Jean-Michel Corgeron has been quietly instrumental in the world of tradFrench accordéon music for as long as I have been aware. As a diatonist and transcriber, Corgeron has had an intimate relationship with Trad Magazine, and is credited with inventing their accordéon tablature. This tab system has become one of two standard systems in wide use (the other is from the CADB, a breton accordéonist collective). The first time I saw his name was as the transcriber for Frédéric Paris’s Cahier de Repertoire, so influential to my own development.
Recently, via a Facebook update, I discovered that Corgeron had posted the first album by his quartet, Bouffée d’Airs, over on Sound Cloud for free streaming. I urge you to go HERE and check it out. That recording, and much more, can be found at Corgeron’s Franches Connexions site.
L'Accordeonaire 
Hi there Gary, My name is Mollie and I'm a young accordion enthusiast and scholar currently living in France attempting to write my thesis on French Accordion music. My family is from Acadiana, and so I've always grown up loving Cajun music. Now, i've taken the opportunity to spend a semester here in France to look for the French connection in accordion music. In a nutshell, i'm attempting to make the historical and musical connections between the instrument's German origins to the cliche image of Edith Piaf songs echoing through the streets of Paris to the Cajun two-steps that i've grown up with.
I stumbled upon your blog here, and realized quickly that there is a ton of information out there that I know absolutely nothing about. I'm very excited to dig through your blog, for I can tell that you truly know some things that could be very helpful to me in my work, but I also figured that it couldn't hurt to ask you directly for some advice on where to begin. Any scholarly research, specific musicians, or better yet, places here in France that would be good to experience some of this music first hand, that you could recommend would be amazing. The historical and musical roots of the accordion run so deep in Europe that it is difficult to determine where the French began their relationship with the instrument and how the types of music they started with influenced the typical French accordion music many think of today and then later, Cajun music. Right now i'm just trying to find a place to begin.
I know that this isn't neccesarily the best venue to be having such a potentially grand conversation, so if you have the time, I would be extremely greatful if we could continue this conversation via e-mail. My e-mail address is Mollie.Farr@ncf.edu. I can tell just by browsing this blog that you have a wealth of knowledge on the accordion, and from a young aspiring accordion player and expert, your advice would be extremely valuable to me. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope to talk to you soon.
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