NEWSLETTER OF THE

October 2018 SVAS Next Meeting:

Sunday, November 4 at Harry’s Hofbrau

NO Jam Band session in November. However, there is open mike from 2:00 to 3:00. Contact Lou or Pam for a time slot.

Steve and Mike Trucco -

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Lou Buonomo - Vice President’s Message I have been asked to provide the Vice President’s message due to a circumstance that our president Bill Tapogna was not able to attend the meeting. In spite of that news, judging from your responses, a good time was had by all. The program began with the “Oktoberfest Jam Band” playing many favorite German songs. For that portion of the meeting, our participants included George Chavez, Don Savant, Scott Stanfield, Vic Corsiglia, Barbara Corsiglia, Colette Ogata, Dennis Judd, and Lou Buonomo. A special appreciation goes to Vic Corsiglia and Don Savant for doing an outstanding job or-ganizing players and keeping the band performance running smoothly. Thank you, Ken Caple for providing the Oktoberfest sheet music played by the jam band. Next, individual solo performers played various types of music. Our performers in-cluded Dennis Judd, Sue Douglas, Don Savant, Colette Ogata, and Garland Cheatham. We appreciate your hard work, preparation and presentation. Thank you for your willingness to per-form.

The Peter Di Bono Trio performance was absolutely extraordinaire, playing many different types of music, and playing many songs upon request. As a side note, and a marvelous gesture by Peter Di Bono who simply offered to give first choice of songs played to those who gave him their request written on a thirty-dollar bill. Unfortunately, there were no takers! As always, our appreciation extends to Board members and helpers working to ensure the success of the event. Thank you, Gloria Tapogna and Rosemary for manning the check-in table. Thank you, Pam Kawashima for scheduling, Bob Stanfield for being our treasurer, for the purchase of the 16 raffle prizes, and your participation in the raffle. Additionally, thank you Scott Williamson for set-up, the Newsletter editing and formatting, and photog-raphy. Thank you, Lou Buonomo for set-up and for organizing the jam band activity. Thank you, Sue Douglas for your help as newsletter reporter. Thank you, Norma Parsons for your help with the raffle. Members, thank you all for your commitment to attend, and for making the event a success. Congratulations to all the raffle winners, your participation is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who brought treats. Also - please remember to the respect performers by keeping conversations to a minimum during the perfor-mances. To all, please stay safe and well! We hope to see you on November 4th!

Lou Buonomo, SVAS Vice President

Lou Buonomo

A note from the Prez

I sure did miss being at the meeting/concert this Sunday. My sincere thanks to everyone who has expressed concern for my physical ailments. I don't miss many concerts, but this one had to be the exception. A special thanks to Scott and Lou for doing the set-up, and to my wife Gloria and to Rosemary Miceli for helping out at the front tables.

I sincerely hope to see you all in November.

Bill Tapogna, SVAS President

Sue Douglas was our reporter for this month. Sue is also an enthusiastic player. She treated us to several polkas in her brief individual performance. Her report starts here and continues on page 4.

Before getting into the music, there was a change that all the au-dience noticed as they came in: a new crew staffed the admissions desk. Many thanks to Gloria Tapogna and Rosemary Miceli for a fine job.

Gloria and Rosemary at the admissions desk

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From around the accordion world

• Recently, there .have been several articles on the web about playing accordion music for animals. For example, a young Irish girl plays her concertina, and a herd of cows comes over to take a closer look. There’s a similar result with a Canadian accordion player. They are both keeping a fence between themselves and the audience! https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1026483050211729410 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IypL_EcI9XE

And just in case you think this is daft, far-off folk at work, the 3rd photo is Paul Abersold who has appeared several times at SVAS. He occasionally plays at Filoli Gardens where Don Savant snapped this shot. It is actually at the edge of an outdoor café off the right side of the photo. So just possible that the peacock was interested in food as well as mu-sic!

• October is Italian-American heritage month, coinciding with Columbus Day, of course.

• William deMichelis has been struggling with health issues recently. William used to have a band, and is one of the few people who earned a living by playing an accordion. He has been a loyal and generous supporter of the Society for many years. Here’s hoping things get better for William. Continued on pg 7

SILICON VALLEY ACCORDION SOCIETY OCTOBER 2018 Page 4

Sue’s Meeting Report, continued from page 2.

Lou Buonomo encouragingly performed Oktoberfest themed music with Vic and Barbara Corsiglia, Scott Stan-field and Don Savant, playing Just Because polka, Happy Wanderer, Liechtensteiner polka, There’s A Tavern In the Town, Tick Tock polka, Beer Barrel polka, Chicken Dance, Pennsylvania polka, Never On Sunday, Wooden Heart, Bar-bara polka, In Heaven There Is No Beer, and with Edelweiss, Vic had the audience singing along, and they enjoyed do-ing that. Our first individual player, Dennis Judd, played Quando Quando, Lara’s Theme, and There’s No Business Like Show Business. That last song is not easy to play, but he did well.

Then Sue Douglas played two Oktoberfest melodies, then Tzena Tzena followed by Julida polka.

Colette Ogata played Laura, Perfidia medley, Misirlou and Poinciana (Song of the Trees), music I’ve never heard before, but really enjoyed hearing her play. Laura was full of beautiful but complicated 5 finger chords!

Don Savant played a selection of tunes from when he was a kid: Blue Suede Shoes, We’ll Be Together Again, Aura Lee, What’s New, Yesterday, and very ex-pressively, he played Rock Around the Clock—it started the Rock ‘n Roll era.

Garland Cheatham played fun sing-along songs, like Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Baby Face, Side By Side, Golden Wedding Day, Five Foot Two, Just Because polka, Four Leaf Clover, Dixie, Beer

Barrel polka, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, and Under the Double Eagle, and many of the audience sang many of those songs.

The Oktoberfest Jam Band, with Bob helping everyone to keep time.

Sue, reporter for Sep, Oct and Nov, and individual player

Colette, Don and Garland

Dennis

Then it was Raffle-Time. Sue and Richard Douglas won wine, cookies and lemon-ginger tea! Barbara Corsig-lia, who almost never wins, walked off with a bottle of wine. Dan Judd won peanut butter cups of candy. Dennis Judd won a bar of Swiss chocolate. Colette Ogata won a small decorative clay elephant, and Casey Ogata won fruit scone mix (“for my daughter”) he said.

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Go to FACEBOOK to make comments and upload your photos.

After the break and the raffle, it was time for the Peter Di Bono Trio, our fea-tured players. They delighted us with melodies and songs from way back when. Peter, with the accordion, Steve Hanson with the string bass, and Harriet Newhart with the vio-lin, played a mixture of their choices, and the audience’s when Peter asked (several times) for requests. As noted elsewhere, Peter’s instructions were to write your request on the back of a $30 note, and pass it up to the group. NEXT time they visit, we must have a selection of fake $30 notes passed out and ready for use! The group started with Inamorata and segued into La Mattinata, providing great opportunities for the accordion and the violin to duet together. The melodies followed in quick succession: Puttin’ On the Ritz, Cheek to Cheek, Begin the Beguine, and a Sound of Music medley including The Hills Are Alive, Do Re Me, Climb Every Mountain and Edelweiss. They played Tennessee Waltz, and Bob Stanfield said he had never heard such an amazing rendition. They also played Besame Mucho, You Belong to My Heart, That’s

Amore, Domino, and Sharpshooters March. Peter explained that the Sharpshooters March was a rite of passage for accordi-on players—once you play it well, you are a serious accordion player. They followed this with Blue Danube Waltz, Santa Lucia, Phantom of the Opera, La Vie En Rose, and the My Fair Lady Medley including On the Street Where You Live, I’m Getting Married In the Morning, With a Little Bit Of Luck, Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? and I Could Have Danced All Night. All too soon, it was time for their last melodies: Jalousie and The Hungarian Rhapsody. Again, great pieces to let all three instruments excel together and separately. There was a stand-ing ovation for the performance.

Marcia Coullahan won a six-pack of cider drinks, Dolores took one of the other bottles of red wine. Dave (friend of Dan and Dennis) took home a box of Hamlet chocolates. George, who often wins, won a bottle of sparkling wine. Pam Kawashima won a jar of European honey, and Sue Hirigoyen won cookies.

Apologies if we have not included your name. The winners come through the line thick and fast! Finally, thanks for supporting the raffle. It helps cover the Society’s costs for the featured performers, and the room.

ACCORDION CLUB MEETING SCHEDULES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Accordion Club of the Redwoods (ACR) meets on the third Monday of every other month Herman & Sons Hall, 860 Western Avenue, Petaluma CA 94952. Contact: (707) 795-4060. Golden State Accordion Club (GSAC) has three divisions: The Napa Valley Chapter meets the second Thursday of the month at 5:30 PM, Runway Restaurant, 2044 Airport Rd, Napa, CA 94558. Contact George Bachich for more information, (707) 738-5276. The Humboldt Club meets on the third Tuesday, 7:00 PM., Humboldt Swiss Club, 5403 Tompkins Hill Road, Loleta, CA 95551. The Sacramento Club meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm at the Elks Lodge No.6,6446 Riverside Blvd, Sacrament,CA.. Contact for all the GSAC: Carole Enneking (707) 864-2359. Good Time Accordion Club (GTAC) meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM, Escalon Community Center, 1055 Escalon Ave., Escalon, CA 95320. Contact Ed Sciarini (209) 545-3603. Northern California Accordion Society (NCAS) meets on the first Wednesday of the month 6:30 PM 6365 Douglas Blvd., Lutheran Church Social Hall, Granite Bay, CA 95746. San Francisco Accordion Club (SFAC) meets on the third Sunday of the month 2:00 PM . Chetcuti Community Room, Civic Center Plaza, 450 Poplar Ave., Milbrae, CA 94030 ; Contact Lynn Ewing 650-453-3391. Silicon Valley Accordion Society (SVAS) meets on the first Sunday of the month, 1:00 PM at Harry’s Hofbrau, 390 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129. (between Kiely Blvd. and Stevens Creek Blvd. Contact: Bill Topogna (408) 984-5290.

♫ Who’s Playing??? ♫

William DeMichelis - Music with an accent, 408-375-0001, accordionist.sanjose@comcast.net Reno DiBono - plays the second Friday of each month at Montavalle in Scotts Valley, dancing to the Blue Moon Trio. Joe Domitrowich/AlpinersUSA - see www.alpinersusa.com or www.capricious-accordion.com or call 408-255-1259 Happy Days Band - Schedule Concerts with Ken Caple (408) 892-2760 Due Zighi Baci - Schedule Performances with Sheri Mignano at sherimignano@gmail.com Ernie Beran - Plays at the Tyrolean Inn Restaurant in Ben Lomond, CA every Saturday 6:00-9:00 pm Sunday 7 Band - Plays every first Friday of the month in Los Altos in front of Le Boulanger bakery on Main and Second in the down town area. Schedule Concerts with Bob Stanfield (650) 888-3701 Mike Zampiceni - Plays at O Sole Mio restaurant, Millbrae, 6:00-8:30 on Sundays. Also from April - Oct at the Tee Nee Thai restaurant, San Jose, on Friday nights. Gloria Gazave and Paul Aebersold, “Il Duetto Musica” - schedule performances with Paul Aebersold, at mazurkaman@yahoo.com

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ACCORDION TEACHERS:

Peter Di Bono: San Francisco (415) 699-8674 Lynn Ewing: San Carlos, (650) 867-2633 ewinglynn@gmail.com Lou Jacklich: San Lorenzo, (510) 317-9510 Marian Kelly: Cupertino, (650) 954-3711 Mike Zampiceni: Sunnyvale and Hayward, (408) 569-2579 Mikezamp.com Ernie Beran: Aptos, (831) 238-4961 reeds@baymoon.com

SVAS BOARD of Directors / Officers

PRESIDENT: BILL TAPOGNA, 408 984-5290

VICE PRESIDENT: LOU BUONOMO, 650 940-1599

SECRETARY: SUE DOUGLAS

TREASURER: BOB STANFIELD , 650 888-3701

PROGRAM SCHEDULE: PAM KAWASHIMA pkawashima@outlook.com

WEBMASTER: PAM KAWASHIMA pkawashima@outlook.com

NEWSLETTER Editor: SCOTT WILLIAMSON aswy01@gmail.com

NL Reporters: MARCIA COULLAHAN, SUE DOUGLAS, GORGIA SUTHERLAND, MARYBARBARA ZORIO Board Committee: Dennis Judd Art Maggio Norma Parsons Dick Suidzinski

Coming Events at SVAS: Sunday November 4, 2018

Meeting : Doors open at 1:00 pm

1:00-1:55 pm Lou Buonomo leads an Oktoberfest Jam Session 2:00—3:00 pm Open Mic - contact Lou or Pam.

3:00—3:30 pm Break & Raffle Drawing Master of Ceremonies Remarks

3:30—4:30 pm Steve and Mike Trucco

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - December: Joe Domitrowich January: TBD February: TBD

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Did you miss a meeting performance? You can view some on YouTube. To view Pam’s Videos from past meetings: Go to youtube.com, type in “accordionpam” in the search field

(next to the magnifying glass on top) for videos from the club.

More from around the accordion world (continued from page 3)

• One of the banes of an accordion as an instrument is its weight, 25 lbs and upwards, for a standard instrument. Joe Petosa, of Petosa Accordions (see Petosa ad on p3) recently wrote an interesting article of what controls the weight of an accordion. The main factor is the number of treble keys. The number of base buttons has very little influence on the weight. There is also some good advice about checking the bellows efficiency. http://www.petosa.com/the-great-accordion-myth-uncovered-by-joe-petosa/

• Karen Buonomo on a recent visit to Stanford Hospital ran into a guitar and string base playing music near the lobby. The group is called The Fools On The Hill. The base player was Steve Hanson, who played in the Peter diBono trio at SVAS last month.

Our web-meister and program coordinator, Pam Kawashima recently asked Mike for a bio or inter-view, and he provided this write up on his illustri-ous accordion career. The photo is Pam with Mike and Dave Dally, and the Monterey Wharf in the background. Pam is going for maximum envy! I started playing accordion when I was 6. My grandfather, who played bass, and my father, who was an accomplished accordionist, brought home a 12 bass. They asked me if I wanted it. Heck, I thought of it as a toy and of course said yes. Little did I know that my entire upbringing would be predicated on whether I practiced or not. My dad had a music store that started as mostly an accordi-on store. He and a fellow accordion teacher had about 50-60 kids playing. We even had an accordi-on marching band. I remember my dad taking me to North Beach to see Gordon at Colombo and Sons. He would buy accordions for the students and of course, me. I started a band at the age of 15. Our first gigs

were at the Naval Postgraduate School Officers Club. From there I started booking casuals. In our area, we have a large Sicilian/Italian population. I cannot begin to count how many weddings, anniversaries, etc. we’ve played. Peo-ple come up to me all of the time and say, “Don’t you remember you played our wedding?” Ouch! Also, the Monterey Peninsula is a popular destination for conventions and visitors and there have been many opportu-nities to play music for these groups. We play in beautiful hotels, country clubs, wineries, and, private residences that are as large as hotels! For our population, there is a lot going on in our area. Today, I am working mostly with violinist Dave Dally. We get a lot of smaller private party functions where they want cocktail and dinner music. We get calls for Italian, French, and German themes a lot, or just to provide whatever we feel is right for the party. Now I’m getting home at 8:30 or 9 p.m. instead of 1:30 a.m.! These types of gigs are perfect for violin and accordion as we can be mobile, wireless, or stationary, and cover a lot of different situations and places to play. When Dave is not available, I play with a great clarinetist, Paul Tarantino, and also a great guitarist, Dennis Murphy. All of these ensembles are what I enjoy the most now. People ask me if I’ll ever retire from playing. My answer is, “When the phone stops ringing”. My favorite accordion players that influenced me the most are my dad, Mike Marotta Sr (who in his day could swing

like no other ) and Frank Marocco, (who I became friends with). To me Frank was the most versatile and perfect ac-

That’s Steve Hanson on the right hiding under a cap

Silicon Valley Accordion Society meetings held first Sunday of each month at Harry's Hofbrau, 390 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, corner of Kiely. Doors open at 1:00, music begins at 1:00 pm. Door fee $5 for members and $ 10.00 for non members, 16 years and under are free. - JOIN THE CLUB - Annual Memberships: Regular $ 35.00, Gold $ 125.00, Platinum $ 200.00

FIRST CLASS POSTAGE ♫

P.O. Box 1513

Los Altos, CA

94023

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