didn't have all those switches and reeds in the range that they expected. Here's a clip that reflects the dire situation in which accordion advocates found themselves sometime [Background noise] in the '80s. >> -- walk into this great teaching edifice. And the father walks up to the professor and he says, "Yo, professor, this here is my kid. [laughter] This here is my kid and I want to get him going an a accordion. And I was wondering if that -- don't do that. I was wondering if" -- [laughter] "I was -- [laughter] I wondering what it cost to get the kid started on accordion," you know. And the professor says, "Sir, the little lad can start off on a $10 accordion. And the father, he said, "Good Christ." He said, "Whoa. Ten bucks. That terrific but could you play one like that?" Professor picks up the $10 accordion and plays. [fast accordion music] They buy the instrument. After one year of study, the child returns playing [slow accordion music] >> Okay. So, I think you can see where this is going. Eventually, the father buys the $600 accordion and then the kid opens up his own accordion studio and does the same routine. But everyone can only play that one song. What could be a more devastating indication of the accordion's increasing irrelevance than the accordion professor act by Pete Barbutti on "Johnny Carson Late Night." And this is significant. I mean, because it's on late night but because NBC was besieged by outraged telephone calls from the AAA, the accordion [laughter] Association and its minions of defenders. Okay. Another sign were the signs in front of music schools. This picture is very poignant for me. I spent a long time looking at it. The -- and thinking about what happened to Dave's accordion school. The combination of rock and roll and the exposure of the accordion on the Lawrence Welk Show was a lethal combination to all the stakeholders in the accordion world from the Italian factories to the armies of door to door salesmen. From 1955 to 1962, accordion sales swooned to 50,000 from 120,000 while guitar sales surged to 1 million. This studio in Los Angeles, like many others, probably introduced guitar instruction briefly before going The door may have been closing -- this door may have been closing on the accordion in 1986 but others were opening. Okay. [pause] Rock and rollers reintroduced the accordion to display tinge of folksy authenticity. Bruce Springsteen hired, not one, but two squeezebox players. Charlie Giordano, my accordion teacher back in Brooklyn, and keyboard player Roy Bittan. In other cases, it was to counter the ubiquitous sound of synthesizers. Here's Regine Chassagne who recently played with Mick Jagger. I have a video clip of her on my Facebook page. [music] Okay. And the rising interest in ethnic and world music. [ conjunto music playing ] That's conjunto. Great. It's Flaco Jimenez playing "Hay Te Dejo en San Antonio." One of my favorite moments of doing research for the book was getting to meet both accordion playing -- playing Tejano greats in San Antonio Flaco and Steve Jordan. Both were very involved in improving the button accordion and in helping to sort of spread the love for the accordion among all kinds of accordion artists and fans. Even playing with Ry Cooder, Mick Jagger, and many other musicians in the rock and pop field. And we can -- they really speak to the different role that the accordion plays in latino culture. There -- there are a lot of accordions out there bearing Mexican flags and Columbian flags. If you put that side by side with the American piano accordion, it's quite shocking. But along with Tejano and conjunto music, which has been getting attention, Buckwheat Zydeco, Queen Ida, and Clifton Chnier. Riding the wave of Zydeco's popularity beyond the bayou Buckwheat was one of those who made the switch from the family's button box to the mighty piano accordion. And as a result, Zydeco got high visibility and so did the accordion. Buckwheat played with blues legend Eric Clapton and performed at the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta. [ music playing ] The much maligned polka got a makeover in the 1970s when rock guitarist Carl Finch traded his Fender for a green Weltmeister accordion. Self-conscious about the stigma behind the instrument and the polka repertoire as a whole, this crusading musician set out on a lifetime project to clean the kitsch out of polka and -- and the accordion and to infuse both with the energy of rock, jazz, and punk. For those who weren't familiar with the accordion industrial complex or from the polka belt who didn't grow up watching their grandparents watch Lawrence Welk, boiv [phonetic] combo gave accordion players a whole new -- a whole new rezoned dance -- and whole new reason to play and listen. [laughter] Imagine this scenario. Okay. It's 1989. You're eating your penne a la vodka. Suddenly a bunch of people burst in and start playing beer barrel polka. It's -- it really happened. Okay. In the San Francisco bay area in 1989. The place where the accordion was first introduced to America. A new wave of creative and mostly self-taught accordion artists grabbed media attention. Those darn accordions were all lined up behind this table of diners behind their fearless leader Lou Seekins; staged accordionista raids on unsuspecting diners in San Francisco restaurants. It was so successful that Microsoft hired them [laughter] And onward through -- to the brave new world of the accordion on the west coast. Lawrence Welk was associated with nostalgia, Okay. The new accordionists have broken the chains of Welk which had placed a number of constraints on the instrument. Incorporating cabaret, vaudeville, and even burlesque with a campy post modern smirk, musicians ergo Eric Stern and vagabond opera proved that accordion could be cool and edgy. Okay. And the names of other acts of the west coast are clue to this new sensibility Doodles LaRue, Polka Casserole, Polka Side. Okay. >> [singing] "You asked for pictures, I found them. I gave them to you. You liked it so much. You downloaded 22. Now you -- " >> [background music] Speaking of pictures. Whereas Lawrence Welk had once fired a champagne lady for showing too much cheesecake on television, the new accordion culture embraces daring, rebellious, in-your-face sexuality. The accordion babes calendar features 12 color photos of female accordionists of the bay area and a CD. Images like these are rich in references to the vaudeville tradition out of which the accordion merged. So, you might say that a regendering of the accordion is taking place with female performers claiming a male dominated space that was once reserved for elite accordion players. New communities around the instrument. Where competitions, contests, and conventions once defined the accordion world, new ideas of community emerged around the instrument. Accordion gatherings have become more festive and more spontaneous. One thing that motivated me to do field work for the book was the chance to go to the Cotati Accordion Festival in Sonoma County in California. It may not be the largest festival of the accordion but it's certainly one of the most noteworthy. Because only at Cotati is there a Lady of Spain-A-Ring. Okay. The idea is bring your accordion. Even if you can't play one, stand in a circle and play Lady of Spain. [laughter] Right. Not like Dick Contino would play it like real fast and fancy but as a kind of anthem. [brief laughter] Side by side with that, the Accordion Kings and Queens Festival of Houston has its eye on the next Tejano conjunto or cajun zydeco star. On the internet, okay, accordionists embrace their excitement about ditching the ubiquitous guitar -- one less guitar -- or rediscovering their inner accordionist or maybe even an accordion in their attic. The Closet Accordion Players of America we have several founding members of that organization in our audience but I won't tell you two. [laughter] One at least. But it's not a movement until the media covers it. Right? Sweating in the archives, digging up news clips about the accordion from about 1989 to 2006 all some variation on the accordion is hip again. The accordion comes back. And they're still coming. I logged them on my Facebook page. If the accordion did make a comeback assuming you accept that notion, what will it do next. From the previous discussion, it -- it's clear that remains a point of contention among old school accordionists, okay, and new school accordionists continuing dissension -- a continuing cultural divide. And I made a little chart here. I won't dwell on it too much. The conversation around the accordion was once dominated by the idealistic notion of one instrument for all. Accordion, the instrument for all. Your instrument. And we saw the only advocates of the accordion kind of steering the conversation or controlling the conversation and promoting a program of self-improvement for good repertoire, emulation of classical artists and virtuosity. Instead of uniting around a common repertoire and musical aesthetic, the new accordion culture is unified only in its diversity and around the excitement about the possibilities for what the accordion can do. Well, our white knuckle roller coaster ride through American accordion culture comes to a close. And it's time to briefly revisit the questions about decline and revival, the way the accordion, you know, turns people on or turns people off, and where it stands today. I would argue that to climb and fall are really constructions of the media and reports of the accordions death were perhaps greatly exaggerated. Instead I have -- I -- I would argue that the accordion has been a constant contributor to American culture. Perhaps falling under the radar for as long as it did allowed the accordion to maintain its uniqueness, not become just another kind of synthesizer or iPod. And that's a characteristic that is highly valued in places like San Francisco, New York, the Library of Congress, and D.C. But it has also adopted -- adopted new and imaginative manifestations. Take a look at Frank Lima when at Ed Cotati. He's a street performer of Santa Cruz, California. Frank left the Wall Street world decades ago to pursue his dream of becoming an accordion performance artist/mime. [laughter] He appears in Spandex sculptural costumes of his own making stopping passers-by in their tracks. And if I had a sound track to this, you just hear a very pretty and familiar sounding French waltz or polka. Nothing atonal or, you know, all crazy. Just pretty music. I think Frank's act pushes our analysis deeper than decline and fall, old school, new school to a place where we can identify a space for interpretive freedoms. However checkered its history, the accordion embodies a tradition Lima poignantly demonstrates the accordion's elegance and beauty, the advantages of it being portable and wearable and the everlasting pleasure we share when listening to and playing the accordion. In Lima's performances and on the American cultural stage, the accordion has displayed an incredible resilience both in the way that has moved and traveled and circulated physically, okay, and musically. And the elasticity of perceptions around it. And that resilience is what makes it such a fascinating instrument and an -- intriguing paradigm of American culture. Thank you so much for listening. [ applause ] Feel free to -- to leave or to stay for questions. I'd love to hear your questions or comments. >> I guess we'll have about 10 minutes of questions before we go outside for the book signing. >> And the book is for sale at the book store, Jennifer? >> The book is for sale at the Library of Congress gift shop, yeah. >> Thank you. >> Questions? [ background conversations ] >> We have our first question. >> I have -- I have a comment and a question. >> Okay. >> The first thing I'd like to do is thank you for such a fabulous talk. It was just great. Thank you. >> Well, thank you. You're most welcome. >> My comment first and that pertains to the guitar and its rise in popularity. I don't think it -- I wonder if it doesn't have anything to do with its sound in popular music but a rise in -- I mean, it's so much easier to carry, it weighs so much less. And in a way, when rock and roll starts, it's sort of driven a little bit by appearances and sexuality with Elvis Presley. And the guitar is physically sort of sexier looking. [laughter] >> We had a -- we had a comparison between the potential sexual appeal or lack of appeal between the guitar and the accordion. As an ethnomusicologist, though, I tend to believe that it's nothing inherent in the instrument, itself. It's the -- it's the way that we perceive it. As a case in point, the guitar was played primarily by women in early days in 17th century England. It -- it wasn't -- you know, the -- it wasn't seen as an emblem of, you know, macho sexuality. It was a domestic female instrument. It was also popular before the accordion in the 1930s and in jazz, electric and acoustic guitars. So, you know, I -- I still wonder why -- why not the accordion -- the accordion was sexy in vaudeville. The accordion is sexy now in San Francisco. So -- >> But Marion I have to agree with the lady because the -- the guitar has a sort of female -- female shape whereas the -- in your book, I remember you said a musician said, "It makes me look pregnant." It was a male musician who said that so that's not a sexy [Background noise]. Right. >> Right. You have -- actually, there -- there were some concerns about the accordion by some of its teen male players that it made you look fat or pregnant. Okay. Whereas a guitar, you could move around a lot with it. That's -- that's a good point. But those perceptions, I think, were encouraged mainly by marketing and advertising. Okay. As well as the musicians themselves. Next question. >> I think there's also a [inaudible] element too because the guitar was successfully electrified. And with the amplification, it also, like, knocked the banjo out of the [inaudible], the jazz band because the banjo was loud, the accordion is loud [inaudible] gets loud and then it has so much tonal [inaudible]. >> Excellent point. Yes, the -- it was -- it was important to the guitar's rise to popularity that it was amplified and electrified and that was also true for the accordion. Manufacturers added mikes and pickups. They also tried -- the tiger combo accordion had a mike pickup. There were more issues with the accordion than the guitar. True. Dr. Gross. >> Well, just as a follow-up to this conversation which is interesting but maybe you'll be in the wrong direction. Rather than comparing guitars and accordions, you should look back to the piano industrial complex which had preceded the accordion and that in some ways the piano -- the accordion was a -- a hipper version of the piano which was really [inaudible] 19th century so -- and I agree with Marion. I think it's entirely a cultural -- there's something inherent in any of these instruments that -- that makes them more or less popular. It's the social -- social -- their social standings. >> All right. Well, take a look at this accordion. This is not lovely? Alluring? It's getting -- got curves to it. [laughter] Okay. Gentleman in -- in the back. >> I was wondering, in your research, are you finding that multiple or [inaudible] play or [inaudible] are they going to piano accordion in the United States or are they going to -- back to their roots [inaudible] back to the button accordion? Is the button accordion more popular now -- >> Okay. We had a question about which choice of instrument are new players making today. Are they heading towards the PA -- the piano accordion or to the button box. That's a hard question to answer because I'm seeing that, you know, because it's the 21st century and, you know, the internet is there you can order any instrument you want with a click of the mouse. You can get one on ebay. And Number 2, the -- the appeal of all the different types of traditional world music that have the button accordion is drawing players to that instrument. But unfortunately, I, myself, tried to learn the button accordion and was looking for a good book. You know, teach your -- there -- there aren't any. Piano accordions has behind it a tradition of pedagogy. They're -- everywhere you look there's a teacher, there's a handbook. There's somebody who's going to show you the ropes. Button accordion because there are so many ethnic traditions are you going to go to a zydeco guy or the Tejano queen, you know. So, your choice of instrument is going to be determined by what your musical tastes are and your -- perhaps your self-image. Gentleman in the baseball cap. >> Hi, Marion. Kent Rose. I think we've met but it's a long time since I've seen you. >> Hi, Kent. >> Yeah. Thanks for coming. Just a couple of comments here. I think you can certainly do a sequel to this thing, you know, talking about the way accordions are used around the world in contemporary world and folk rock fusions and things like that. And the -- the personal thing. I came to this -- you know, I'm a music journalist and am writing about this kind of folk rock and roll music for a long time. And I came to this from a brave combo. And a lot of the British people that started using this in kind of a folk rock context like John Kirkpatrick and the Marzon [assumed spelling] band and things like that. And then I moved on to three [inaudible] three. And that -- that's the -- my coming to this is sort of different direction but it's kind -- and I do think the accordion has certainly liberated and is not unhip anymore. >> Okay. We had a very nice sort of journey through both alt, world music -- >> Yeah. >> -- folk rock bands that have featured accordion and have help made it hip. Thanks. Any questions? Let's -- who has a question? Gentleman. >> Did you spend any time in the -- the cajun -- southwest Louisiana? What was your impression of -- of that particular accordion culture in the largest [inaudible]? >> I -- the -- the question was what's my take on cajun accordion culture which features, by the way, the button -- it's own type of accordion. The cajun button box about which I -- I know very little and I look forward to learning. From my book, I -- I did visit Houston which is actually the center of zydeco music. A lot of people thing zydeco is from Louisiana but it's not. It's actually a Houston hybrid. Okay. All the zydeco musicians come from Louisiana. They go to Houston. They hear jazz and Latin music and pop and they create something entirely new. And the -- a lot of the new zydeco players play the piano accordion because they want that bluesy feel which you -- you need the black notes for. You need the range. So, I wrote about a few -- just -- I just really was able to scratch the surface of zydeco which I love. But, again, the focus of this book is really on the piano accordions journey through the 20th century from the perspective of American popular cultural, not any one, you know, ethnic musical tradition. [ inaudible audience question ] [ laughter ] >> Okay. [inaudible speaker] >> We have one more question from Neil [assumed spelling] [inaudible], I think. >> Neil. >> [inaudible] musical parody. I was wondered if Weird Al appeared in your book and did he help or not? [laughter] >> Oh, the Weird Al question. Okay. Weird -- Weird Al actually his first -- one of his first jobs was as an accordion repo man. [laughter] Remember the army -- armies of door-to-door salesmen? There had -- sometimes families were late on their payments. They have to send a repo man. And according to Al's website he said many of the families were happy to give back the accordion. [laughter] So, as it -- it definitely, an insider to the accordion world, keep our beauty it was also an accordion. They -- they were the -- you know, the engine of jokes. Right? They encouraged the parodies themselves. But whether or not you think Weird Al contributed to the rise or the demise of the accordion depends upon your sense of humor. [brief laughter] Whether you have one or not. I love Weird Al. [brief laughter] And I wish I had more -- more space to talk about him in my book because his parodies using the accordion are not specifically directed at the accordion but somehow they increase the level of funny. [laughter] >> This has been great. I love the lively debate and questions -- >> Keep it going. >> [inaudible] it's great. Let's -- let's keep it up but we're going to have to move out -- out to the book signing now. Just wanted to thank you all -- >> Yeah. >> -- for coming and remind you that the next Botkin lecture is August 9th. It will be Simon Bronner on folklore of the university. [applause] >> Simon Bronner is good. Thank you. I want to thank my mom and my dad who's turning 92 in two weeks. Happy birthday, Dad. [applause] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.