Accordions Rising (2016):
“Accordions Rising Is a documentary feature film about the resurgence of interest in accordion music over the last 30-40 years. Although many continue to see the accordion as the stodgy instrument of a bygone era – and accordion jokes abound – this film sets the record straight. It is the story of the variety, diversity and extraordinary virtuosity of the instrument and the music that it can make…”
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I have purchased this DVD and enjoyed watching it. However, to truly enjoy it, one has to follow a few constraints, for example, it is important that you have not seen the 2009 DVD called "Behind The Bellows".
One also has to take into consideration that it is a movie about the accordion, yes, but seen with a set of small blinders on. It's an accordion documentary made in America and made mostly for Americans. If you view Accordions Rising with these constraints above, it is quite enjoyable. Under those constraints, I might even recommend you make the purchase of this DVD.
Unfortunately, for me at some levels, it was a bit of a disappointment.
If you have seen the 2009 DVD "Behind The Bellows", then you will have already seen about 30% of the content of Accordions Rising. The documentary has a lot of the same info, same message, same story and even many of the same people repeating almost the same stories that appeared in "Behind the Bellows".
It is a bit of a narrow view of the “American-centric” story that unfortunately, is one that has already been told, minus perhaps the couple of minutes where they show the now previous generation Roland V-Accordion, and unfortunately, not in any great detail nor even played with any high level of skill.
Yes, it’s a nice DVD to have if you are an accordion fan, it's pleasant to watch, and it is part of my collection, but it could have easily been SO MUCH BETTER, to the point that I felt a bit frustrated because I was waiting for the story to really start, to give me some "meat", but before it had a chance to offer it to me, the movie was suddenly over. UGH!
So in my opinion, what would have improved the documentary? Well, most of my issues stem from the narrower view and repetitive material of a previously released DVD.
Obviously the accordion is an international instrument, it has a million more faces than the few shown in this documentary. How about a brief 5 minute history of the accordion? How about showing a few famous European locations that make the accordion (Germany, Italy, France)? Hohner in Trossingen, Paolo Soprani or Pigini in Castel Fidardo and Cavagnolo in France as random selections just off the top of my head. How about showing a quick overview of the evolution of the acoustic to electronic to reed MIDI to reedless MIDI wonders that are out there!
I think that I was left wondering where was the proof of the resurgence suggested at the start of the movie. If there is a modern resurgence, we are in 2016 (or a couple years earlier based on when the movie was made), why not show people who are key to that resurgence of the accordion in the 2010's and in more than just the USA? The world today is much smaller than it was thanks to technologies like the Internet, making this information easier to find and see, if you want to devote time to this interest.
How about a few key people from inside and outside the USA? For example, show short clips of Michael Bridge and Uwe Steger and Richard Noel all playing the Roland V-accordions? Why not a few seconds of Flaco Jiminez? Right there we've covered Canada, Germany, USA and Mexico in one shot! A 60 second clip of the two wonderful ladies from the Netherlands who call themselves TOEAC would show 2 beautiful young ladies playing Bayan accordions at expert levels and they do many styles of music from comedy routines to hard core classical! Come to think about beautiful women that play the Bayan, Ksenija Sidorova jumps to mind. These are the people carrying the torch for this decade, truly showing the beauty of the accordion to the world... them, and so many more new and inspiring accordionists all over!
Sure, Guy Klucevsek is awesome, but he's already said what he wanted to say back in 2009, and it's pretty much repeated in this 2016 documentary... why not an interview and musical clip from Joseph Macerollo? How about clips from the COTATI event (with someone other than Guy Klucevsek playing) or the even more famous International Accordion Festival in Las Vegas (note that I am not even mentioning any of the huge international accordion festivals outside North America)? Why are we seeing the same people in another DVD with all this wonderful talent surrounding us just begging to be acknowledged?
This was a chance to make a mind-blowing DVD about the current modern accordion resurgence and truly elevate this instrument a little, and sadly, it fell a bit short by shadowing a recipe that was already used 7 years earlier. Sure, to celebrate the accordion one must look to the past, as that is where it's true glory days were, however there is more than enough material out there that repetition should be near impossible to see, and if you claim a modern resurgence... show me THE people and events that happen in THIS decade that are promoting it, because the world of the accordion is big enough to really impress, big enough to inspire and hopefully, big enough to make that resurgence clearly visible.
Now, it is of course, impossible to show everything in a 90-120 minute DVD, but I hope that someone in the future makes another one that is more encompassing and shows more of what the accordion is, what it can do and better shows a true resurgence... if there indeed is one.
All in all, a good effort, but as I said, so much room to have been made better and more receptive to a larger more globally dispersed audience... because there are many incredible accordionists both inside and beyond the US borders, and these are the people that are affecting how the accordion is viewed both inside the USA and globally.
“Accordions Rising Is a documentary feature film about the resurgence of interest in accordion music over the last 30-40 years. Although many continue to see the accordion as the stodgy instrument of a bygone era – and accordion jokes abound – this film sets the record straight. It is the story of the variety, diversity and extraordinary virtuosity of the instrument and the music that it can make…”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have purchased this DVD and enjoyed watching it. However, to truly enjoy it, one has to follow a few constraints, for example, it is important that you have not seen the 2009 DVD called "Behind The Bellows".
One also has to take into consideration that it is a movie about the accordion, yes, but seen with a set of small blinders on. It's an accordion documentary made in America and made mostly for Americans. If you view Accordions Rising with these constraints above, it is quite enjoyable. Under those constraints, I might even recommend you make the purchase of this DVD.
Unfortunately, for me at some levels, it was a bit of a disappointment.
If you have seen the 2009 DVD "Behind The Bellows", then you will have already seen about 30% of the content of Accordions Rising. The documentary has a lot of the same info, same message, same story and even many of the same people repeating almost the same stories that appeared in "Behind the Bellows".
It is a bit of a narrow view of the “American-centric” story that unfortunately, is one that has already been told, minus perhaps the couple of minutes where they show the now previous generation Roland V-Accordion, and unfortunately, not in any great detail nor even played with any high level of skill.
Yes, it’s a nice DVD to have if you are an accordion fan, it's pleasant to watch, and it is part of my collection, but it could have easily been SO MUCH BETTER, to the point that I felt a bit frustrated because I was waiting for the story to really start, to give me some "meat", but before it had a chance to offer it to me, the movie was suddenly over. UGH!
So in my opinion, what would have improved the documentary? Well, most of my issues stem from the narrower view and repetitive material of a previously released DVD.
Obviously the accordion is an international instrument, it has a million more faces than the few shown in this documentary. How about a brief 5 minute history of the accordion? How about showing a few famous European locations that make the accordion (Germany, Italy, France)? Hohner in Trossingen, Paolo Soprani or Pigini in Castel Fidardo and Cavagnolo in France as random selections just off the top of my head. How about showing a quick overview of the evolution of the acoustic to electronic to reed MIDI to reedless MIDI wonders that are out there!
I think that I was left wondering where was the proof of the resurgence suggested at the start of the movie. If there is a modern resurgence, we are in 2016 (or a couple years earlier based on when the movie was made), why not show people who are key to that resurgence of the accordion in the 2010's and in more than just the USA? The world today is much smaller than it was thanks to technologies like the Internet, making this information easier to find and see, if you want to devote time to this interest.
How about a few key people from inside and outside the USA? For example, show short clips of Michael Bridge and Uwe Steger and Richard Noel all playing the Roland V-accordions? Why not a few seconds of Flaco Jiminez? Right there we've covered Canada, Germany, USA and Mexico in one shot! A 60 second clip of the two wonderful ladies from the Netherlands who call themselves TOEAC would show 2 beautiful young ladies playing Bayan accordions at expert levels and they do many styles of music from comedy routines to hard core classical! Come to think about beautiful women that play the Bayan, Ksenija Sidorova jumps to mind. These are the people carrying the torch for this decade, truly showing the beauty of the accordion to the world... them, and so many more new and inspiring accordionists all over!
Sure, Guy Klucevsek is awesome, but he's already said what he wanted to say back in 2009, and it's pretty much repeated in this 2016 documentary... why not an interview and musical clip from Joseph Macerollo? How about clips from the COTATI event (with someone other than Guy Klucevsek playing) or the even more famous International Accordion Festival in Las Vegas (note that I am not even mentioning any of the huge international accordion festivals outside North America)? Why are we seeing the same people in another DVD with all this wonderful talent surrounding us just begging to be acknowledged?
This was a chance to make a mind-blowing DVD about the current modern accordion resurgence and truly elevate this instrument a little, and sadly, it fell a bit short by shadowing a recipe that was already used 7 years earlier. Sure, to celebrate the accordion one must look to the past, as that is where it's true glory days were, however there is more than enough material out there that repetition should be near impossible to see, and if you claim a modern resurgence... show me THE people and events that happen in THIS decade that are promoting it, because the world of the accordion is big enough to really impress, big enough to inspire and hopefully, big enough to make that resurgence clearly visible.
Now, it is of course, impossible to show everything in a 90-120 minute DVD, but I hope that someone in the future makes another one that is more encompassing and shows more of what the accordion is, what it can do and better shows a true resurgence... if there indeed is one.
All in all, a good effort, but as I said, so much room to have been made better and more receptive to a larger more globally dispersed audience... because there are many incredible accordionists both inside and beyond the US borders, and these are the people that are affecting how the accordion is viewed both inside the USA and globally.
