harold & helen estok founders of a.l.s.i. · sound required of a jazz accordion. it sounded...

until perfected and then work on memorization.

Here is an interesting music term: "Plagal Ca-dence" This is a cadence used in song harmony or endings where a IVchord built on the 4th scale tone is played fol-lowed by the I chord or tonic chord built on the 1st scale tone. Ex-ample: in the key of F major a IV (Bb Major) is followed by a I (F Ma-jor) chord. This pro-gression may appear in the melody during a song or used at the end-ing of a song.

Hope to see you all in good cheer for the new year.

Regards, Gordon —

by Gordon Kohl

Happy New Year !

A.L.S.I, begins anoth-er exciting year for San Diego County accordi-onists and friends of the accordion. A monthly Reed Block newsletter highlights performers, concerts, showcases, music workshops and good notes about playing accordion music and happenings at the club. Do not miss out on the fun and be sure to renew your member-ship and subscription and also, let others know we are here. This year we will include our regular

functions of having a June picnic, Oktober-fest and Heritage Day festival. These, plus new adventures will be coming your way in 2015. All friends of mu-sic are welcome and they are encouraged to come to our monthly meetings on the second Sunday afternoons at 1:00 PM. We usually have a refreshment break between 2:00 and 2:30 and conclude meetings between 3:30 and 4:00 pm.

I would like to en-courage the shy and be-ginner accordionists to try playing as a Mystery Player between 12:30 and 1:00 PM at Bailey Hall. Playing as often as possible will improve your confidence, tech-nique and stage pres-ence. Lets all bring our accordions to our Janu-ary 11th meeting and play those new solos. I recommend playing so-los with your music first

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

JANUARY 2015

January 2015Volume 22 Issue 1

NEWSLETTER

Inside this issue:

President’s Message

1

General Information

2

Happiness at ALSI

3

Concert Review 5&8

Directory 9

Calendar 9

Playing Around 9

December ALSIPhotos

4

Accordion News 8

Accordion Music“Let It Snow”

6-7

Harold & Helen Estok Founders of A.L.S.I.

President:Gordon Kohl619-395-0454

Presidents Emeriti:(Founder) Harold Estok

Ron GriffinKjell HolmesGloria Ensign

Vice President:Mary Lou Erwin

619-448-9588

Meeting Coordinator:Bill Barr

619-337-1111

Corresponding Secretary:Marian Sowell619-448-4174

Treasurer &Ensemble Director:

Vicki Eriqat619-563-5586

Recording Secretary:Sharon Marotte

619-286-3948

Newsletter/Webmaster: Bob Page

760--815-4783

A.L.S.I. is on

the WEB at:

www.accordion-

club-sandiego.org

GENERAL INFORMATION

MEMBERSHIPS: New membership and renewal for year 2015 are; the fee is $100 Gold, $25 U.S.A., $26 Canada, $27 for International delivery. For new members; partial year memberships can be purchased. Make check or mon-ey order payable to ALSI and send to: Helen Estok Schoell, at P.O. Box 151357 San Diego, CA 92175. The REED BLOCK is published once each month. Your input to the REED BLOCK is invited and should be submitted to Helen Estok Schoell or email to Bob Page at [email protected] or email to Mary Lou Erwin at: [email protected]: Unless otherwise indicated, all articles were written by the Editor. Unless so stated, no article is to be construed as an endorsement and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or ALSI. CUT-OFF DATE: All contributors to The REED BLOCK please note: For next month all material is due two weeks before the next meeting, accordingly the due date for the February 2015 issue is: January 29th. This in-cludes all items such as articles, upcoming events, playing around, accordion workshops, advertisements and ensemble schedules. Please submit your input to Helen Estok Schoell (at above ALSI address) or email to Bob Page at [email protected] or Mary Lou Erwin at [email protected]. Thank you for your cooperation. ADVERTISEMENTS: Members may place one small ad per year at no charge, business cards are $6/per issue or $60/per year, quarter-page is $15/per issue, half -page is $25/per issue, full -page is $50/per issue, one -page event flyer is $25/per issue. Cost is doubled for non -members. (All ads must be accordion related).MEETINGS: The club normally meets at 1:00 - 4:00 P.M. on the second Sunday of each month at the Mt Miguel Cov-enant Village, 325 Kempton Ave, Spring Valley, CA. Our next Meeting will feature small groups such as duets/trios performing on Sunday, January 11th from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at Mt. Miguel Covenant Village in Bailey Hall.STEERING COMMITTEE; Next meeting is on Wednesday, January 14th, 10:30—12:00 pm in the Coco’s Res-taurant in Mission Gorge area. (NOTE: MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY!).

ALSI MEMBERSHIP OR RENEWAL APPLICATION FORM

(Attention: All 2015 renewals are now due, per club by-laws)

Membership/Newsletter Subscription for 2015 (please print)

Date__________________ New___ Renewal___ Address Change___ Gold ____

Name___________________________________________________________________________________________First Last Spouse First

Address__________________________________________________________________________________________City State Zip Code

Telephone ( _____ ) -_______________ email address___________________________________________

Make Check or Money Order payable to ALSI (Yearly membership fees: $25-USA, $26-Canada, $27-International, $100-Gold)

Mail to: ALSI/REED BLOCK c/o Helen Estok Schoell P.O. Box 151357 San Diego, CA 92175

Call 619-584-4970 for questions

Volume 22 Issue 1

HAPPINESS AT ALSI

HAPPINESS at ALSIBy Sharon Marotte

Our December 14th ALSI meeting was again, a fun day. It was a cool, crisp day but warm inside Bailey Hall. Jane Ford was there early to set up her pretty table decorations. Bob, the cus-todian at Mt Miguel, is always so helpful arranging chairs & tables for us & Jack Marotte set up the sound equipment. Players around the Village were: Crider – Steve Halpern, Brandel – Vicki Eriqat, Cafeteria – Gordon Kohl. Bob Warner was the MC, assisted by Bill Barr.

-The ALSI Ensemble played right at 1 pm. Their songs were: Jingle Bells, Feliz Navidad, Jingle Bell Rock, Sil-ver Bells, Rocking Around the Christ-mas Tree, Silent Night, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Hanukah, Oh Han-ukah. Vicki Eriqat was our director, Lois Lahoud was on percussion in-struments. The group looked sharp in black vests, black pants, white shirts & red bow ties. Santa hats were hung on the front of the music stands which looked good and colorful.

-Juergen Rosenfeld played sev-eral Christmas songs – White Christ-mas, Jingle Bells, O Holy Night, O Christmas Tree, O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night, Auf Weidersein. He sang some songs in German.

-Bob Page & Jane Ford played as a beautiful duet – September Song & White Christmas. These two play good

music together.-Al Jacobs played a song that he

wrote in 1946, called Strange Fascina-tion. His other songs were Rudolf as well as songs from Mexico – Chiapan-ecas, Feliz Navidad, and a French song. There are over 30+ songs with girls names so he played a couple for us.

-Ron Griffin played Amore & Pretty Paper. He was joined by Gor-don Kohl for a duet – White Christ-mas. Very nice!!

We enjoyed lots of Christmas goodies/desserts that people brought to share for our coffee break. Several folks from Mt Miguel Village joined us to enjoy our Showcase by the Frank Petrilli trio. We had a good audience which was very much appreciated.

Before the Frank Petrilli Trio con-cert, while Kjell Holmes was making last minute repairs to his accordion, the picture below shows Frank Petrilli mak-ing the final adjustments to Kjell’s accor-dion. Thank you very much Frank for your gracious help. —

HAPPINESS PHOTOS

Volume 22 Issue 1

CONCERT REVIEW

FRANK PETRILLI CONCERT

December 14, 2014

by Bob Warner

It was with considerable anticipation that we waited for this concert at the end of our year. Most of us did not know Frank Petrilli but our president, Gordon Kohl, did. It was fortunate for us because Frank

served up a performance that exceeded all expectations. His program, as a trio sup-ported by two terrific sidemen on acoustic bass and drums, soared through a jazz rep-ertoire of the highest caliber. During the program I sometimes shut my eyes and thought, “that could be Frank Marocco up there or it could be Art Van Damme”. No, it was Frank Petrilli right up there with the best in the business. His new jazz model Petosa accordion was specifically designed by Petosa to enhance the full, smooth sound required of a jazz accordion. It sounded great. Frank gave his side men many opportunities to solo during a piece and they came through in great fashion.

They sounded as if they had been playing together for years.

Frank’s first tune was “WATCH WHAT HAPPENS”, a familiar sounding composition that many have heard but perhaps did not know the name. It moves with a great bouncy rhythm with variations woven into the melody. Frank’s competence on the keyboard was immediately evident with his clean playing and dexterity coupled with a smooth, relaxed presentation. “SOFTLY AS THE SUN RISES” was another jazz standard that begins with a medium beat and beauti-ful jazz chords. This arrangement had a nice swing to it, very danceable. The melody was supported by big chord phrasing followed by variations running the keyboard and a lot of good backup. Following this, a Jimmy Van Heusen’s tune called “IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU” starts slowly with big chords and goes into a swing tempo. These are all tunes I have heard before but never retained the names. In Marocco fashion, Frank uses a lot of chords throughout but keeps running the keyboard with great improvisations. The bass player and drummer introduced them-selves with superb solos in this arrange-ment.

Next the group played a song popular-ized by Tony Bennett, a slow ballad with a memorable melody around which this group wove its jazz improvisations. The bass play-er actually played the melody for his break. I can see why Tony Bennett liked this piece. “MEDITATION”, by Antonio Carlos Jobim, a prolific composer of compositions out of the ordinary scored a big hit with this beau-tiful piece. The trio really got into this num-ber. Another familiar piece followed,

(Continued on page 8 )

ACCORDION MUSIC — “Let It Snow” page 1

Volume 22 Issue 1

ACCORDION MUSIC — “Let It Snow” page 2

ACCORDION NEWS/EVENTS

The young accordion virtuoso, Gray-son Masefield, will be making his first appearance at the upcoming Las Vegas International Accordion Convention on June 22—25, later this Summer. This New Zealand native has made significant impact on the accordion world with re-cent world-wide tour performances and achieving the distinction of being a five time world champion winner. He also was the first person to have won two catego-ries of competition at the prestigious Coupe Mondiale competition in 2009. —

COUPE MONDIALE (2014) RESULTS Held in Salzburg, Austria Oct 22-Nov 3.Senior Prize— Vitaly Kondratenko(Russian Federation)Masters Prize— Wenyl Wu (China)Junior Virtuoso Prize— Jean Baptiste Baudin (France)Digital Prize— Matthias Matzke (Germany)Mozart Prize— Duo of Karolina Mikola-jczyk & Iwo Jedynecki (Poland)

(continued from page 5)

“SPEAK LOW” where the accordion intro-duced the melody with a loud, clear voic-ing. Bass and drum solos added to the pace of the Latin beat here. Another Jimmy Van Heusen tune, “LIKE SO I’M IN LOVE” is a piece I hadn’t heard before but it had be-come a jazz standard right down Frank’s alley. This was followed by “PURE IMAGI-NATION”, a jazz waltz, from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The finishing number, “YOU WOULD BE SO NICE TO COME HOME TO”, by Cole Porter, took off in a fast swing tempo with improvisations from all three players but with the accordion leading. Every key-board technique one might use was exhibit-ed in Frank’s arrangement. His clean, accu-rate playing was outstanding. The bass and drums brought it all together.

For an encore we heard “NATURE BOY” in an arrangement dedicated to Frank Petrilli by Frank Marocco. It had the Marocco signature starting at a nice medi-um tempo. The trio had a great time with this arrangement.

It’s difficult to tell you in words what we heard here today. There’s neither time nor space. The professionalism of this group was outstanding. But, buy one of Frank’s CD’s and you will find out. If you hear about any of his gig’s make an effort to get there. It will be worth your time and effort.

Thank you Frank and the trio for giving us a wonderful year-end concert. We were certainly given a memorable perfor-mance —

CONCERT REVIEW—continued

Volume 22 Issue 1

ALSI MEETING CALENDAR

PLAYING AROUND

“Please share date,

time and location

of public appear-

ances. Submit

these, in writing,

complying with the

cut-off date, to

Mary Lou Erwin or

Bob Page.”

Louis Fanucchi

Most Tues-day’s at Café Zucchero in Little Italy from 7-10.Every other Wednesdays

at Romescos in Bonita. Most Saturdays and Sundays from 2-5 pm at Salerno’s Winery in Ra-mona.. (More info. at 619-948-3774 or online at www.loufanucchi.com)

Gordon Kohl

Plays Casuals, Weddings Dances and Special Events. Gordon’s Combo is noted for their repertoire of eth-

nic music such as Italian, French, Ger-man and Latin, Their specialty is Private Parties & Dancing Music.

(For more information and future availability. please call Gordon at: 619-395-0454.)

(

C U S T O M C R A F T E D —

January 11thMonthly meeting with small groups

such as duets/trios performing.Gordon Kohl leads workshop

after refreshment break.

February 8thMonthly meeting with Showcase by

Sharon Marotte (w/ different instruments).

March 8thMonthly meeting with a showcase by

the ALSI Ensemble.

April 12thMonthly meeting with a workshop

held by Gordon Kohl.

May 1stMonthly meeting with a workshop

held by Bob Page.

VENDOR SERVICES

Monthly Newsletter

ALSI Statement Of

Purpose:

� ALSI is San Diego’s forum for appreciat-ing and performing accordion music, including the MIDI electronic accordion

� We welcome mem-bers who enjoy lis-tening to or playing accordion music.

� We have an accordi-on ensemble group, monthly meetings, local concerts featur-ing local and interna-tionally famous per-formers, an annual picnic and a monthly newsletter.

JANUARY 2015

EDITION

The REED BLOCKc/o Helen Estok Schoell

P.O. Box 151357San Diego, CA 92175

At Mt. Miguel CovenantVillage in

Spring Valley

MeetingFrom

1:00 to 4 :00 pm.

On January 11thJoin us at the ALSI gathering as we enjoy our monthly meeting with soloists and small

groups performing movie themes and a Gordon Kohl Workshop after the break

in Bailey Hall.

MOVIETHEMES

harold & helen estok founders of a.l.s.i. · sound required of a jazz accordion. it sounded...

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