There hasn’t been a popular dance without an accordion, nor a dance-hall without a waltz, since the end of the Great War.
You wonder if the genre was ever “modern” at all, so timeless does it seem... Yet it had to be born at some time, and its parents were a motley crowd indeed! First of all came the people from Auvergne, who began to settle in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century: they brought their “folk” instrument with them, and the “musette” tradition, turning their cafes and restaurants into dance-halls with an accordion band.
Later, after 1870, it was the turn of the Italians, who crossed the Alps with an instrument of German origin, which they quickly adopted and began to manufacture themselves: the accordion. Then a third stream from Belgium and the North arrived in Paris to work in the factories, and, later still, the wandering gypsy communities of eastern Europe added their guitars to the sound of the accordion.
They were all people of different ethnic origins, but they were brought together by a shared sense of distance from their roots. They also had other things in common, like a precarious situation, or difficult living conditions, and together they found a little warmth and comfort.
They gathered in the popular districts, between the Bastille and the Rue de Lappe, and from the Rue de Charonne to Porte de Montreuil in the east of the city, before spreading into the roadside taverns and boulevards near the gates of Paris, areas crowded with workers, craftsmen and errand-boys, but also the haunts of gangs of ruffians, pimps, prostitutes and other suspicious characters.
The golden age of the accordion “musette” spanned from the Twenties and the “Front populaire” right up to the Occupation. At one point there were around three hundred dance-halls in the capital, not including bars and the streets themselves, and in all of them there were people dancing waltzes, polkas and mazurkas, the java and the paso doble.
You can hear the greatest accordionists playing the most famous melodies: from Emile Vacher, who created the genre and pioneered the buttoned instrument, to the virtuosos Gus Viseur (a Belgian), and Tony Murena (an Italian), who at the end of the Thirties introduced the swing of jazz into their waltzes. There are also the composers: Marceau (from the North), Medard Ferrero from Marseilles, and all the Italians, the Рeguri brothers, Colombo, Carrara, Guerino... not to mention Fredo Gardoni, a lesser soloist but a star on radio and on record.
It is interesting to note that the most typically “French” popular music of the century was created by “immigrants” such as these.

Track List:

CD 1:
1. Emile Vacher: Reine de musette (E.Vacher) - 1927 valse
2. Emile Vacher: Les Triolets (E.Vacher, C.Peguri) -1927 polka
3. Marceau: Ca gaze (V. Marceau) - 1930 java
4. Fredo Gardoni: Galopade (J. Vaissade, R. Dufas) - 1930 mazurka
5. Les Freres Peguri: Reproche (R. Vaisse, C. Peguri, R. Haller) - 1932 valse
6. Medard Ferrero: Perles de cristal (G. Hamel) - 1932 polka
7. Guerino: Brise napolitaine (Guerino) - 1933 valse
8. Colombo & Tony Mureno: Caprice musette (J. Colombo) - 1934 valse
9. Emile Prud'Homme: Pinsonnette (E. Prud'Homme, Geno) - 1936 polka
10. Colombo: Germaine (J. Colombo) - 1937 valse
11. Medard Ferrero: La Rafale (M. Ferrero) - 1937 one-step
12. Adolphe Deprince: Edelweiss (A. Deprince) - 1938 valse
13. Jean Vaissade: Sombreros et Mantilles (Chanty, J. Vaissade) - 1938 paso doble
14. Gus Viseur: Jeannette (G. Viseur, L. Ferrari) - 1938 valse
15. Gus Viseur: Gracieusette (G. Viseur) - 1939 valse
16. Gus Viseur: Flambee montalbanaise (G. Viseur) - 1940 valse swing
17. Gus Viseur: Swing 42 (D. Reinhardt) - 1942 swing
18. Emile Prud'homme: Caravane rabouine (E. Prud'homme, C. Jenner) - 1942 valse
19. Tony Murena: Passion (T. Murena, J. Colombo) - 1942 valse
20. Emile Carrara: Mon amant de Saint-Jean (E. Carrara) - 1942 valse
CD 2:
1. Guerino & Django Reinhardt: Gallito (S. Lope) - 1932 paso doble
2. Jo Privat: Mefiance (Jeckitt-Vyngira) - 1936 fox-trot
3. Edith Piaf & Gus Viseur: L'accordeoniste (Emot) - 1940 valse
4. Orchestre Musette Victor: Coeur Vagabond (Colombo) - 1939 valse
5. Gus Viseur: Valse De Minuit (Lara) - 1939 valse
6. Albert Huard: Alhambra (Huard) - 1936 pasa doble
7. Robert Trognee: Retour des Hirondelles (Trognee - Pagano) - 1935 valse
8. Emile Carrara: Le Charmeur De Serpentes (Powell) - 1941 swing
9. Adolphe Deprince: Caprice D'oiseau (Vadeputte-Acker) - 1933 polka
10. Jean Gabin & Deprince: Quand on se promene (Yvain-Duvivier) - 1936 valse
11. Orchestre Musette Max Francy: Aubade d'oiseaux (Peguri) - 1934 valse
12. Emile Vacher: Sporting Java (Vacher-Peyronnin) - 1930 java
13. Emile Vacher: Plaisance Fox ( Vacher-Peyronnin) - 1926 polka
14. Charles Peguri: Allegresse (Vayse) - 1920 valse
15. Frehel De L'Empire: Musette (Flouron-Leojac) - 1920 valse
16. Louis Ferrari: Apres La Rafle (Ferrari) - 1932 valse
17. Tony Murena: Christopher Columbus (Berry Razaf) - 1941 swing
18. Tony Murena: Pepee (Murena-Fontaine) - 1940 valse
19. Tony Murena: Nostalgia Gitana (Murena-Peguri) - 1940 valse
20. Medard Ferrero: Mazurka Fantaisie (Ferrero) - 1932 mazurka

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