Gordon Kohl  -  July 2010:

  

Hi! Hope you are all having a great Summer. We at ALSI have been kicking off the start of the season with a great club picnic event. ALSI club members, guests and friends from near and out of the San Diego area participated to make the day stupendous. Our picnic brought nearly 120 people in attendance.

Thank you one and all. The music playing was great, the food and times for cheer and smiles helped to bring us all together as friends with a mutual love of music and the accordion. Thank you ALSI and friends for helping to make this year’s picnic, as always, a great testament to our club’s desire to be part of a music organization like ALSI. Your support and continued involvement in the club will help to foster music enrichment and friendships!

July 11th will be our 2nd annual event to feature accordion duets and trios. Playing in groups helps to develop musicianship in areas of ear training, counting meter, expression in bellowing and playing complementary harmony around a melody.

The ALSI Club hopes that many accordionists will come out this July and share in this enriching music experience. Please call Bill Barr to sign up a duet or trio for July. If you do not have a person to play with at present give me a call and we will assist you in finding an accordionist to join with you for a couple of songs.

Our July meeting will also feature a very fine young accordionist, Jonathan Engel. He will excite the audience with several beautiful selections. You will want to hear this new young talent from San Diego.

Did you know that there is an accordion group that meets weekly during the Winter in the Yuma Arizona area? They are a group of “Snowbird” accordionists and are about 30 strong. Well, what would you say to a half dozen accordionists that get together in Anchorage Alaska? They even play Klezmer music and French songs. Wow! That’s great!

For our club meeting break in July, there will be patio music while we enjoy delicious cake and ice cream.

The August 8th meeting will feature a special Showcase with the musical wizardry of Bobby Dietsch. Bobby plays accordion with a passion very much as I remember seeing and hearing from Myron Floren from the Lawrence Welk Shows.

The accordion, being a portable musical instrument, has been responsible for preserving cultural music around the world. I recently played a party for Persians families. The bass rhythms are interesting on the accordion. The chord button is repeated in rhythm and the time signatures include 5/4 and 7/4 time. The tango is very popular. The people were intrigued watching the instrument being played.

May everyone have a wonderful and safe Summertime filled with many rewarding experiences. When you are travelling look for musical events which feature live music and the “soft spot” in my heart is for accordion and piano. —

See you soon,
Gordon Kohl