A diamond in the rough.... from my vinyl vault: Bill Costa's, "La Bella Italia"

Bill Costa's, "La Bella Italia".

I picked up this little gem off of Ebay. It's definitely a straight forward album and what you see is what you get: classic Italian folk tunes arranged for tradtional accordion instrumental versions. This is a highly affordable record-- you can usually find a perfectly well functioning copy of it for $3 or $4 online-- and the material itself is a steal for that price. It's a cheap one, but a good one!

The record kicks off properly upbeat with one of  the most famous Italian tunes ever, "Tarantella Napolitana" and then into the lovely, "O Sole Mio"-- a beautiful song that has been reinterpreted countless times by so many artists (Rachid Taha's is perhaps my favorite-- his style mixes Raï and world combined with elements of rock, and he covered it and gave it a very middle eastern feel that is really unique and definitely worth checking out!)-- but when it comes to an accordion instrumental take on it, this one takes the cake.

The backing band consists of gentle acoustic guitar, light bass, light percussion, and vibraphone-- some tracks boast an occasional pinch of jazz, but overall this record keeps it in a traditional pocket for these italian standards. Additional highlights of the album take place on side B with the gorgeous soaring of, "Sorrento" and the fun bouncy folk of, "Funiculi Funicula", and the wonderful version of, "Arrivederci Roma".

Back of, "La Bella Italia".

As for Bill Costa himself he has a few other similar records available, such as, "Holiday And Rome", "Bill Costa and His Accordion", and one or two others I've seen online out there. Surprisingly, other than the records themselves on Ebay and Amazon-- I can't really find any other information on him. Luckily the back of this record alone clues us in a bit: he went to Julliard, worked and appeared on both NBC and ABC television, appeared in a decent list of jazz quartets, recorded with: Sammy Kaye, Dorothy Collins, Ben Selvin, and Jerry Jerome-- that sums up a decent chunk of the bio on the back of the album.

All in all, this is a great affordable fun album of authentic Italian folk tunes as accordion instrumentals-- it'd be an excellent addition to the collection of anyone interested in collecting specifically Italian, world music in general, could slightly interest some jazz fans perhaps, accordion enthusiasts, or even just if your looking to branch out your collection with something new of this caliber that you didn't dabble in before; in which case, this would be a perfect starting point.

A diamond in the rough.... specificially, a Greek diamond..... from my vinyl vault: The Golden Bouzoukia Ensemble's, "Dancing in the Isles"

Golden Bouzoukia Emsemble's, "Dancing in the Isles"

I've had some lucky finds at Birdland Records in Virginia Beach in the past. One day, I'm browsing through the used stuff and I stumble upon this eye-catching record. Hmmm What's this? After the initial conclusion its obviously world music based on the folkloric attire of the people on the cover of the record, my interest is now peeked. I look a little harder at the translation (the Greek alphabet is very peculiar looking by the way- I must admit I'd probably never really taken a hard look at it until then) and find it's a group called the Golden Bouzoukia Ensemble with an album entitled, "Dancing in the Isles". I start reading the back of the record- where if you look very closely behind the guys holding the bouzoukis, you'll notice an accordion player to the far right (for obvious reasons- this record now has my full attention). I read the back of the record, and found out it was some form of Greek music I'd never heard of until then called rembetika (aka rembetiko- it seems to go by both spellings as far as I can tell). Rembetika is often said to be the Greek version of the blues; however, musically it's very different sounding than what most Americans would think or recognize as the blues. Apparently, the similarities are more cultural than musical; as the lyrical content is where its comparative moments lie. Rembetika was said to be the music of people not on board with societal norms. Parallel to the American blues, what serves as the basis of such a comparison is that the soul of the music lies in its tales of troubles, its sincere attitude, and tone of despiar. Typical subject matter of the lyrics often serving harsh jail sentences, usually a result for smoking hashish, or falling on hard times: frustrated romantic relationships, drug addiction, death and grief. Musically however, there is little room to compare the sounds being created. The scales (known as, "roads") are drastically unlike our blues, followed by rather different rhythmic choices, and the tonality of it is quite possibly its most notable feature. And as I'm standing there (not even aware of the definition of rembetika at this particular moment in time)- I'm thinking ok, I'm looking at  a very affordable, exotic, Greek folk record- of a subgenre I've never even heard of-  so I'm in! So for $3 I bought it. The record itself is in pretty great shape- the sleeve is mint/worn- but otherwise, she works great!

Back sleeve to, "Dancing in the Isles"

I take it home, while wondering if I'd found something good, and set the needle on the record. Within seconds I was highly intrigued. This exciting shimmering melody filled the room; a new world of music had instantly flooded my ears. Bouzoukis were plucking away at shuffling melodic lines that seemed to appealingly tug at your ear. Bouzoukis are basically pretty similar to mandolins in the way that they sound (the tone is a tiny bit different), and somewhat similar looking in the sense that they look like strange tiny guitars. They are rounded on the bodies at the end, and have a similar string scenario: 8 strings, four sets of paired strings, just like mandolins. I'm assuming they are tuned the way mandolins are as well, but I've never seen or touched one in person to be sure. The accordion serves the record mostly rhythmically, but gets a moment to shine for a solo on, "Dance of the Brave Men" a very energetic hopping number. The rhythm section consists of a mostly relaxed, but highly effective bass and simple drumming section. This entire record is instrumental, with the bouzoukis in the foreground taking the leads. The extraordinary qualities of the Greek melodies plucked note by note have highly memorable characteristics to them, galloping from one song into another throughout the course of the thirteen tunes that compose the record. What is most striking to me about this album, and this could be just because it was my first record to put me into contact with the sound of rembetika; is that every track is sonically unique while still adhering to the defining elements of this very particular style of Greek music. This a very unique record, and though I hope to find out more about this group (if there is anything else out there from them to find)- in the mean time, I'm glad I'm finding out more about the type of music it introduced me to in the first place.