News, July 2013
July Meeting Announcement.
The ACR Board of Directors will be trying something new in July. We will be having a daytime meeting on the afternoon of Saturday July 27th. That’s right, a daytime meeting with a lunch! We will start at 12:30pm at the Herman Sons Hall in our normal meeting room. The menu will be Sausage, peppers and onions on buns. Unusual donations are in place. $5.00 for meeting and lunch. There will be dancing, the floor is small, so eat hearty and hold your partner close. Please do not confuse the order of eating and dancing.
2013 Coupe Mondiale Accordion Competition and Festival, August 17th-25th
The 66th Annual Coupe Mondiale to be held in in Victoria, BC and Hosted by the BC Accordion Society. This years prize budget exceeds over $50,000. For information about tickets to events, all inclusive “Early Bird” discount packages, accommodations please contact via e-mail: coupe2013@gmail.com. For more information visit the Coupe Mondiale Website
Entertainment, July 2013
Sheri Mignano and Xavier de la Prade
Sheri and Xavier delighted us for a little after dinner jamming.
Michael Van Why and Sheri Mignano
Sheri and Micheal entertained us with ‘Luna Caprese’, ‘Terra Straniera’, and many, many more. What a treat!
Christa Durand and Sheri, again
Christa was fantastic with ‘Salvatore’ ‘Love in Portofino’. ‘Salvatore’ was in honor of Salvatore Peritore, a wonderful singer and a great member of our Italian community and friend of the arts.
Michael, Christa and Sheri
Just when you thought it could not get better, Michael, Christa and Sheri teamed for ‘Libiamo’. Christa had several solos and they all were fabulous. Her finest may have been Love in Portofino.
Steve Balich Junior
To finish out the night, Steve, wrapped it up with all of our favorites and them some. Just a few were ‘Basaglieri’, ‘Crazy’, ‘Sin Ti – Serenada’, ‘Melody of Love’, ‘Sioux City Sue’, ‘Sentimental Me’, ‘Magic was the Moonlight’,‘Jalisco’, ‘Jambalaya’, ‘Domani’ and ‘Sincerely’. Wow, what a night, and the Pasta, wow!
The Presidents Message
Dear Friends,
Hope that your appetites are all healthy because at our next meeting on June 17 we will be having another Accordion Club of the Redwoods pasta feed. Dinner service will commence around six-thirty as usual. There will be good friends, good music, and good food so invite your neighbors and other friends and family to this casual social event.
I would also like to remind you that in place of our regular July Monday night meeting we are hosting another special event. The July meeting will take place in the usual location at Hermann Sons Hall but it will be on Saturday July 27 and we will be cooking Italian sausages with onions and peppers along with a salad. There will be plenty of music and food and the no host bar will be available for beverages. Once again, I urge you to turn out for this meeting and invite a friend.
Your officers and board members are trying hard to have more social events to create the opportunity for members to get together, share a meal and catch up with old friends and perhaps make some new friends. We need your support for these functions. If you enjoy them and would like to see them continue, please let us know by attending and bringing a guest if you can. If our club is to grow and prosper we need to stay active and encourage new members to become part of our group.
As I said last month, we have kind of reached the end of an era. Our future dinner dances will be catered events from now on. If you have a favorite caterer that you would like is to contact or a favorite food that you would like to see us include on the menu let us know and we will try to accommodate. Catered affairs mean that we need to have a definite head count so that the caterer can plan appropriately.
I would like again to thank Don Agresti and Steve Balich and their crew who fed us so well at so many dinner dances. On a brighter note they have agreed to continue cooking for our pasta feed dinners and events like this year’s July meeting. Thank you guys.
Once again I have the sad task of saying farewell to two more of our own. In May we lost Fred Schultz and Ralph Muscatell. Along with their many other accomplishments these two men were members of our club and fine accordion players. Our sincere condolences go out to their families and friends.
Tony Mustaro
President
Accordion Club of the Redwoods
Entertainment, June 2013
Erika Brand
Erika is a newbie from Marjorie Konrad. Her playlist was “Push & Pull Waltz”, “Down in the Valley”, and “On Top of Old Smokey”. She has just recently taken up the accordion. She is a delightful young lady and unfortunately for us, she is departing for a year long road trip! Bon Voyage Erika
Anthony Berger
Anthony playlist was “The Skaters”, “Beer Barrel Polka”, Lady of Spain”, and a encore of ‘Joes Carrousel”. Unfortunately for us, Anthony and his parents, Gerard and Sheila will be leaving us soon for Colorado.
Hope you will come back for visits.
Olga Fansler
Olga delighted us with “Edelweiss”, a Rusion tune “Moscow Nights”, and “Lara’s Theme”. Welcome back Olga.
Steve Balich
Steve entertained us with “Lies & Sheik Medley”, “Whispering & Once in Awhile Medley”, “La Paloma” and an encore of many more much to our delight!
Xavier de la Prade and Sheri Mignano
Xavier and Sheri teamed up with soleful and foot stomping hand clapping music. Their playlist included “Jambalaya” by Hank Williams, “Paris dans Chaque Faubourg”, “Que Viva Espana”, “Bye, Bye Mon Negre”and “Ils ont Vole’ mon Traisemeau”. And it just got better and better!
George Bachich and Sheri Mignano
George and Sheri again, teamed up with their playlist of “Vola Palumba Vola”, “Zingarella” and “Nostalgique Dominique”. It has been a long time since we have had Xavier, George and Sheri on our stage. We hope to see and hear more of you in the not to distant future!
Tony Mustaro and Carlo Solivan, Picture 1
Tony Mustaro and Carlo Solivan, picture 2
Tony and Carlo not only played with heart and sole but they brought the house down with their comedy. Their playlist was “Amore Scusami”, “Besame Mucho”, “Dicitencello Vuje”, “Tango Delle Rose” and many more. I am not sure their comedy was on purpose, but Carlo’s love overtures and Tony’s eye rolling had us all in smiles and enchanted!
News, June 2013
Fred Schultz Memorial
It is with a touch of sadness that we report the death of longtime member Fred Shultz. Fred was an active ACR member and an accomplished accordionist. Among Fred’s other hobbies were flying his Beechcraft Bonanza airplane, riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle, sailing on San Francisco Bay in his 20’ Zephyr and he was an avid folk dancer. He leaves behind his wife of 53 years, Carolyn and four children. Fred was 90 years old and had experienced a general health decline over the past year. A memorial service was held on May 31st in Sonoma. He will be missed by friends who knew him. For more information see the Press Democrat.
ACR Band Update
The ACR Band will have its next meeting on June 17th 6:30 before the ACR general meeting. All levels of players are welcome. It helps if you can read sheet music. Bring an accordion and a good measure of enthusiasm. If you would like to play in the band, please contact Steve Balich at 707-874-3494.
2013 Coupe Mondiale Accordion Competition and Festival, August 17th-25th
The 66th Annual Coupe Mondiale to be held in in Victoria, BC and Hosted by the BC Accordion Society. This years prize budget exceeds over $50,000. For information about tickets to events, all inclusive “Early Bird” discount packages, accommodations please contact via e-mail: coupe2013@gmail.com. For more information visit the Coupe Mondiale Website
The Presidents Message
Dear Friends,
This is a good time to talk a bit about some of the events and changes which are taking place in our club. The first big change is that founding member, board member, past president and current vice president of our club, Steve Balich will get to sit with his wife Jennie at this years annual Christmas dinner dance. After year after year of working in the kitchen to prepare our dinners before going on stage with his band to play for our dancing pleasure, Steve is finally hanging up his apron. So at our next dinner dance he will be able to sit with his family and enjoy a catered meal. We are now in the process of searching for a caterer to take over these kitchen duties and I promise that we’ll find a good one. One of the side effects of this change is that you must purchase your tickets in advance to be sure that you have a meal available. Don’t worry about the music though. Steve and his band will continue to provide us with the mix of dance music for which they are so well known.
Another change is something which I announced at our last meeting. After years of performing the arduous task of preparing the deli trays for our meeting sandwiches Jan Terribilini is no longer able to continue with this work. I have asked for volunteers to fill this position but as of this writing the response has been underwhelming, ie; negative. Art and Carola Clark filled in last month but that was a one time event. This month I have volunteered to prepare the trays. This will also be a one time event. If the member would like to see the tradition of sandwich snacks continue at our monthly meetings someone will have to volunteer to help do this work.
We are also planning to have a Saturday daytime meeting in July this year for those of you who would rather not come out at night. More on that in the future.
For those of you who have access to a computer or who have friends or relatives who are computer literate I invite you to go online and visit our website a www.acrpetaluma.com. Ron Slyh has designed a great website for our club and we can all be proud of it. There will be more content added as we go along including access to video and audio relating to the accordion. We will also welcome articles of interest to the accordion community for submission and publication on the website. Right now there is a great slide show of photos taken at our annual Spring Fling dinner dance.
I am looking forward to seeing more of our membership at the meetings as the weather improves. Please think about what you can do to make our club better. Every little act of assistance helps to move us forward.
Tony Mustaro
President
Accordion Club of the Redwoods
May 2013 Entertainment
Wes Smith
Wes was in fine form, his retinue was Lordags Valsen (saturday waltz), Just a Closer Walk With Thee and Somewere My love. Great job Wes we look forward to more.
Steve Balich
Steve was in his regular superb form with Medlis Snow Waltz Daj Daj, You Belong to My Heart, Alley Cat and ended with La Paloma. Great Job Steve.
Guy Richards
Just what can this Guy not do or play? It is impossible to list off the music that Guy performed for us. It may be easier to list off what he did not play for us, just joking, just saying…. Guy enlisted Wes to play with him on Guy’s accordion, it was beautiful and I was to engrossed to take pictures of this, so sorry. If you missed this, you missed a great show.
Oh, and on my way in to the meeting that evening, I noticed a Honda Civic Vertuoso in front of me. I had never heard of or seen a Honda Vertuoso, then I noticed a treble clef note on the bumper. I said that could only be Guy Richards, and it was. Who else would have the hutzpa to display that and the talent to back it up?
Life Time Membership
Frank and Jane Tripi
Frank and Jane Tripi were awarded Life Time Membership for their dedicated service to the club. They are always ready to assist and the first ones to serve. I personally do not know if the club would survive without them. I have done a little volunteering and know how back breaking the work is. Do not hesitate to show them your appreciation and thank them!
A Tribute to this Year’s Honorary Director John Volpi
Photo© and article submitted by Sheri Mignano
Unless it’s the opening weekend of deer hunting season, you’ll find John Volpi strapped into his recently restored vintage Excelsior, playing and singing the Old Italian songs. His cherished accordion provides him with more than just memories; it’s his way to connect with people who visit Volpi’s Ristorante & Bar, in downtown Petaluma.
On weekends John holds court in what was once a 1920s speakeasy during Prohibition. In the evening, a parade of cowboys, farmers, Goths, baby boomers, and flirtatious women begins. The men offer to buy him drinks (he likes Old Fashioned cocktails), and the women leave behind traces of perfume and kisses on his cheek. By the time midnight rolls around, he’s strolled through the dining hall a few times playing Happy Birthday and “La Bionda” for the celebrants.
Volpi’s has been a musical hub for decades thanks to John’s father Silvio who taught a generation of accordionists. It has almost singlehandedly kept Italian accordion music alive in the North Bay. It has fostered a legacy of Italian classics and nostalgic northern Italian Alpine songs as well as Italian-American pop standards heard on jukeboxes.
Even before the Cotati Accordion Festival was hatched in 1991, John’s accordion-centric restaurant nourished many squeezers; and over the years, John established a friendly, relaxed environment, graciously embracing hundreds of accordionists, including myself, in the restaurant. Both John and his sister Silvia have been entertaining guests and friends for decades. The Volpi siblings, with familial ties to the Sebastiani winemaking tradition, maintained a gig schedule at many other Italian venues, too. Sharing the love of the accordion has been their top priority.
I salute John’s warm hospitality in welcoming accordion festival participants year after year. It’s been quite a journey. In 1970, I arrived with the San Francisco State Concert Band to recruit Petaluma’s high school music students, and visited the historic restaurant. In 1998 when I moved to Sonoma County, my first accordion club meeting was at Volpi’s. It’s now 2013 and I’m happy to say that the squeeze goes on! Thank you, John. Congratulations! Tanti Auguri!
Sheri Mignano Crawford
www.EuroCafeMusic.com
