Various Artists - Squeeze Me: The Jazz & Swing Accordion Story

Probably due to its mixed and diverse origins, jazz has always been eclectic in the material it works with, both in its range of repertoire as well as the instruments on which it is played.During the first fifty years of jazz history, until about 1950, a relatively small family of instruments was mainly employed in jazz. The brass instruments : trumpet and trombone. The reed instruments : Saxophones and clarinet and, of course, rhythm section instruments; piano, guitar, bass and drums. Aside of these mainstream jazz instruments, individual jazzmen have expressed themselves, often brilliantly, on other instruments which are much less frequently heard in jazz. The flute, violin and organ belonged to this group of instruments, but have become of such importance that they have entered the mainstream of jazz instruments. Instruments like the oboe, mouth organ, harpsichord, French horn, bassoon, harp and mandolin have until now stayed resolutely in the �Miscellaneous Instruments� category. The accordion most definitely belongs to this category.