Doug Anderson

Doug...which Doug? The Doug in the back row in the yellow raincoat is me, Doug Anderson.

Mine is a ceramic floppy eared rabbit playing a concertina. At least I think it's a concertina. It has round yellow ends and a white bellows. The figure was in a box of glassware thrown out by a neighbor after it did not sell at her yard sale. (I was helping her carry the stuff to the curb for a trash pickup. I tried to pay her for it but she refused.)

We had an issue with a neighbor when we lived in our last apartment. I bought a Schwab electric mandolin and plugged headphones into the amp. Not playing any instrument at all was not an option. If a family member had a problem with my concertinas I'd probably get the electric mandolin out again, or buy an electronic keyboard.

My current project is collecting some of the tunes on Kathryn Tickell's On Kielder Side LP in abc format, printing them out in standard notation and learning them on EC. My current favorites are The Crooked Bawbee, Da Slockit Light and Sweet Hesleyside.

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.