Category: Nouveau Chapeau

Pignol & Milleret Monday

Published on by Gary ChapinLeave a comment

I have not been attending to my duties. I’ve been traveling and actually had to move house. I’m in a very nice new place, and life is good. I did play at NEFFA with the quintet, Nouveau Chapeau. We played an hour of mazurkas for a mazurka dancing workshop. Who knew such a thing existed?!? That was a blast. Maybe next year scottishes?

For today I am posting two older vids worthy of study, they are of the duo Stephan Milleret and Norbert Pignol, two monsters in the field. Aside from their playing, they have been enormously influential on modern box playing through their four volume Diatonic Accordion Method. Here are the men themselves. Nearly 20 minutes of goodness.

You had me at Mazurka …

Published on by Gary ChapinLeave a comment
Some mazurkas wot we might play!

“So,” said Steve Gruverman, “at NEFFA, do you want to do a mazurka –“

“Yes.”

“– workshop with –“

“Yes.”

“– Lynn Baumeister?”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“You had me at Mazurka.”

To summarize: At the New England Folk Festival (a.k.a., NEFFA), the Nouveau Chapeau quintet will be doing a mazurka dance workshop with instructor Lynn Baumeister. The festival runs from April 15 to 17. We are doing this workshop on Saturday evening, the 16th.

We’ve put together a nice set of mazurkas to work up (see the picture to the right), and begin rehearsing in a week or so.

I’ve made no secret of my love of the mazurka in all varieties — from its galumphy mid-tempo version all the way to the current, “sexy” 9/8ish variety. An embarrassment of riches. That’s what my life is.

Bal Folk on Saturday (Jan. 18)

Published on by Gary ChapinLeave a comment

This saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta, Maine, a Bal Folk will take place. The “big band” that I’m a part of, Nouveau Chapeau, will be playing, with Marie Wendt teaching and calling the dances. In April when we did this, we whipped the place into a frenzy.  Join us!