Doug Anderson

Actually, it's the trumpet and piano players I have the most trouble with. I'm OK with the notes on the slower stuff but the phrasing eludes me. I must have been a clarinet or saxophone player in a previous life. My favorite jazz musicians to play along with are Sidney Bechet, Acker Bilk, Gene Ammons and Hank Crawford. I also love to "accompany" female singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Cassandra Wilson and Jane Monheit. I have a friend who plays a C Melody saxophone for the same reason. It has a lovely sound!

I play my EC along with the radio - usually the jazz station (WBGO) and occasionally the oldies station (WCBS). They choose the tunes, they choose the key, they choose the tempo. If it's a piece I know, I do my best to play the melody along with them. If I don't know the piece, or if it's too fast or in too difficult a key, I improvise harmonies. I've been doing this for several years and find I am making slow but steady progress with my playing. My goal is to become a good enough concertinist to sit in on local jazz sessions.

For more years than I can remember (probably something like 20) I thought about buying an English concertina. I bought instruction books. I bought recordings. I taught myself to play many of the tunes on Alistair Anderson's Concertina Workshop LP on the mandolin. I was convinced it was the right instrument for me - if I could play it - but I doubted that I could. It was too big an investment for an experiment that would probably fail. Then one day I came across the Button Box URL, looked at their web page, and saw that they rented instruments! I called the same day and arranged to rent a Stagi. Three days later I was kicking myself for waiting far far too long to try an English concertina. I was playing a C major scale within minutes and improvising harmonies in the key of G by the end of the day. That was almost five years ago. I still have the Stagi. I also have a Morse and a Wheatstone. All three are 48 button treble English concertinas. I was right all along. It really is the right instrument for me.