CrP

Donyou have any international travel planned, e.g., to the USA? I'd love to see you and hear you live.

Muy impresionante! I like the arrangmeents and the tight sense of ensemble you achieve and, by the way, I'd dance to your music! It has a good energy and great drive.

On the CD's and LPs and old recordings of Cajun music that I've seen, which possibly is a representaitve sample, the French-speaking musicians usually refer to their instrument as either "accordéon" or "accordéon diatonique" to distinguish it from other "accordion"-type squeezeboxes; The term 'concertina' doesn't usually appear in those writings. There is of course always the problem that people who write liner notes and create publicity for musicians don't know the difference between the types and mis-naming can easily spread thro' the publicity channels outside the control of the musicians involved. So, I take the info in that obit with a grain of salt.

Yesterday's NY Times (January 30, 2024, p. A22) printed a longish obit for "the Accordion Virtuoso who Revived Cajun Music." I noticed the brief mention "A versatile instrumentalist, Mr. Sonnier played concertina on Hank Williams Jr.'s 1982 version of theBeatles' 'Norwegian Wood...." Anyone know any more of him and his work?

Looks like everyone is having a good time. Sorry I mised it.

Thanks, seanc, Interesting how tastes change.

That delightful excursion just transformed my evening. Thanks for your ever-imaginative musicality and inventiveness.

My sympathies to you; I'm sorry to hear of neuropathy interfering with any music-making, being familiar with some of its ravages, as I can testify. Good luck finding a way to keep going.

Looks a bit like a 26-button Jones currently on my shelf.

Catchy, jaunty indeed, intriguing and bouncy -- pixie-ish seems appropriate, too. Thanks for sharing it.

Beutifully and sensitively played. Thank you. I really liked the tempo -- just right, not hurried, with space and silence and pauses in just the right places and amounts.

Nice tune; I like the feeling of your arrangement. There are times when I can easily hear this as being played on a bagpipe of two.

Having played guitar and mandolin for many decades, concertina for 45-odd years (some of them very odd), I've been dealing with gradually worsening osteoarthritis for at leaast the past 20-some years. Some solutions I've tried, with varying success: 1) A topical, externally applied cream called Voltarol (or Voltaren), which offers some pain relief and possibly minimizes inflammation. In the USA, one may buy only the 1% solution (1% strength diclofenac). In Europe one may get the stronger 2%, called variously Voltaren Emulgel or Voltaren Emulgelex or Voltaren Dolo, which I buy over there and bring back ino the US. It's an over-the-counter medication. Used to be quite (unreasonably, IMHO) expensive in the USA (2-3X as expensive as in Europe). Price has come way down lately, now that there's at least one generic equivalent available. 2) Install lighter-gauge strings on the fretted instruments; 3) Find yourself a massage therapist who knows how to work on hands, especially to relax the muscle tension that can contribute pressure on the finger joints, thereby aggravating the arthritis. My person uses Trager method, which brings fairly quick relief that can last for a couple of days. 4) Some people find a 'hot wax" bath brings relief -- one lets the hands soak in the heat of warm wax (paraffin wax or candle wax) for 10-15 mins. Somewhat messy. 5) Vibrating electric massager -- good for other joints besides fingers, e.g. neck, shoulders, knees, etc. 6) Consult with a rheumatologist 7) Most important of all, I think, is to keep moving the fingers. I wish you well.

The tune moves nicely, I think, partly because it doesn't stop to resolve (harmonically), but keeps going with those diminished and rich chords. I like it. Reminded me of some nice atmospheric French accordion café music, too.

I'll second the recommendation above -- a Bflat/F concertina is probably the one most useful, given a predominance of tunes in Dminor, G minor and F. Here's an additional consideration, namely, what instruments are you playing with? The reason for asking has to do with being heard above, e.g., clarinets, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, drums accordions and combinations thereof. Even the much-vaunted cutting power of a really good Jeffries (which I have used for Klezmer music) may not make itself heard against a large group of brass instruments + drum + accordion(s). If you're planning to blend in, not take a prominent lead, make only enough chording noise to fill in downbeats and offbeats, then volume and projection power may be minor issues for you. Another consideration concerns chording, since you'll find many modal Klezmer tunes in which you need to easily/quickly go from, let's say D major to Cminor often or similar changes in freigish mode, for instance. So, an anglo with a few extra keys might prove useful, meaning more than the commonly obtainable 30. If you're accompanying yourself singing, then you may be able to do very well with a 30+ anglo in C/G rather than a Bflat/F butthen, altho' that's getting into an area that not everyone agrees falls into the genre of "Klezmer." So, you guess that I play anglo rather than English. My reply reflects that. Go seek out [I advise] and english player or two to ask your questions to see how they think of this.