The French Musette & Accordion Lessons With My Mom (in Burnsville)
For Bastille Day I thought I would write about something French!
I don’t remember what year it was but maybe 2004 or 2005’ish when my mom called me out of the blue and asked me if I would learn how to play accordion for her.
She told me when she was a little girl she would run home from school to listen to Dick Contino on a radio talent show and it was her favorite instrument. I said of course! She then said she would like to learn how to play too and she would pay for the accordions and lessons, but we would have to find a teacher and I would have to take her to the lesson each week.
It turned out to be very fun and we kept at it for a few years-we found a very interesting teacher in Burnsville and I picked my mom up every week and drove her out there. I practiced every day and looked around for cool accordion music to learn and listen to. Locally, in the Twin Cities, I discovered Dan Newton and his Cafe accordion Orchestra and I absolutely loved his playing and singing and his repretoire of old jazz standards and sixties jet set music, and my favorite of all, French Musette music. He had a nice history on his website of the musical form and I found old records and sheet music and built up a nice little repertoire and played around town for a while. It was super fun, and I still love to pick up my accordion and play it out on my patio once in a while.
The French Musette began as a dance music played mainly on a little bagpipe type instrument in the 1890’s but when the Italian immigrants moved to Paris and brought their accordions and then when the Roma musicians got into the musical melting pot it became the beautiful music it is.
When I was on a trip to Montreal I found a whole set of Musette fakebooks that were filled with little minor waltzes and javas and tangos and muzurkas. Hundreds and hundreds of songs-sort of like our tin pan alley in the united states.
Many of the “Gypsy Jazz” musicians began as players in musette groups.
My Favorites are Jo Privat and Gus Viseur but there are so many good players and song writers from the 1920’s all the way through the early 60’s and you can find great playlists online on any streaming service.
It’s a magical music!
I’ll include some fun links below.
Also, it was the first musical lessons my mom ever took! She became pretty good on her little accordion and even played at the nursing home up the street from her home a few times!
Thanks Helmi Harrington for teaching me and my mom :)