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Raymond Devos - La Marine


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A nice clip of french humourist Raymond Devos playing a tune by George Brassens, La Marine, in a duo setting (his accompanist playing the second concertina) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_R9vdUBC-M

 

The tune is quite melancholic, it fits the concertina's sound very well in my opinion. Does anybody know of similar pieces played in that style on the concertina?

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A nice clip of french humourist Raymond Devos playing a tune by George Brassens, La Marine, in a duo setting (his accompanist playing the second concertina) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_R9vdUBC-M

 

The tune is quite melancholic, it fits the concertina's sound very well in my opinion. Does anybody know of similar pieces played in that style on the concertina?

 

Not exactly an answer to your question, but M. Devos was previously discussed on c.net in 2006 at http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4136

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Thanks Riton for sharing this wonderful video! I had heard that Devos used to play concertina but I didn't know that he was playing such a nice english concertina. Did you try to play this tune on your anglo? I'd like to try it on the Hayden duet.

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Daniel Hersh > Thanks for the link! I haven't searched for more clips of him playing the concertina yet but it seems, according to this discussion, that they aren't that frequent. I'll try to see if I can locate more.

 

soloduetconcertina > Glad to see you like it. I didn't try to play it yet on my anglo (I can play it on a ukulele though lol), but it's in my plans - I'd need to transcribe it first and then see if I can make an adaptation. I'd be very curious to hear what you could get on your hayden duet! I'm sure you could make it sound great!

Edited by ritonmousquetaire
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I've long felt the concertina is particularly suited to "melancholic" music be it jazzy, French chanson, eastern-European, argentine tango, etc. Perhaps under-used in that department. The Argentines really "got" this about the bandoneon, which is also used for slow, melancholy songs, sometimes accompanying vocals such as "Sur," the classic wistful tango elegy to the south side of Buenas Aires. I think all that stuff also sounds wonderful on Anglo and EC. And duet, bien sur.

Edited by ceemonster
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I'm currently learning an instrumental version of "La Boheme," (La Bohemia) a "melancholic" Charles Aznavour song in waltz time, on baritone EC. Duet would obviously be a natural for this, but the other systems can do it fine. There are lovely accordion clips out there of this tune, but I first encountered and fell for it through this bandoneon clip. This site won't take link copies from my computer, but on YouTube keyword as follows:

 

"La Boheme" Valse Lento Estudio

 

The instrumental starts at about 2:35

Edited by ceemonster
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I'm currently learning an instrumental version of "La Boheme," (La Bohemia) a "melancholic" Charles Aznavour song in waltz time, on baritone EC. Duet would obviously be a natural for this, but the other systems can do it fine. There are lovely accordion clips out there of this tune, but I first encountered and fell for it through this bandoneon clip. This site won't take link copies from my computer, but on YouTube keyword as follows:

 

"La Boheme" Valse Lento Estudio

 

The instrumental starts at about 2:35

 

 

https://youtu.be/CDH5NO1mT7k?t=2m36sHere is the link to the video you mentioned. Will you post a video of your version on the forum? I'd be curious to hear what you came up with on the EC. Will you try to maintain the oom-pah-pah bass?

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I've never posted audio or video to the internet. I don't know how, and have always felt enervated/appalled at the process of trying to figure out how. I guess sooner or later I've gotta break down, and will probly start with audio at that point.

 

RE what the tangueros call the arreglo for rendering "La Boheme" on EC, I probly won't attempt 100% continuous bass oom-pah throughout the entire thing. WIll probly attempt touches here and there under the melody, plus bass oompah in the gaps or spaces where the melody pauses between phrases. This is not a hard tune. It will be easy to get on any concertina system, and will sound lovely on the concertina. One could also eschew bass arrangement, and work duo with another instrument, but I will attempt a little bass color. (It WOULD be fun to do this with a co-conspirator adding chords on ukulele or a little parlor guitar, though.)

 

There are two classic tango instrumental duet recordings where bandoneon plays with acoustic guitar. They are full of gorgeous (and often "melancholic") stuff that would be lovely arranged for concertina.

 

 

"Conversando con el Fueye" by Ciriaco Ortiz, bandoneon, with two acoustic guitars, one doing the rhythm and the other trading solos with the bandoneon.

 

Anibal Troilo y Roberto Grela (Technically there is a "cuarteto" here, but it's essentially a duo record between Troilo's bando and Grela's guitar)

 

 

Ciriaco Ortiz was a bando virtuoso with more of an old-school, single-melody-line style. Troilo was a master of the multi-voiced, chord-and-counterpoint-laden, classical-level technique that came in after tango became essentially classicalized in arrangements and technique, the golden age of the fancy drawing-room orchestras, with the violin vibrato, etc. Troilo also composed and arranged many, many tango classics.

 

I personally like a more single-melody-line sound on free-reed instruments, but both these recordings are wonderful, and full of stuff that could easily be adapted to concertina.

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@ceemonster

If you could find a way to record and upload your music, I would be also very interested to listen to your rendition of La Boheme. And you seems to know very well tango music. I began to play duet concertina with an amateur tango orchestra 2 years ago in Paris and it's a good challenge to play bandonion parts on the concertina. I'm also very interested to explore the potential of tango played on concertina but the problem is that you will always suffer the comparison with the sound of the bandonion. But I'd like to experiment a mini tango band with ukulele and concertina if there is a chance.

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@Ritonmousquetaire

I began to play La Marine on my duet and I will post a video as soon as I'm able to. It would be great to listen to this tune on the anglo and solo EC as well. On the other thread I have just sent the link for La Partida that I promised before but after recording it I realized that it doesn't really sound like french musette. Maybe playing french musette on the duet would be another challenge after tango music…

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There is gentleman playing tango on an Aeola, on YouTube. And it sounds lovely. Different from a bandoneon, bien sur. But lovely all the same. The search words are:

 

Tango on Alto-Aeola.

 

 

Then there is a minor-key, "melancholic" Polish tango on Crane duet. The search words for that one are:

 

Polish tango ostatnia niedziele

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ceemonster > I can get that posting videos on the net may seem difficult. Is that the recording aspect you're struggling with, or rather the recording process?

 

Also, thanks a lot for this very detailed post on your tango references! I have to say that tango is a genre I'm not familiar with at all, so all of these names are new to me - I've started to listen to Conversando con el Fueye album and it really sounds good! I'll also check the other names you pointed out. It's interesting to see that your approach to the free-reed instruments is so well documented (I'm not sure if what I'm saying here is understandable, hope I'm clear enough).

 

Here are the links for the tangos you mentioned in your last post :

 

Tango on alto-aeola : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUISk2Qx7rA- quite impressive! I wish we'd see that sort of playing on the english more often!

Polish tango : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-25V6h9iNlQ

 

_____________________________

 

soloduetconcertina > I listened to your recording of La Partida and first of all, congratulations for that very nice interpretation! I love it when waltzes are played like that, in that very fluid and expressive way. I get what you're saying about it sounding musette - it's not exactly the french musette mood, but it's quite close to it technically speaking. Considering the nice result you got here, I'm pretty sure you could play some great french musette on your concertina! Almost nobody tries it on this instrument unfortunately.

 

I also wanted to ask you a question about the number of buttons your instrument have : do you feel the whole 52 buttons are necessary to your playing, or does a 46 instrument could be enough to play without feeling limitations?

 

And about that mini-tango band with concertina and ukulele, the idea seems quite fun! I'm unfortunately not a very good ukulele player and have 0 tango culture, but could give you a hand if you can't find a good player for it lol

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[[[is that the recording aspect you're struggling with, or rather the recording process?]]]] I don't know how you mean "recording aspect" versus "recording process," but it is the tech aspect I'm allergic to. I don't even post photos when I've sold instruments on the internet, allergic to figuring out how. I sell in person, price fairly, and describe truthfully, and they've always found homes with delighted purchasers.

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ceemonster> Thanks for the links. On my youtube channel I have a playlist called Tangotina where I'm collecting all the videos that I can find about tangos played on concertinas.

 

ritonmousquetaire> do you live in or near Paris? In that case we could first play La Marine or La Partida with your ukulele and after that try some easy tango.

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ritonmousquetaire> Ah, I forgot to answer your other question. I think that on any instrument you have to play with your own limits and, unless you play electronic music, with the limits of your instrument. So I think that there is a lot to do with a 46 buttons hayden duet. But as I got used to 52 buttons I now need all these buttons and would be frustrated to have just 46. Actually I'd like to get even a little more buttons. With the hayden system you have all the "normal" notes in the middle of the keyboard and the flat and sharp notes on each opposite side of each hand, which is quite convenient to play in the most common keys but become more difficult when you want to play in some keys with many altered (?) notes. So I'd like to get the flat and sharp notes doubled (?) on each opposite side of each hand in order to have the choice of the fingerings when I have to play in those keys.

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OK Riton, et puisqu'il ne reste plus que des francophones dans ce thread envoie moi un e-mail @gmail.com pour qu'on voit quand on peut organiser ce boeuf déjà historique! Dommage que ceemonster ne soit pas aussi à Paris!

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