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JANUARY
Jet Black Pearl
www.jetblackpearl.com
CD track 02: “Lips” — Jetty Swart

 
Jet Black Pearl has performed in big tops, prisons, living rooms, parks, barges and ruins all over the world. She sings smartly wacky songs in French, Dutch and English.
Before your very eyes, she creates instant loops with flute, plastic bottles, rubber pigs, vocal percussion and harmonies, while squeezing her accordion.

Photo: Miri Stebivka

FEBRUARY
Wendy Fitz
todossantostheband.com
CD track 08: “Move Over” — Wendy Fitz

Pianist and vocalist Wendy Fitz is a true veteran of the San Francisco bay area music scene. She studied classical piano as a child, and later turned to rock-n-roll as a teenager in the 60’s. Wendy is at home playing many styles including R & B, rock, traditional country, western swing and jazz. She’s influenced by the piano styles of professor Longhair and Floyd Kramer, and jazzers like Bill Evansand Keith Jarrett. As a songwriter, she’s inspired by Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, Bessie Smith, Patsy Cline and Peggy Lee. Wendy plays a weekly jazz gig at Sorella Caffe in her hometown of Fairfax, California. She’s a founding member of popular Americana roots band, Todos Santos, where she is featured on vocals and accordion. She collaborates with Rough Country, Loaded Ponies, WTJ², Fitz & Pieces, and many other bands.

Photo: Judy West

MARCH
Claude Hurtubise
claudehurtubise.com
CD track 01: “Pour Oublier
” — Claude Hurtubise

Claude Hurtubise takes you on an adventure. Her songs meander between different musical styles and her lyrics take you to the extent of your imagination. Inspired by her travels in Latin America and her university training in jazz, Claude has created a world of her own. Alone or accompanied, she is pleased to mesmerize her audience with her rich arrangements, her lyrical flights and improvisations. She is a passionate pianist, accordionist, singer, author, composer and performer, who earns her living as a freelance musician. She can be heard in jazz duo few times a week at Modavie (restaurant in Old Montreal) and piano solo several times a month at the Pierre-Eliot Trudeau airport. A real leader, Claude brought together the current musicians of her band at University of Montreal’s music pavilion in 2014. Since then, they have been performing throughout Quebec.

Photo: Charlotte Pigeon-Tremblay

APRIL
Ms. D. LaRue
5centcoffee.bandcamp.com
CD track 05: “Waterlogged” — Ricardo Zegri

Ms. LaRue a.k.a. Heidi Wohlwend and Spitshine a.k.a. Ricardo Zegri have been the creative heartstring & marrow of post-modern jug band 5 Cent Coffee since 2006. Currently Ricardo is at work helming new project Modus Opera & Eye.

Photo: I.K. Bonita
Staging, costuming, hair florals: courtesy I.K. Bonita Designs

MAY
Ailisa Newhall
www.ailisanewhall.com
CD track 09: “Until the Robins Sing
” — Ailisa Newhall

Ailisa Newhall is an accomplished soprano trained at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in France. She holds performance degrees in piano and voice, and can be heard on video game, film, and commercial soundtracks. Ailisa’s love affair with the accordion began after it made a cameo on her folk album, Pushing Forward, co-written with Wes Weddell. As a member of the Womxn in Music Collective, The Mägi Ensemble, and The Bushwick Book Club Seattle, Ailisa enjoys convincing various artists that they “probably need accordion on that”.

Photo: Dawndra Budd

JUNE
Sapo
sapoooo.bandcamp.com
CD track 11: “Levo Lejos” — Sapo

A picked-it-up-in-the-street kind of musician, Sapo likes to tell stories with her songs and spoken word pieces, in French, English, Spanish and German. She studied theatre and film-making, traveled for a few years in between. Now based in Montreal, she is also known as Melodona, an accordion repairwoman.

Photo: Rafi Leuwenkroon

JULY
Katy Collet
n0rth.bandcamp.comn0rth.bandcamp.com

CD track 12: “Pirate Song” — N0rth & Katy Collet

Katy plays accordion with the artist N0rth on her album The Rusty Queendom; and plays harp with Mars on the album Music for the Moon. She co-manages the percussion troupe Kumpa’nia and participates in collective and committed projects that use art as a means of expression. In 2020, she moved to Gaspésie, unceded territory of the Micmac nation. In Gespeg (Gaspé), she collaborates in community and self-managed initiatives for cultural sites and multidisciplinary practices.

Photo: N0rth


AUGUST
Shipcats Vanessa Cetin & Renée de la Prade
shipcats.com
facebook.com/shipcats/
CD track 06: “Bierschnegel” — Vanessa Cetin & Renée de la Prade

Shipcats is an American shanty-punk duo based in Hamburg, Germany. Vanessa Cetin plays saxophone and accordion, Renée de la Prade plays ukulele, button accordion and stomp box. Both sing lead and backing vocals, and they love to rock out. Shipcats has minted an original maritime sound with German sea-chanties, surf-rock, punk, reggae, Caribbean and Balkan music. From street shows to cruises to pubs to festivals, these fun-loving women bring great energy wherever they roam. Shipcats ahoi!
 

Photo: Amira Issmail

SEPTEMBER
Calvaleigh Rasmussen
https://www.facebook.com/calvaleigh.rasmussen  
https://www.facebook.com/The-Brunos-47167757310

CD track 10: “We Be Soldiers Three” — traditional

Calvaleigh plays dance music from around Western Europe and the United States.  Hailing from California, she plays in several bands–The Brunos, Newcastle Waites, Thrupenny Uprights, and the duo, Viadeyra.  In her spare time, Calvaleigh also plays the field drum, piano, and gaita, does massage, makes wine, and enjoys traveling for music, her garden, her chickens, and her cat.

Photo: Tanya Anguita

OCTOBER
Kata
katacaza.wixsite.com/accordeoniste
CD track 03: “Menottes D’Argents” — Catherine Prévost

A native Montrealer, Catherine Prévost is an accordionist who composes and performs contemporary songs influenced by Andalusian sounds and Ball Musette. From theatrical improvisations to well-run shows, the stage is a playground where music has been vibrating her emotions for more than twenty years, in Mexico and Canada. Her music students appreciate her for her spontaneity and the great diversity of musical tastes that she evokes with her instrument.

Photo: Marion Petitbout

NOVEMBER
Susan Hwang
susanhwanglalala.com
CD track 04: “If This Isn’t Nice” (inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY) — Susan Hwang

Susan Hwang tells stories and makes things that are collapsible, like songs and times.  Physical objects she can’t play, wear or eat intimidate her.  She’s the founder and host of The Bushwick Book Club – an international musical/literary crossover event and podcast.  Her duo with songwriter/producer Charlie Nieland is called Lusterlit, and they refuse to play anything but songs about books.  Susan plays accordions because they are pretty and lighter than pianos (barely).  She plays drums because it’s healthy for a girl to hit things.

Photo: Fern Vernon Bernich
Location: Brooklynphono in Sunset Park Brooklyn

DECEMBER
Josephine and Lena Bergamasco

For online archived recordings of The Three Vagrants go to:
The US Library of Congress
The Cylinder Audio Archive at UC Santa Barbara 

Josephine and Lena Bergamasco are two sisters who played in The Three Vagrants, an American vaudeville band that was led by their father John Bergamasco. They were teenagers in 1920 when they joined the act; this photo was taken shortly after. The band had a two-decade-long career run that included early cylinder recordings for Thomas Edison. They and many others helped popularize the piano accordion on vaudeville’s gilded stages. They appear in Bruce Triggs’s Accordion Revolution: A People’s History of the Accordion.

Photo: Courtesy of Richard Harris
Photo taken circa 1920-24

COVER BABE
Marie-Andrée Joly
https://www.facebook.com/ma.joly.988
CD track 07: “Les Glandeurs” — Marie-Andrée Joly

Marie-Andrée has been playing and composing music for accordion for more than 20 years in Montreal and around Canada. Known as a gypsy jazz accordionist, she also creates songs and compositions inspired by French répertoire and world music. Her music features the different influences which come from living in the cosmopolitan city of Montreal.

Photo Editor: Marilou Joly