The accompaniment, consisting of bass and preset chord buttons, is pressed on the left side. The accordion player plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right side. When a valve is open, air flows over vibrating strips of brass or steel, creating the sound that is amplified inside the accordion by a resonating body. The device is operated by compressing or decompressing the bellows while the buttons or keys are pressed, which in turn open valves (so-called pallets). Mainstream music hall and movie stars of the day such as Jean Gabin and Damia add an urbane touch, while Edith Piaf's legendary "L'Accordioniste" still sounds as fresh and poignant as the day it was released.Accordions are a family of box-shaped bellows driven musical instruments. Among the other important orchestras on hand are Tony Murena et son Ensemble, Guerino et son Orchestre, Medard Ferrero et ses Clochards, Orchestre Musette Victor, and Gus Viseur et son Orchestre. Emile Vacheur, a much-imitated icon whose precise squeezebox technique featured a trademark quick vibrato, is represented by a delightful pair of melodies. The instrumentals are intensely redolent of an earthier Paris back when it was a festival of intellectual grace, dubious plumbing, and bawdy pleasures, hovering on the perilous brink of war. Although the more cooperative Italian accordion eventually replaced the pipes and fiddles, guitars, and double reeds were later added to the mix, the waltzes and javas retained a defiantly rustic, naïve charm. The performers are barely two generations removed from the homesick Auvergnat (natives of the Auvergne, a mountainous region in southern France) migrant workers who once puffed their imported bagpipes at bar dances. The ambience here is quite different from that of the second set, more like a black-and-white photo by Robert Doisneau than a tourist's color-saturated Polaroid.
While the subsequent release, Sound of Paris, concentrates primarily on modern bands, these 18 tracks cover some of the best-known interpreters who were active from 1930 through 1941. This was the first of Music Club's two compilations dedicated to the bal-musette, an accordion-based tradition that, to many, is the very soul of Paris.
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