music to blog by
Lately, I've been enjoying Squeeze Box King, by Flaco Jimenez, while stumbling through the blogosphere. This is a beautiful recording. It starts with a polka that is traditional in several cultures, En El Cielo No Hay Cerveza, or, In Heaven There is no Beer. Flaco sings this tune in English, Spanish AND DUTCH. This is the only polka on the CD. The lyrics say it all...."In Heaven, there is no beer....that's why we drink it here....and when we're gone from here....all my friends will be drinking all the beer". The rest of the album is made up of more "romantico" material, boleros, rancheras, and a great cumbia, Cuando T Quiero, Te Vas. Flaco plays a custom Hohner Corona II 3 row button box (acordion Conjunto/Norteno). He has been touched on the shoulder by the hand of God. Like most Conjunto players, Flaco plays the right side only (a lot of the Tex-Mex players remove the bass reeds and use the bass buttons as air valves). The link is to Flaco's web site. Also check out his work with the late Doug Sahm, Freddie Fender, and Augie Meyers: The Texas Tornados (the first CD is the best, but their all good).
2 comments:
Polkas are amazing. This summer, I spent a week at Joe Smiell's Button Box Camp, near Truckee California, learning about playing polkas on the Slovenian/German button box from masters like Joe Smiell, Otto Schnauber and Peggy Mueller. Listening to those three play together is an awesome experience. Camp was so amazing.
Polkas were a part of my childhood....every wedding, for sure .....but I was reintroduced to them by listening to conjunto/norteno. Flaco rocks the free world. His brother Santiago is really good too - more old school. Not to mention Los Tigres del Norte, and so many more great bands and players. Check out the Reyes Accordions site at: http://www.reyesaccordions.com/site.htm for everything you need to know.
I live in a Portuguese area of Toronto, so I have learned to play the squeeze box by playing corridinhos and viras - Portuguese folky-dolky dance music. I can't get enough.
Button box camp was fabulous. There were 24 students from 14 to 70+, loads of classes and playing time, opportunities to play for the whole group, great food, mountain landscape, and lots of new friends.
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