I came across these two lovely articles covering master accordionist Daniel Colin on his tour in Japan.
Musette Delivers Taste of France, from Friday November 20th, 2009, in The Japan Times Online. Written by Yung-Hsiang Kao. The piece covers French Accordionist Daniel Colin’s current tour there, and includes a little backup history on the mordinary (a better word for extraordinary) music that is Musette! Interestingly, the article also connects the Musette interest with Japan’s larger Francophilism: Louis Vuitton bags, french baking, and frog legs (just kidding about that one.)
“For 15 years now, there has been a comeback of the accordion and musette — trash musette, hip-hop musette — but with this group (with Colin) it is a more traditional French musette and chanson.”
Musette is an accordion-centered traditional French music created in Paris in the 1920s from a mix of sounds by Italian immigrants and Auvergne folk from the Massif Central region.
It is to France what jazz is to the United States, according to Cravic, a producer and guitarist.
“Musette was very successful until the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll,” Cravic says in English on a recent visit to Japan with Colin, an accordion player. “Accordion players were overwhelmed, so most of these guys tried to be more showy.
And the other article, Paris, Love Song for You, in Metropolis, written by Dan Grunebaum, from November 12th, 2009.
The accordion revival took hold in Japan in the ’90s, rooted in the continued popularity here of musette and its more sedate cousin, chanson. Among its exemplars are virtuoso Coba and young chanteuse Uri Nakayama.
“It’s an instrument that can be impressive even for young people. They are used to electric guitars, keyboards, and usually this music is not complex. But when we have the experience of playing in front of different musicians in France who are involved in rap or whatever, when they see and hear and feel Daniel, it’s very impressive for them. From the mid ’80s, accordion came back in all sorts of different fields. Now you can hear accordion players in rap or even punk.”
Enjoy!
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Another post about my latest project
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Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano
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Another post about Accordion Event Calendar
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The article 
Daran Kravanh, a Cambodian accordionist, has been playing concerts and speaking engagements with his wife, Bree Lafreniere. Lafreniere has written a book telling Kravanh’s many stories of avoiding death and the meeting horror of Pol-Pot’s regime and the Khmer Rouge.
(Updated April, 2010)
Originally from California, his formal education includes study of arranging, composition and piano performance at California State University Northridge in Los Angeles as well as accordion at the Acme Accordion School in Westmont, NJ with Stanley Darrow and Joanna Arnold.
Dallas has recently recorded and performed with national guitar flatpicking champion Mark Cosgrove . The new record is to be released later this year (2010).
He has performed with Grammy nominee and Polka accordion icon Alex Meixner.
Dallas has recently recorded on the new record of The Orphan Trains. The new record is to be released later this year (2010).
Dallas wrote and performed original music to the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Fest show Cirque Ular. As well as the 2008 juggling/drama The Comet Line, which was produced by The Give and Take Jugglers.
Dallas is the musical director for film and television (Airplane, The Love Boat) actress Jill Whelan. Their show Dry Dock was performed at the Zipper Theater, The Daryl Roth Theater, and a three week engagement at the Metropolitan Room in New York City.
His professional experience also includes performances with groups large and small at legendary clubs such as The Jazz Bakery and Catalina's Bar in Los Angeles.
Member of the American Accordionists' Association
