NEWSLETTER OF THE

June 2018

VISIT OUR WEBSITE at SVASociety.org and visit us on Facebook Watch Pam’s Videos of SVAS meetings on YouTube at: accordionpam

SVAS Next Meeting: Sunday July 8, 2018 at Harry’s Hofbrau

NB 2nd Sunday in July

NO Jam Band session in July. BUT, there is open play from 1:00 until 1:30, and 2:30 to 3:00. A marvelous opportunity to play a couple or even just one song to a sympathetic and apprecia-tive audience. Contact Pam for a time slot. YOU CAN DO IT!

Monterey International features Mike Marotta on accordion, Dave Dally on violin and Steve Hanson on string base. This very well-known group plays favor-ite songs from all over the world. Mike Marotta (Accordion) and Dave Dally (Violin) are the core of the group that is often expanded to include singers, bass, percussion and others. Mike Marotta Jr., a Monterey native, is the third generation of Marottas to entertain Peninsula audiences. For over 45 years he has per-formed all styles of popular music on accordion and pi-ano with the Marotta Band.

Dave Dally is an accomplished professional violinist who lives in Carmel Valley and leads the Monterey String Quartet. Dave has played at our Club with the Denier brothers, Joe Domitrowich and

others. He can often be found Thursday nights performing at Lugano’s Swiss Bistro, The Barnyard at Carmel Valley, just off Hwy 1. Steve Hanson, string bass, hails from Minnesota, and grew up working the family’s dairy farm. Steve enlisted in the United States Navy, and found his way to the Navy Band where he played trombone. He was stationed in Naples, Italy for three years, and learned to speak Italian, and to love Italian food. Steve received his master’s degree in music from The University of North Texas. Steve serves on the Board of Directors of The Musician’s Union Local 6, San Francisco.

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Did you miss a meeting performance? You can view some of it on YouTube. To view Pam’s Videos from past meetings: Go to youtube.com, type in “accordionpam” in the search field

(next to the magnifying glass on top) for videos from the club .

President’s Message Hi, everyone: I don't miss many meetings/concerts, and I am surely sorry to have missed this one! An unexpected family situation arose which I had to take care of. Many thanks to Lou, Scott, Bob, Pam and all the folks who kept things running smoothly! I am looking forward to seeing you all for the July meeting! Bill, President Again.

Vice President’s Message

The meeting commenced with the Ken Caple Jam Band, led by Bob Stanfield and Lou Buonomo. The group played various favorite songs for about 50 minutes. Thanks goes to all the jam band participants – Great Job musicians and great fun as well! As the program progressed, Hermann Schmalzried performed several Alpine songs on his Strasser four-hole button box. His music included selections from Slovenia, Austria, and Ba-varia. Dennis Judd played various contemporary music on his accordion. Dennis has been play-ing for about 10 years. Michael Zampiceni introduced his new seven year old student Zane who performed re-

markably well. Michael then gave a great solo performance that lasted about 30 minutes, asking the audience for song requests and then singing to many of the songs as he played. The featured performances included two groups where each group performed about 30 minutes. The Paolozzi Tango Trio were the first to perform where they featured “original compositions” by trio member Gianfranco. The group also played traditional tangos from Argentina. The trio included Gianfranco Paolozzi on accordion, Nancy Lane on keyboard, and and Griff Derryberry on violin. I would state that this was the best I have ever heard them play! Lynn Ewing and Daniel Cher were the second featured performers. During their performance, Daniel switched between playing the violin and the accordion. Their performance was a real treat. It was obvious that some of their music selections required very complex base note excursions. The duet performance was truly exceptional, ending with a stand-ing ovation! Thank you, Bob Stanfield for purchasing the 12 raffle prizes, and to all who participated in the purchase of raffle tickets. Thank you, Scott Williamson for the Newsletter, helping with set up, and for the photography. My thanks to Pam Kawashima for performance scheduling. Thank you, Karen Buonomo for taking charge of the check-in desk and for doing raffle ticket sales. Thank you, guests and members for your participation and support. To all, please stay safe and well! We hope to see you all at the next meeting on July 8th!

Lou Buonomo, Vice President

Lou

Bill Tapogna

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The Jam Band, led by Lou Buonomo and Bob Stanfield played enthusiastically from 1 pm to just be-fore 2pm. A couple of unfamiliar tunes in Ken Caple’s music book caused consternation. But they played well on the old favorites: Just Because, Beer Barrel Polka, Ain’t She Sweet, Five Foot Two, …. They were all great successes. Staying together on a slow tune is never easy. Mike Zampiceni rose to the occasion (literally!) by standing up in front and facing the band to synchronize everyone during Edelweiss. Mike sang, and this piece was another great success.

The Jam Band is a popular event. In the future, we are planning to try out an idea that one tune will be selected as a model tune. After play-ing this once, one of the better play-ers will comment on how the playing could be improved. More dynamics (fast/slow, and loud/soft), bellows fade, swapping in a chord for a single note, …. these are all likely suspects. Then the band would play it again, for a maximum of 3 times, and may-be it’s better! It could be a nice fea-ture of Jam Band sessions – tell us what you think about this or make some other suggestions.

The Jam Band was followed by Hermann Schmalzried playing his button box. Hermann explained that the button box is like two harmonicas combined into a single instrument. And just like a harmonica, a different tone is sounded when the air moves in vs. when the air moves out. For this reason, the music must conform to a special style to be playable on a button box. And many, many bellows reversals are required. Hermann’s instrument came from Austria, near Vienna. Hermann paid tribute to the late Joe Smiell who staged occasional button box camps in the local area and composed many tunes for button box, including some of the tunes that Hermann played for us. Titles of the pieces included Alpine Polka, Austrian Village, a couple of ländlers (folk dances in 4/4 time, that were popular around 1800), and a Boarischer (another folk dance style.) Hermann end-ed with Schneewaltzer (Snow Waltz). In case anyone is interested, there is a marvelous video of Andre Rieu + full orchestra in Milwaukee playing this piece (complete with fake snow falling on the audience!) https://g.co/kgs/MWRvpJ

Next up was Dennis Judd. Dennis has been playing accordion for about 10 years. He started with lessons from an old club member Irving Cordoza. Dennis played 5 tunes begin-ning with Quando Quando, Tick Tock Polka, and Rag Time March. Dennis ended with the classic tune from Disney’s Lady and the Tramp by Peggy Lee: Bella Notte, and Liechtensteiner Polka. Great selection Dennis – thanks for the performance.

Then we were privileged to hear a younger performer: Zane Sy-Quimsiam. Zane played a couple of tunes as a duet with his teacher Mike Zampiceni, from the book of accordi-on music for children written by Joe Zampiceni (Mike’s father – a VERY accomplished accor-dionist in the pre-guitar era when accordion music was popular.) Zane played confidently and very well. Here’s hoping we see him again for future accordion performances.

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Silicon Valley Accordion Society: Dues are due

It is that time of the year again, when we ask you to update your membership and annual dues. Many of you renewed your memberships at a higher level this past year and it was greatly appreciated and helped us get back to financial sta-bility and provided the opportunity to bring excellent featured players to share their talents with us.

There are three levels of membership again this year. (Continued on p.7)

After the break and raffle, we were treated to the first of two featured performances: the Paolozzi Tango Trio. http://www.paolozzitangotrio.com/266347293 This group was founded in 2012. Gianfranco Paolozzi com-poses the original tangos that the group plays. He has composed more than 60 to date. There is an interesting account of his process of composition on their website. His accordion is an important part of the process. The instrument he played for us was an Artigiana accordion, one of the Italian makers from Castelfidardo. Nancy Lane is the piano/keyboard player. She is a private music teacher for voice, composition and piano. She played a Roland J90 keyboard that she said was at least 10 years old. Griff Derryberry plays the violin and the viola. He is a member of the local Redwood Symphony orchestra, and in the theater orchestra for the Peninsula Youth Theater, in which his son also performs. The tangos that the group played were certainly evocative. One piece, titled The Mist, slipped between major mi-nor keys in a way that was very suggestive of mist moving across a landscape. Another piece was named Maya, after Ma-ya Lin, the architect and designer of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. Somehow, this piece managed to echo some of the controversy surrounding the memorial in addition to the basically somber topic of the memorial. All too soon, it was the Trio’s last piece, to make way for the second featured performers. If you would like to hear more music from the Trio, checkout their appearance dates at Café Frascati, San Jose. The final performers were a duet consisting of Lynn Ewing, the leader of the San Francisco Accordion Club, and Daniel Cher, a professional violinist and a relatively recent convert into the accordion world. Lynn and Daniel have appeared together at the San Francisco Club. On this occa-sion, Daniel alternated between accordion and his violin. It was a great combination, tailor-made for tango pieces too. As Lynn said, “Today is surely your day for tangos!” The duo began with a waltz, then switched to a piece composed by Stas Venglevski entitled Busy Fingers Tango. They continued with the very well known Waltz from the Masquerade Suite by Katchaturian. Daniel played the accordion for these pieces. Then Lynn announced that they would play an arrangement of pieces from West Side Story. The arrangement was by Daniel. She noted that, in addition to the famous choruses, they would also play the verse parts of the music. It might not immediately sound familiar. Daniel added that, coincidentally, this was Leonard Bern-stein’s hundredth birthday year – he was born on August 25, 1918. Amongst the themes they played were Maria, and I Feel Pretty. Their playing was wonderful genuine duets, a large step beyond playing in simple harmony (which many accordionists still find quite challenging!) Another piece composed by Stas Venglevski was Illusions. One of their final pieces was a French tune called Domino. The tune was a big hit all over Europe in 1950, and English language lyrics were added. Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Doris Day, …. all recorded versions. Daniel played the violin with this piece. It was very effective. This was a fantastic performance to end the meeting. Many thanks Lynn and Daniel.

ACCORDION CLUB MEETING SCHEDULES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Accordion Club of the Redwoods (ACR) meets on the third Monday of every other month beginning in February 2017. Herman & Sons Hall, 860 Western Avenue, Petaluma CA 94952. Contact: (707) 795-4060. Golden State Accordion Club (GSAC) has three divisions: The Napa Valley Chapter meets the second Thursday of the month at 6:30 PM, Runway Restaurant, 2044 Airport Rd, Napa, CA 94558. Contact George Bachich for more information, (707) 738-5276. The Humboldt Club meets on the third Tuesday, 7:00 PM., Humboldt Swiss Club, 5403 Tompkins Hill Road, Loleta, CA 95551. The Sacramento Club meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm at the Elks Lodge No.6,6446 Riverside Blvd, Sacrament,CA.. Contact for all the GSAC: Carole Enneking (707) 864-2359. Good Time Accordion Club (GTAC) meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM, Escalon Community Center, 1055 Escalon Ave., Escalon, CA 95320. Contact Ed Sciarini (209) 545-3603. Northern California Accordion Society (NCAS) meets on the first Wednesday of the month 6:30 PM 6365 Douglas Blvd., Lutheran Church Social Hall, Granite Bay, CA 95746. San Francisco Accordion Club (SFAC) meets on the third Sunday of the month 2:00 PM . Chetcuti Community Room, Civic Center Plaza, 450 Poplar Ave., Milbrae, CA 94030 ; Contact Lynn Ewing 650-453-3391. Silicon Valley Accordion Society (SVAS) meets on the first Sunday of the month, 1:00 PM at Harry’s Hofbrau, 390 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129. (between Kiely Blvd. and Stevens Creek Blvd. Contact: Bill Topogna (408) 984-5290.

♫ Who’s Playing??? ♫

William DeMichelis - Music with an accent, 408-375-0001, accordionist.sanjose@comcast.net Reno DiBono - plays the second Friday of each month at Montavalle in Scotts Valley, dancing to the Blue Moon Trio. Joe Domitrowich/AlpinersUSA - see www.alpinersusa.com or www.capricious-accordion.com or call 408-255-1259 Happy Days Band - Schedule Concerts with Ken Caple (408) 892-2760 Due Zighi Baci - Schedule Performances with Sheri Mignano at sherimignano@gmail.com Ernie Beran - Plays at the Tyrolean Inn Restaurant in Ben Lomond, CA every Saturday 6:00-9:00 pm Sunday 7 Band - Plays every first Friday of the month in Los Altos in front of Le Boulanger bakery on Main and Second in the down town area. Schedule Concerts with Bob Stanfield (650) 888-3701 Mike Zampiceni - Plays at O Sole Mio restaurant, Millbrae, 6:00-8:30 on Sundays. Also from April - Oct at the Tee Nee Thai restaurant, San Jose, on Friday nights. Gloria Gazave and Paul Aebersold, “Il Duetto Musica” - schedule performances with Paul Aebersold, at mazurkaman@yahoo.com

Coming Events at SVAS:

Sunday July 8, 2018

Doors open at 1:00 pm

1:00 - 1:30 Scheduled open play—contact Pam Kawashima

1:30 - 2:20 Bob Stanfield’s Sunday Seven band.

2:30 - 2:45 Rudi Pivk, Scheduled open play—contact Pam Kawashima.

3:00 - 3:30 Break and raffle

3:30 - 4:30 Mike Marotta, Dave Dally, Monterey International.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aug: Il Duetto Musica (Gloria Gazave & Paul Aebersold)

Sept: Nordahl Grieg Leikarring og Spele- mannslag, Norwegian Folk Dance group

Oct: Peter Di Bono Trio

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ACCORDION TEACHERS:

Peter Di Bono: San Francisco (415) 699-8674

Lynn Ewing: San Carlos (650) 867-2633 ewinglynn@gmail.com Lou Jacklich: San Lorenzo (510) 317-9510 Marian Kelly: Cupertino (650) 954-3711 Mike Zampiceni: Sunnyvale and Hayward (408) 569-2579 Mikezamp.com Ernie Beran: Aptos, (831) 238-4961 reeds@baymoon.com

SVAS BOARD of Directors / Officers

PRESIDENT: BILL TAPOGNA, 408 984-5290

VICE PRESIDENT: LOU BUONOMO, 650 940-1599

SECRETARY:

TREASURER: BOB STANFIELD , 650 888-3701

PROGRAM SCHEDULE: PAM KAWASHIMA pkawashima@outlook.com

DIRECTORS: SUE DOUGLAS DENNIS JUDD Board Committee Art Maggio Norma Parsons Dick Suidzinski

WEBMASTER: PAM KAWASHIMA pkawashima@outlook.com

NEWSLETTER Editor: SCOTT WILLIAMSON aswy01@gmail.com

NL Reporters: SUE DOUGLAS , MARCIA COULLAHAN, GORGIA SUTHERLAND, MARYBARBARA ZORIO

SILICON VALLEY ACCORDION SOCIETY JUNE 2018 Page 7

(Continued from page 5: Society dues now due.)

Platinum: $200 or more. No admission fees for meetings and festivals plus our monthly newsletter. Also free entry for family members and friends up to 3 adults each month. Gold: $125 or more. No admission fees for two adults and two free guest passes plus the monthly newsletter. Regular: $35 or more. Membership for one member and a guest. Requires $5 monthly admission fee per person plus receive our monthly newsletter. Please renew your membership this month or next month. Our fiscal year is from July 1 to June 30 each year. If you wish to mail in your membership, please provide your name(s), address, phone, email, and indicate if you would like to play your accordion at one of our meetings. Make your check out to SVAS, and mail your membership dues to Silicon Valley Accordion Society, PO Box 1513, Los Altos, CA 94023. Thank you, in advance, for your support to our club and for helping provide quality entertainment and encouragement of accordion music. We do have fun at our meetings! Bob Stanfield, Treasurer & Membership Chair Now the raffle: Bob Stanfield outdid himself (again!) by providing 12 prizes. The pace of finding winning tickets and choosing prizes was furious, so apologies if anyone’s photo is missing. Well done to Frank & Ann, Behzad, Sue (who re-ally enjoyes her carved bird ornament), Bernie and Marcia, George, Pam and John.

From around the accordion world: • We still have discounted tickets available to members for this year’s Cotati Accordion Festival, on August 18 and 19.

The discounted price of a one day admission is $15, and $25 for both days. You can read about the event at http://www.cotatifest.com/. Sheri Mignano is the student stage coordinator—the go-to person for application forms for stu-dent scholarships. More info at: http://www.cotatifest.com/index.php/11 –schedule-performers?start=12 The forms must be received by July 1st.

• The Leavenworth International Accordion Celebration is coming up fast: June 21- 24, in Leavenworth, WA. If any-one is planning to attend, please write-up a short account afterwards. It is quite an event, and would make an interest-ing read in the Newsletter.

• Do you know where this picture was taken? It is somewhere in the South Bay area. Thanks to Karen Buonomo for sending it in.

• On June 22nd, in Milwaukee, there will be an 8 mile, slow mov-ing, summer night ride through the South Side of Milwaukee’s his-toric Polish neighborhoods. There will be a pre-ride party, with an accordion band, AND a couple of complicated tandem bikes with an accordion player on the back! Now that has to be a unique way of celebrating cultural history.

The Annual Leavenworth Accordion Festival in Leavenworth, Washington is on June 21-24, 2018

Silicon Valley Accordion Society meetings held first Sunday of each month at Harry's Hofbrau, 390 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, corner of Kiely. Doors open at 1:00, music begins at 1:00 pm. Door fee $5 for members and $ 10.00 for non members, 16 years and under are free. - JOIN THE CLUB - Annual Memberships: Regular $ 35.00, Gold $ 125.00, Platinum $ 200.00

FIRST CLASS POSTAGE ♫

P.O. Box 1513

Los Altos, CA

94023

Newsletter of the