TERRY GROSS, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. I am Terry Gross. The music of Will Holshouser defies simple categorization. Streaming companies have variously filed his albums as jazz, people, even simple listening. There’s greater than a grain of reality to those classifications, however adjectives like elegant, ebullient and saucy match a lot better, and possibly bold. Holshouser is an accordionist, and his new recording, “The Lone Wild Fowl,” is a solo effort, a rarity for a virtuoso on his instrument. Martin Johnson has this assessment, and after Martin’s assessment, we’ll hear my interview with Holshouser. He introduced his accordion and performed.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “THE LONE WILD BIRD”)
MARTIN JOHNSON: Accordionist Will Holshouser has performed in all kinds of bands – from violinist Regina Carter’s jazz hybrid group Reverse Thread to singer/songwriters like Suzanne Vega and Rufus Wainwright, to klezmer bands, to his personal trio, Musette Explosion. On his newest recording, “Lone Wild Fowl,” he goes it alone, solo. The austere setting permits Holshouser to actually showcase the sound of his instrument and its versatility. Within the hymn-like observe that we simply heard, it may be solemn and pensive, nevertheless it will also be boisterous and joyful.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “OURO PRETO”)
JOHNSON: The setting additionally permits us to listen to the interior workings of his instrument. Beneath the accordion sound are grunts and huffs from the air that will get pumped inside it. On the observe Avery, he shakes the bellows on the instrument to create a rhythmic underpinning for the tune, nearly as if he was accompanied by somebody on the washboard.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “AVIARY”)
JOHNSON: Holshouser grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He’s the son of two ministers, so hymns have been an early a part of his musical food regimen. He was finding out jazz piano and turned to accordion when a university pal gave him one as a present. He was fascinated by the mechanics of the instrument and its versatility. It was a cornerstone in people musics from New Orleans to Madagascar. And Holshouser, who’s 56, was discovering his approach via his instrument’s vary at a time when unique music was quickly turning into extra accessible by way of the recording growth of the ’80s and ’90s and the rise of the web shortly thereafter. It’s this number of music that’s mirrored on “Lone Wild Fowl.” Holshouser’s unique “Three Glasses” is a minor key and intimate tribute to composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “THREE GLASSES”)
JOHNSON: Holshouser’s jazz roots are a outstanding a part of this system. “Blue Waters” displays his curiosity in counterpoint, and it has a bluesy really feel. It is a tribute to jazz organ nice Jimmy Smith. You won’t get the collard greens and cornbread that Smith’s music usually evoked, however you’ll be able to really feel the soulful grit.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “BLUE WATERS”)
JOHNSON: Holshouser’s jazz curiosity additionally led him to the standard hymn “Abide With Me.” The music dates again to the nineteenth century, however legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk recorded an all-horns association. It made the accordionist ponder, what wouldn’t it have seemed like if Monk performed the piano on the observe? You may hear a few of this concept right here.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “ABIDE WITH ME”)
JOHNSON: For a lot of music followers, the accordion will recall to mind the music of the Celtic punk rockers The Pogues, and Holshouser touches on the Irish traditions on “Reel To Reel,” a tune written partly by his brother-in-law, who makes violins and performed in a band along with his father, a first-generation Irish immigrant.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “REEL TO REEL”)
JOHNSON: There aren’t many guidelines for what you’ll be able to and can’t do on a solo accordion recording, nevertheless it appears important to handle the Cajun custom, and Holshouser covers the New Orleans waltz “Chez Seychelles” in tandem with “Balfa Waltz” to shut out the stellar recording.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILL HOLSHOUSER’S “CHEZ SEYCHELLES / BALFA WALTZ”)
GROSS: Martin Johnson writes about jazz for the Wall Road Journal and DownBeat. He reviewed “The Lone Wild Fowl” by Will Holshouser. I recorded an interview with Holshouser a couple of years in the past, throughout which he performed his accordion. We’ll hear that after a break. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: That is FRESH AIR. Now that we have heard Martin Johnson’s enthusiastic assessment of the brand new solo album “The Lone Wild Fowl,” by accordion participant Will Holshouser, let’s hear from Holshouser. I spoke with him in 2014 when his album “Introducing Musette Explosion” was launched. It options French waltzes and dances, in addition to unique songs within the musette model. He introduced his accordion to the studio and performed.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
GROSS: Since I feel most individuals haven’t got an accordion at house and do not get to see accordion very a lot, I am assuming lots of people aren’t actually acquainted with what an accordion can actually do and the way it works. So give us somewhat tour of your very lovely accordion.
WILL HOLSHOUSER: Nicely, positive. Nicely, on the precise aspect, there is a keyboard. It appears to be like like a piano keyboard. And these keys – once you push a key, it opens a valve within the accordion, and that enables air to go over steel reeds, that are contained in the field. So…
(SOUNDBITE OF ACCORDION WHOOSHING)
HOLSHOUSER: The nickname for it – one nickname for it’s the squeezebox. In order you progress the bellows backwards and forwards, that generates the air. After which once you push the keys on the precise hand or the buttons on the left hand, that lets the air via, and the reeds sound. So my accordion has 4 units of reeds. It will probably play very low notes on the precise hand…
(Enjoying accordion).
…Or very excessive notes should you hit a – there’s these register switches. You may change the reed financial institution that is activated.
(Enjoying accordion).
After which there are two center units of reeds, that are barely detuned.
(Enjoying accordion).
And you can even play all 4 units collectively.
(Enjoying accordion).
After which the left hand has buttons, which in the usual accordion system are bass notes and chords.
(Enjoying accordion).
And this was made, invented within the nineteenth century to play music that did that…
(Enjoying accordion).
…European music. And it is all primarily based, in fact, across the European tonal system. That system is named Stradella. There is a city in Italy referred to as Stradella the place it was invented. So it is lots of enjoyable. It is a very versatile instrument with a really big selection and extensive dynamics. The dynamics come from the bellows, which – it is usually mentioned the bellows within the accordion is just like the bow of a violin. That is the place you get dynamics, expression and a complete host of different results.
GROSS: So manipulate the bellows in another way to present us a way of how the tone adjustments relying on the way you’re – what is the verb for what you do with the bellows (laughter)? What’s the precise verb?
HOLSHOUSER: Bellowing
GROSS: Bellowing, all proper (laughter).
HOLSHOUSER: I suppose, however yeah. Nicely, , it is principally dynamics. However you’ll be able to – the sound of the notice does change as you alter the air strain.
(Enjoying accordion).
GROSS: In order that’s going from sluggish to quick, when it comes to what you are doing with the bellows?
HOLSHOUSER: Yeah, as you push tougher, it will get louder, as you push extra air throughout the reed. And there is some particular results. When you open the valve midway and push the air actually arduous, it could possibly bend the pitch.
(Enjoying accordion).
GROSS: Wow.
HOLSHOUSER: (Laughter).
GROSS: I did not know you can bend notes on accordion. To bend notes on a keyboard instrument…
HOLSHOUSER: Yeah.
GROSS: …That is not a synthesizer, that is fairly (laughter)…
HOLSHOUSER: Proper.
GROSS: Fairly good. So I ought to ask you to play a tune for us.
HOLSHOUSER: OK.
GROSS: And your new album, “Introducing Musette Explosion,” is all musette, which is a kind of French tune. Inform us what the style is.
HOLSHOUSER: Nicely, it is principally French dance corridor music from the primary half of the twentieth century. And it is lead – accordion is the lead instrument. Guitar can also be essential. And one of many commonplace types in this sort of music is the waltz, and to us as Individuals, it sounds iconically French. However then should you look beneath the floor, it truly has a really multicultural household tree.
So it started with French peasants in Paris taking part in an instrument referred to as the musette, which was truly somewhat bagpipe. After which round 1900, there was a wave of Italian immigrants who introduced the accordion and lots of their music to Paris. And so they type of took over the dance halls. The accordion turned the lead instrument. The bagpipe was forgotten however left its title to the style, musette. And there have been additionally a big Roma Gypsy inhabitants in France, and so they contributed lots of their model to this style additionally. Some individuals say that Roma guitarists have been the primary ones to put in writing waltzes in minor keys, which turned a basic musette sound.
GROSS: Within the custom that Django Reinhardt was from?
HOLSHOUSER: Precisely. His first gig was taking part in banjo in musette dance bands.
GROSS: Banjo? Wow.
HOLSHOUSER: Yeah.
GROSS: Oh. You’ve got banjo – your guitar participant, Matt Munisteri, performs banjo on a few of the tracks.
HOLSHOUSER: That is proper.
GROSS: In your album. Oh, OK, OK.
HOLSHOUSER: Yeah. Yeah.
GROSS: So you must play one of many musettes out of your album for us. Do you need to do “Swing Valse”?
HOLSHOUSER: Certain. That sounds nice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ACCORDION CLICKING)
GROSS: What are you doing to your accordion (laughter)?
HOLSHOUSER: Oh, I used to be simply ensuring that I had the precise register on.
GROSS: OK.
HOLSHOUSER: As a result of you’ll be able to – relying on which register you’ve, you may get, , in a unique octave. Each has a form of completely different sound or a unique taste.
GROSS: OK. And that is my visitor, Will Holshouser.
HOLSHOUSER: All proper. That is “Swing Valse,” written by Baro Ferret and Gus Viseur.
(Enjoying accordion).
GROSS: That is nice. That is simply so lovely.
HOLSHOUSER: Thanks.
GROSS: So how have been you first launched to the songs often called musette?
HOLSHOUSER: By reissues that got here out within the Nineteen Nineties – there’s an incredible label in France referred to as Fremeaux And Associates. So I heard them, and I used to be struck by this music and type of blown away by – how do they get these sounds out of the accordion? And Matt Munisteri, my pal, felt the identical approach. And that is form of how we began taking part in collectively. We have been each keen on French musette. And it is so expressive, virtuosic. It is an uncommon kind of a few of these tunes, particularly swing valse, are hybrids of jazz and French music. So when a few of these French musette musicians fell in love with jazz within the ’20s and ’30s, they started to put in writing these hybrid tunes that have been – and therefore the title swing valse – impressed by the American information that they have been loopy about.
GROSS: We’ll hear extra of my interview with Will Holshouser, and he’ll play extra music, after a break. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: That is FRESH AIR. Let’s get again to the interview I recorded with accordion participant Will Holshouser in 2014, after the discharge of his album “Introducing Musette Explosion.” He has a brand new solo album referred to as “The Lone Wild Fowl.”
There’s one thing very old school and avant-garde in regards to the accordion, and me – so if I can clarify that (ph), it appears old school as a result of on this period of, like, digital devices and every thing, like, you are bodily pumping air into it, ? You are doing it manually to get the air over the reeds to create the sound. However there’s one thing type of avant-garde about it as a result of you may get all these actually uncommon overtones via this array of buttons, nearly as if it was some type of both synthesizer or organ the place you are – , you are simply creating uncommon harmonics.
HOLSHOUSER: It is true. And particularly, yeah, dissonance on the accordion, taking part in notes very shut collectively, can deliver out these overtones. And there is a complete vary of results you may get.
GROSS: Go, present us some results you may get.
HOLSHOUSER: All proper, properly, this is a – this is some very excessive notes with particular overtones.
(Enjoying accordion).
And should you shake the bellows, you may make it…
(Enjoying accordion).
…Shimmer like that. You are able to do these bending notes, like I confirmed you earlier than.
(Enjoying accordion).
There’s form of cluster – good clusters you may get.
(Enjoying accordion).
Let your hand…
GROSS: I like that.
(LAUGHTER)
HOLSHOUSER: …Flop round on the keyboard like a fish. There’s rhythmic issues you are able to do with the bellows.
(Enjoying accordion).
Generally, once I play for my daughter’s class, I will do a prepare impact, and the youngsters like that.
(Enjoying accordion).
GROSS: I like that, too.
HOLSHOUSER: (Enjoying accordion).
GROSS: (Laughter).
HOLSHOUSER: Anyway, so yeah, that is – and that is executed by shaking the bellows backwards and forwards. So yeah, there are every kind of issues. You are able to do – , you should utilize the breath, the respiratory sound.
(Enjoying accordion).
And also you simply heard the bellows type of squeezing, flopping collectively. So yeah, there’s a complete bunch of results you may get.
GROSS: I find it irresistible. I find it irresistible. There’s an unique tune I will ask you to play that you simply do in your new album “The Musette Explosion.” And that is an unique tune within the model of a French musette. And it is referred to as “Chanson Pop,” which interprets to pop tune.
HOLSHOUSER: Sure.
GROSS: So would you speak about composing it? And there is two completely different components to the tune. It is, like, a six-minute piece on the recording. I will ask you to play an excerpt of the opening melody, after which we’ll speak about that, after which we’ll play an excerpt. I will ask you to play an excerpt from deeper in.
HOLSHOUSER: OK.
GROSS: So – however give us an summary of this piece and writing it and what your intention was.
HOLSHOUSER: Nicely, one of many sorts of labor that I’ve actually loved doing as an accordionist in New York over the past, , 20 years or so is accompanying singers, and I’ve had nice pleasure to accompany some singers that do French repertoire from the chanson custom, which, in fact, simply means tune. But it surely’s – for instance, essentially the most well-known exponent of the Chanson custom is Edith Piaf.
And for some time, I used to be taking part in with an incredible singer from France named Michel Ermont (ph), and I used to be the one accompanist. It was actually enjoyable as a result of I used to be – it was simply vocals and accordion, so I used to be the complete backdrop. And he would – he was superb at teaching me in growing these accompaniments. And he mentioned, a tune – considered one of these songs is sort of a film. So this verse is one scene, and you’ll want to create a backdrop. Possibly it is, like, a sunny day or one thing. Then the subsequent verse or the subsequent a part of the tune is completely completely different. Create a unique backdrop.
So to me, studying about that custom – which is somewhat completely different from the musette custom. The musette custom is extra the waltzes, the dances, the dance music, and the chanson custom is extra the poetic songwriting. There’s some overlap, however this piece, I used to be considering of a few of these Piaf songs and probably not attempting to mimic them however form of attempting to faucet into the great grandiosity of a few of these items. So I will play the opening melody first.
GROSS: Good. Sure.
HOLSHOUSER: OK.
(Enjoying accordion).
GROSS: Oh that is lovely. And that is Will Holshouser in our studio, taking part in the opening of his tune “Chanson Pop.” And I do know you mentioned that that is primarily based on, like, chanson, French tune. To me, it sounds prefer it’s additionally primarily based on hymns.
HOLSHOUSER: OK.
GROSS: And I do know that your father was a minister.
HOLSHOUSER: That is proper.
GROSS: And I think about you heard lots of hymns rising up. Do you hear somewhat hymn-like high quality in that piece?
HOLSHOUSER: You are a really perceptive listener.
GROSS: Aren’t I?
HOLSHOUSER: Sure (laughter), completely. And that is actually – for me, that is nearly the start – very starting of my musical life, my curiosity in music, goes to church as a child and listening to these hymns and feeling one thing stirring inside me that I could not describe – , feeling nearly, like, a type of reality or one thing that was a really direct expertise and that I actually could not put into phrases.
GROSS: Was it a mix of gorgeous music in a sacred place?
HOLSHOUSER: I feel so, yeah. It was, , clearly individuals coming collectively to be quiet and to consider severe issues. And the – my first music trainer was the artist in residence at our church, and he wrote jazz for the companies. His title is Douglas Cook dinner (ph), and he wrote very lovely, very dissonant, meditative jazz that might be within the companies. So for me, that is the start of lots of my – what I like about music is the hymns, the music that Doug wrote in our service. And to me, it is – music – that is what’s nice about music is it is this inside language that we are able to all share. It is accessible to everyone.
GROSS: My interview with Will Holshouser was recorded in 2014. He has a brand new solo accordion album referred to as “The Lone Wild Fowl.” Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we’ll speak about how JD Vance rose from a struggling Ohio metal city to Yale Regulation Faculty to Enterprise Capital and now the vice presidency. Alongside the best way, he shed previous convictions and adopted new ones, some deeply divisive. We’ll speak with Atlantic journal staffwriter George Packer about Vance’s transformation and what it reveals about the way forward for American politics. I hope you will be part of us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: To maintain up with what’s on the present and get highlights of our interviews, comply with us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR’S government producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with extra engineering right now from Adam Staniszewski. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and critiques are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visible producer is Hope Wilson (ph). Roberta Shorrock directs the present. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I am Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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