Accordion in The Netherlands (Dutch accordion)

[maugein96]

From time to time whilst I have been surfing the net looking to find variety I've come across some excellent players from The Netherlands, and just wondered if anybody else had the same experience?

I particularly like what I'd refer to as "Amsterdamse Musette" style. I'm going way back to the post World War 2 years, when singers such as Tant Leen sang all those very powerful (she was a very formidable lady) Amsterdam street songs, particularly the waltzes. Does anybody know the names of her backing accordionists, particularly the smallish bald guy who played a CBA Accordiola? He was an amazing player, better than most of the French "stars" of the time, yet he doesn't seem to be known outside of his home country (assuming he was from The Netherlands).

One of the better known surviving players of the genre is Simon Hottentot, who plays a Fratelli Crosio PA, although most of the modern type players I've found on You Tube tend to play their version of French musette on French spec CBA instruments, which is a shame in my opinion. Possibly, the old Amsterdam tunes are now regarded as unfashionable? The fact that the Dutch tuned accordions tend to sound a bit like the street "Draaiorgels" or barrel organs, might be a factor there.

Johnny Meijer, one of the relatively few internationally known Dutch accordionists, was an amazing jazz player. He could play complicated chords and progressions with ease, yet it seems he had difficulty playing anything else but jazz. I heard him once on a video trying to play a few French standards but he couldn't get to grips with the staccato button rattling. Another player in a similar style is Toos Endlich, whom I believe is still playing. She's another prolific player of those big romantic chords, but I've never heard her break out into anything up-tempo.

Not forgetting the marine orientated diatonic folk styles, there seem to be a number of different styles of playing in The Netherlands, and I was just wondering if anybody knew more about them? The Netherlands quite naturally seems to be a sort of cross-over point between the French and German accordion styles, and I'm intrigued by what inspires some players to play musette whilst others tend to go a bit Germanic with those big chords.

 

[Ron Peeters]

Hi Maugein96,
It is not easy to answer your tropic. Many songs have been written about Amsterdam.
Ik think most of them come from a special part of Amsterdam called De Jordaan.
The Jordaan is surrounded by canals in the center of Amsterdam.
It was a working class neighborhood and lived and worked many craftsmen. It was the place where you went if you wanted some experience.
Lots of booze, women, fun and a special Jewish humor.
It was a bit of Italy in the Netherlands, with influences from all over the world by sailors who lived here. (if they were not at sea).
In this environment came the Amsterdam musette style, as you call it.
They sang about what they experienced or what they liked.
Tante Leen (aunt Leen) was one of those people who sang the sentimental.
The accordion was widely played in Jordan as well as the harmonica.
Tante Leen performed with different accordionists. Usually Joop Goos but also with Dick House (the man with the Accordeola).
Most of the songs were written by Jaap Valkenhof one of The Three Jacksons (accordion trio).
Johnny Meyer played a lot of this music alongside his jazz.
When I was in the Navy and was in Amsterdam for training in 1970, we often went to the cafe of Tante Leen, and then she sang alongside the jubox with the microphone in her hand.
It was fun !!!!
The styles that are played in the Netherlands are highly dependent on where you live.
I live in the south of the Netherlands and here the influences are mainly German and Belgian (Flemish and Walloon = French).
In the north and east of the Netherlands is more harmonica played Ballads and shanties.
I hope you have something to this answer. And otherwise send me an email.

Look also

And when we don’t know it any more :

greetings

Ron

 

[maugein96]

Hi Ron,

Your English is indeed better than my Netherlands. I was also in the Navy (British Royal Navy), but I was an airman and worked mainly on helicopters. I wasnt at sea much, usually based on airfields, and we never went to Amsterdam to see Tant Leen. We used to supply air transport to your 10th Koninklijk Mariniers when they did NATO exercises in Norway in the winter. I also picked up some Nederlands from them, but Ive forgotten most of it. My late father was billeted on Dutch families in Geleen and Bergen op Zoom during World War 2 for a while and he kept in touch with them for some years. My father could also speak Dutch, but only a very little, like me. I also have a cousin, Claire Tunissen, who is from Nijmegen, but she moved to Ireland (her mother is Irish) some years ago. Ive been to the Netherlands a few times and like the country and the people. My wife also has a Scottish cousin who now lives in Amsterdam, but we very seldom see him.

Thanks very much indeed for all of the info on Tant Leen. For a long time I believed that everybody in the Netherlands spoke like people in De Jordaan, but when I actually met some Dutch people I realised it was her accent (dialect). I have relatives who live in California in the USA, but they are from New Jersey and have New York type accents. I also used to think that all Californians spoke like them, but I now know differently.

Going back to the music, the accordionist I was trying to identify was the guy playing the chromatic accordion featured in the following clip.



I love the old Jordaan tunes, and suspected for a while that they werent really typical of the accordion music played elsewhere in the Netherlands. I believe there is a similar situation in Brussels, which seems to have had its own style of accordion music that was different from the rest of Belgium, although I dont really know much about it.

I play the chromatic button accordion and spent a long time trying to work out how Dutch players fingered those big chords that tend to be a feature of accordion playing in the Netherlands. After I joined this forum Glenn (English guy now based in Den Haag), advised me that a lot of chromatic accordions in the Netherlands have c (Do) in the second row. I knew that was the case in France and Belgium, but never realised they were the same where you are.

I sometimes try and play the old Amsterdam tunes, but always struggle with the big chords I already mentioned.

Hope youre finding the Roland a bit easier to manage than your last accordion.

Groeten,

John W

 

[Ron Peeters]

Hi John,
The man you meant Jaap Valkhoff. He comes from Rotterdam.
Refer to "You tube".

Greetings

Ron

 

[maugein96]

Brilliant Ron, thanks

I had heard of Jaap Valkhoff, but couldn't identify him in that photo with Tant Leen.

He plays a B system chromatic, and I play a C system. I reckon most Dutch players also play B system, and that's how they get those chord inversions that I struggle with on the C system.

If I was starting over again I reckon I'd go for the B system. A lot of the older French players like Andre Verchuren and Edouard Duleu, and others whose names I can't remember, seemed to make hard stuff look easy on the B system.

Thanks again, as you have solved a puzzle I've been trying to work out for years now.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Some sheet music and songs by Jaap Valkhoff are available for viewing and download (if you register) on the Dutch website Muziekschatten:

http://www.muziekschatten.nl/action...aap&orderBy=alphabet&searchIn=composer&page=1

You can click on bekijk details (see details) to view the sheet music per page.

This website Muziekschatten is a true treasure of information and conservation of Dutch popular music culture.
http://www.muziekschatten.nl/action/category?id=4

 

[maugein96]

Stephen,


Very many thanks indeed for these links. I'll have a go at playing the chords on my C system CBA. Might as well start with Diep in mijn Hart, as the melody is quiet easy to remember.

I also used to like listening to Johnny Meijer, and it was a shame that he ended up yet another victim of the demon drink. When he died his son sold his Accordiola for drug money, and the whip round the Jordaan people had for his funeral was apparently also stolen by an acquaintance of his.

Towards the end, it appears that he was offered a chance of rekindling his career a couple of times, but he ended up getting drunk and not turning up.

I'll enjoy browsing through the music on the Dutch site, and thanks again,

John W

 

[Glenn]

Great music resource Stephen. I'll add it to the resources thread (which probably nobody looks at but at least it will move it to the top again).

 

[Nuuksu]

Does anybody know have Toos Endlich recorded vinyls or CDs? I like her playng style very much I wonder how it sounds when played in real life, quite sad that I can't meet this kind wonderful player. There are many youtube videos but I wish to get sound with better quality.

 

[debra]

The "dutch" musette has been popular on Accordiola accordions with strong tremolo. I prefer a lighter tremolo. French accordions typically have less tremolo but then use MMH to play musette.
In the Netherlands the B-griff button accordion used to be most popular but during the past decade or so more and more "new" button accordion players are playing C-griff. When I changed from piano-accordion to buttons I also went for the C-griff.
As for famous accordion players from the Netherlands one of the great talents of long ago was Harry Mooten. He played all genres including a lot of Bach. As a piano-accordion player with a Hohner Gola he has a very non-typically-dutch sound with very light tremolo.