On Thursday, July 7, 2016 amidst the excitement of AAA’s “Buffalo Squeeze-Fest” just beginning, a small group of AAA Board Members including Frank Busso, Sr., Don Gerundo and myself accompanied young jazz accordionist Will Comer to Kenmore East High School in Buffalo.

We went to watch Will perform for a group of appreciative participants of a summer music camp run by Kenmore East’s beloved band director, Phil Aguglia. Phil, (who is also the Chairman of the Board of Music is Art in Buffalo), provided the AAA with students from Kenmore East to embellish the Youth Involvement Program’s jazz ensemble directed this year at festival by Mitch Guido. Eager to introduce the accordion to his students, this Grammy nominated music teacher jumped at the chance to have Will Comer perform for his summer camp students.

And perform he did! This was an impromptu performance by Will, who will be entering Rutger’s University this fall to study jazz. He is also the winner of the 2016 Elsie Bennett Junior Composition Competition. Will charmed the audience with his easy going, energetic and engaging style. After an introduction to the accordion for the young crowd of high schoolers, explaining how the instrument works and demonstrating its unique properties, Will soloed for the crowd. He played several jazz standards, among them: “Love,” “Take Ten,” “Fly Me To The Moon,” and “Bye, Bye Blackbird.” He also played “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.” He performed a classical accordion piece: “Remembering A Legend,” written in memory of Charles Magnante by AAA board member Bill Schimmel. In between, Will took questions from the audience about the instrument.

Once the students recognized that the accordion could stand alone as a vehicle of entertainment, it was Phil Aguglia who surprised all of us by bringing out several of his students on sax, trumpet, bass and drums respectively. They played several jazzy/bluesy pieces together and Will quickly rose to the challenge of “backing” them on accordion. The audience watched Will demonstrate that the instrument can blend beautifully with others in a jazz ensemble format. The silent “communication” between the young players was evident, and they delivered a nice “on the spot” performance.

The AAA’s Youth Programming Committee chaired by Don Gerundo that includes Dallas Vietty and myself, has discovered the power of directly reaching out to youth on “their turf.” This effort can only happen when school personnel are willing to step outside the norm and provide a unique opportunity for their students and when the accordion world can deliver fine performances by young people on accordion.

This effort has already taken off successfully in Pennsylvania with Dallas Vietty delivering workshops to high schoolers there. Other outreach efforts are under consideration for New York and Connecticut.

We all have a responsibility to ensure that as the song goes….. the beat goes on….

So proud of you, Will!