Andrй Verchuren

It was in fact a young Jean Hanger who watched his performance.Eugenia Lima is the ‘grand lady’ of the accordion in Portugal and gave us a taste of her style from this country which has a strong following of the accordion. The festival to date has seen 1200 accordionists from 26 countries, such is it’s international importance. For Claudine Aucher, the organiser, the celebrations were dampened by the recent loss through cancer at the age of 61 of close friend Pascal Sevran who was a French TV celebrity and fervent supporter of the accordion in his TV variety shows and references to him during her speeches clearly had a marked effect on her. As always, French accordion lover Jean and her husband Peter were great company throughout the weekend. Jean’s face glows all weekend at Chartres very much like the usual weather and the threatening storms failed to materialize and as always, Chartres seems to announce the arrival of summertime. Tom and Lillian Patterson flew in from Newcastle for the first time and I hope their time and expense were rewarded. Their company was certainly very much appreciated along with the other 14 Brits who attended. 

As usual, in an effort to cram in the activities during the weekend it is impossible to see everything, so the spectator has to make choices. Turning now to the artists themselves, there is always something for everybody and being the 20^th edition, there were definitely more artists invited this year especially for the Bal Musette scene. As always Belgium is well represented by the ever present Andrй Loppe and Laurent Pire who was last at Chartes many years back. The north of France which has it’s own unique accordion tradition was well represented by Dorothйe Lhoir, Carine Vigny and Claude Caron. For the record, the dancers were kept on their toes by a host of other top players such as Emmanuel Rolland, Stйphanie Moreaux, Matilde Royet, Bertrand Hembert, Delphine Lemoine, Jean-Marc Torchy, Frank Vilain, Renй Grolier, Renй Guy, Nelson, Didier Couturier and Gabriel Chantrieux. Three other surprise artists who turned up on the Sunday were two young virtuoso players Julien Gonzales and Benoоt Nortier and their ‘prof’ Frйdйric Deschamps who may be familier to some readers. 

Many accordionists in France, young and old, are being attracted to more ‘modern’ and ‘cool’ images for the accordion and in doing so introducing the instrument to a younger audience who feel the ‘bal musette’ scene is probably ‘dated’. One such player is Gabriel Chantrieux from the famous town of Le Mans. We caught him expressing himself as part of the ‘Kerar’s World’ group. Plenty of noise, smoke and provocatively dressed young girls around him on stage playing to a young audience in Place Marceau well into the night and no trouble whatsoever. The ‘Bal Musette’ clearly no longer has that ‘Sex Appeal’ with the young. It makes you feel old! 

Next we come to the ‘Prestige Concert’ which was held in the town hall. This is my world. It was nice to see a young Sabrina Riviиre again from the south west of France who is a hard worker but always seems to struggle with her confidence on stage. Nevertheless, an attractive girl with an attractive repertoire who’s mother never had the real chance to play the accordion when she was younger. Another fine player is Carine Vigny who is a pupil of Frйdйric Deschamps and now is a fully qualified music teacher. Another fine accordionist playing in the concert was Stйphanie Moreaux from La Rochelle on the west coast of France. She was part of ‘Trio Tango Argentin’ and no surprise they concentrated on tangos bringing the bandoneon, keyboard and clarinet together. I have left the best till last and for me this was a group of two guitarists and a drummer with Jean-Piиrre Mйnager on the accordion. The swing style is attractive to me and this group had perfect balance and they were really enjoying themselves, especially the drummer and Jean-Piиrre on the accordion playing standing up with his ‘Victoria’ just like Richard Galliano. As part of their programme they played ‘Libertango’ as hommage to Astor Piazzolla, a waltz in the swing style as hommage to Jo Privat and a Bossa Nova with improvisation not too overdone. I complimented him on his fantastic music afterwards and he pointed me to a Web site http://www.jazzmenko.com/ where more info and pictures of the group can be found. Needless to say, they were my latest discovery. 

Through Jean Hanger who has struck up a friendship with Claudine Aucher, all the Brits were invited to a cocktail party with all the artists including Andrй Verchuren in attendance. What an honour to be in the same room as the great man. He has had a tough life and a blessed one too. Probably the most recorded accordionist in France, if not the world who has been associated with many of the greatest singers of ‘French Chanson’ over the years. His popularity with the people of France will not be repeated as an accordionist and he will remain symbolic of Frenchness long after he dies. It was such a pity that Yvette Horner was not able to make it to the event which would have made for an extraordinary meeting of two great personalities. 

To make the annual trip to France more cost effective, I have travelled onto Tulle each year in the department of Corrиze with my father Fred to visit the Maugein accordion factory and the director Mr Renй Lachиze who always has a warm welcome and a cup of coffee ready and you never know who you might meet by chance. This year we discovered a Daniel Westwood from Hastings in Kent who has been working at the factory for 9 months on work experience in woodcraft. This year I chose to make some changes to the left hand registers on my accordion which would take two days to complete. This gave us the chance to relax in the area which is one of the remoter parts of France where the accordion tradition is strong. But don’t expect to find any accordion shops in town! Tulle is by the way the location for another week long festival of accordion in September called ‘Nuits de Nacre’. I haven’t been yet but it is fast becoming an important meeting place and cultural centre for the accordion and accordionists.

 Report by Paul Elliott

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