Valter Losi not only liscio (boogie)
- Thread starter Ric46
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Love the music... HATE his habit of pushing the bellows closed all the time... I wonder, if I suddenly removed his air release button, would he be unable to play?? 
He loves to play on the pull. Maybe he started by playing “filuzzi”.Love the music... HATE his habit of pushing the bellows closed all the time... I wonder, if I suddenly removed his air release button, would he be unable to play??
cestjeffici
Active member
This post gave me an idea. My Hohner 40-FS has growling reed on push so I am going to try this technique of bellows management to deal with it untilI can get it fixed.
(Jerry: Maybe he has some bad reeds as well!)
(Jerry: Maybe he has some bad reeds as well!)
Valter is a well-respected accordionist, and I think, like the genre or not, he is well known in Italy because he has a very long career and because he has written a lot of songs, as well as being good. This is a topic that has already been discussed here. I am inexperienced, I also tried to ask some accordionists who use the same technique with the bellows. Why? A clear answer with a convincing reason I haven't found yet...It would seem there is no reason. Then why do most accordionists in that genre of music, in Italy, play that way? Just because of tradition? I don't think so. Mystery!Love the music... HATE his habit of pushing the bellows closed all the time... I wonder, if I suddenly removed his air release button, would he be unable to play??
I'm not saying he is not good, but there is no mystery, just bad habit/technique. 
He'd better play fast because when he reaches the end of his arm length, it's game over, or heaven forbid... push.
The style is not conducive to playing slow music with long sustained notes where there is no long pause for him to take 2 seconds to push in his accordion's bellows. You will note ALL the music you hear from him is very similar in structure. His rendition of Anna is amazing, but predictable. The moment he steps outside his comfort zone... well, he never does, does he?
He'd better play fast because when he reaches the end of his arm length, it's game over, or heaven forbid... push.
The style is not conducive to playing slow music with long sustained notes where there is no long pause for him to take 2 seconds to push in his accordion's bellows. You will note ALL the music you hear from him is very similar in structure. His rendition of Anna is amazing, but predictable. The moment he steps outside his comfort zone... well, he never does, does he?
Last edited:
Dingo40
Been here for ages!
When this all began, musicians would have been rather short of cash.
Playing in this style would eliminate the need for a large majority of reeds, thus making a large saving in getting an accordion?
Just saying...
I wonder if, back in the Middle Ages perhaps, the original instrument for Bolognese or Filuzzi music was an organetto style accordion (without bass) that only had the full diatonic scale on the pull, necessitating this type of playing, that then continued even when more full featured accordions came around. Just a theory, based on conjecture. ??? Or maybe the first hero of the area played this way for his or her own own personal reason, and everyone else had to follow in order to get the gig.When this all began, musicians would have been rather short of cash.
Playing in this style would eliminate the need for a large majority of reeds, thus making a large saving in getting an accordion?
Just saying...
Darn, if we had gone here we could probably have asked…..
OuijaBoard
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I do believe it is a deliberate strategem for optimizing the "oomph" of a certain dance rhythm or phrasing. It certainly isn't bad technique. This guy has more chops, virtuosity and elan than everybody on this thread. Not to mention that a unisonoric accordion can be played as easily in one direction as the other, so what would be the problem. Articulating the air more frequently does give a certain movement or lift to dance playing, which may be the purpose of enforcing that by keeping it snapped at one end. It is also true that for reasons unclear to me, free-reed instrument valves swell more freely and supple-y on the pull than the push, these walzer guys may prefer that feel.
Many fans of tango bandoneon are unaware that the classic and prescribed bellows articulation among the Argentine tangueros is to play on the pull, using the air button to close the bellows between phrases. And to do so at strategic spots complementary to the whoomph and movement of the dance.
There have been disdainful comments from uninformed quarters opining that Argentine tangueros play on the pull because they are too lazy or limited to become bidirectionally fluent in the fiendishly difficult, randomly placed, multi-octave pull layout and push layout of the bisonoric bandoneon to play it on the push as well as the pull. Generally, however, this disdain is misplaced. The reason for playing on the pull with busy air-lever use relates to dance rhythm as well as that suppleness of air-valve swell in the pull direction.
Interestingly, players of unisonoric bandoneons as used for tango in France and by some other non-Argentine players, achieve the "proper" Argentine tango phrasing by playing their unisonoric bandos the same way--on the pull, using the air release at strategic points complementary to the dance movement to close the bellows and start the next phrase. They're not doing it because they are lazy or inept, as a unisonoric instrument doesn't require any different fingering or note layout for the push versus the pull. They are doing it to get that authentic tango feel.
Many fans of tango bandoneon are unaware that the classic and prescribed bellows articulation among the Argentine tangueros is to play on the pull, using the air button to close the bellows between phrases. And to do so at strategic spots complementary to the whoomph and movement of the dance.
There have been disdainful comments from uninformed quarters opining that Argentine tangueros play on the pull because they are too lazy or limited to become bidirectionally fluent in the fiendishly difficult, randomly placed, multi-octave pull layout and push layout of the bisonoric bandoneon to play it on the push as well as the pull. Generally, however, this disdain is misplaced. The reason for playing on the pull with busy air-lever use relates to dance rhythm as well as that suppleness of air-valve swell in the pull direction.
Interestingly, players of unisonoric bandoneons as used for tango in France and by some other non-Argentine players, achieve the "proper" Argentine tango phrasing by playing their unisonoric bandos the same way--on the pull, using the air release at strategic points complementary to the dance movement to close the bellows and start the next phrase. They're not doing it because they are lazy or inept, as a unisonoric instrument doesn't require any different fingering or note layout for the push versus the pull. They are doing it to get that authentic tango feel.
I don’t know, Ouig old bean, certainly true in my case, but not so for Jerry. I haven’t seen enough of Ric, Jeff or Dingo to make this value judgement. But Walter is definitely up there!
