Accordian

When you think of accordian you think of Polkas. That's understandable. However a few people and perhaps some jazz afficionados and professional accordionists know of Gordie Fleming

Gordie was from Montreal originally and later resided in Toronto. He was probably the best Jazz accordianist in the world. He was one of a kind and that had nothing to do with the fact that there were so few players of his calibre anywhere. Certainly the musicians in Toronto and Montreal knew who he was and they always spoke highly of his exceptional talents. Jazz clarinettist Buddy DeFranco used him a lot and considered him the best.

Other people in the industry were also aware of his abilities, for when I would call his house for a gig, I would be informed that he was away recording with so and so in Nashville or someplace. He seemed to be always on the road playing or recording with other great artists.  If you wanted someone that was equal to Jean "Toots" Thielemans (harmonica artist) you called Gordie.

He could play any tune in any key and at any tempo and make it creative. Harmonically he was a giant. He was the hippest player on that instrument I ever heard.  He was the only accordionist that I personally heard bend notes like a harmonica, an ability he disclosed to me on a job one time. This "trick" was very effective especially when doing the blues. I used to say that I owned an accordion but Gordie played one. Boy, he sure did!

However, not every one on that instrument is that talented. In fact there are and were a lot of accordionists that I knew that should have considered other pursuits. However, they still managed to make a decent living so I guess not everyone needs to be a star to stay alive.

I remember working with a small group one time where the leader, an accordionist, was unfortunately of a lower musical stature.  We suspected he really hadn't finished the other nine lessons. One musician concluded that when the guy first took up the accordion, "He had low expectations and he unfortunately didn't reach them". He dropped beats left and right and it was always a "hoot" watching the dancers tripping all over themselves trying to find the rhythm.

It always amazed me that the dancers blamed themselves and their dancing skills rather than the band for these frequent lapses in time.  For the other horn player and myself it made the night interesting.  It was a rather arduous gig in any case and this bit of comedy was a respite to the tedium of the evening.

It got that the other player (sax player) and myself would lie about getting a request for a song called Delilah, which is a waltz recorded by Tom Jones. Sure enough beats would be skipped and people would stumble all over themselves.  The leader never caught on to us making up these bogus requests for that specific number. He said one evening, "Boy this sure is a popular tune. They must really like the way we play it".

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