June is National Accordion Awareness Month (NAAM). National Accordion Awareness Month was established in 1989 to promote the accordion, help spread the word about the resurgence in popularity in the accordion and to educate people about the accordion. Tom Torriglia of San Francisco, CA. established the month of June as National Accordion Awareness Month. (Photo left)
Did you know?
1. The piano accordion is the official musical instrument of the city of San Francisco and has been since 1990.
2. Actress Lucy Liu plays the accordion
3. Guitarist Nils Lofgren started on the accordion.
4. Billy Joel and Barry Manilow also play the accordion.
5. The accordion is a member of the reed family, not the keyboard family.
6. The first United States-made piano accordion (ones with the keys on it) was manufactured in San Francisco back in 1907. It was at the Guerrini Accordion Company on DuPont St. (Grant Ave., near Columbus Ave.)
7. In addition to the piano accordion, the accordion family also includes Cajun button boxes, chromatic and diatonic button accordions, the concertina, the bayan, and the bandoneon.
8. Shania Twain’s immensely popular Come On Over CD has accordion on a couple of tracks. Los Lobos. Bruce Hornsby plays the accordion and uses it in shows. Counting Crows uses accordion a lot. In San Francisco, the show Forever Tango was a huge hit and featured two bandoneonists.
9. China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of accordions in the world.
10. The cities of Detroit, Skokie, Illinois, and St. Paul, Minnesota have designated the accordion as their official instrument
11. Singer Bobby McFarrin works frequently with accordionist Gil Goldstein.
12. John Smoltz is a Major league baseball player who plays the accordion.
13. Famous people who played the accordion: Richard Nixon and H. Ross Perot; actors James Stewart, Drew Carey and Charlie Chaplin; novelists Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy; baseball pitcher John Smoltz; and Mahatma Gandhi.
15. Former Boston Celtics player Tony Lavelli (1926-1998) used to play his accordion at half time.
16. Elvis Presley played the accordion.
For more information:
Tom Torriglia, Tom@ladyofspain.com
