Tufty Indigo 🪗Feb 11
The thumbnail photo on this Clifton Chenier album https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k-5Yqg8H9Ul9-Eo-DSvErnsaoxf-mzvkI shows him singing into a #microphone that's mounted directly on his #accordion. When I've tried this I've picked up awful amounts of handling noise from pressing keys and registers, but this photo gives me confidence that there's a way to make it work out. How? Other than just a high-pass on the channel.
King of Louisiana Blues and Zydeco - Album by Clifton Chenier

Listen to King of Louisiana Blues and Zydeco by Clifton Chenier on YouTube Music - a dedicated music app with official songs, music videos, remixes, covers, and more.

YouTube Music
Show threadAccordionBruceFeb 14

@tuftyindigo
Clifton was known for not following sound musical advice or practice

Including Chris Strachwitz’s repeatedly recommending that he not place his #accordion mics in front of the amplifiers, where they caused plenty of feedback

According to Chris, Chenier didn’t want to do that so the “squealing” continued 🤷🏻‍♂️

This wasn’t a cool Jimi Hendrix feedback. It was the other kind nobody but noise musicians like

Show threadAccordionBruceFeb 14

@tuftyindigo
I think Chenier probably had piezoelectric mic internally mounted inside his #accordion at times

That was kind of top-of-the-line Accordion amplification for a long time

Accordion ended up about 40 years behind the guitar in amplification by the 1970s. And has never caught up

You can most clearly hear the technology in the recording at Berkeley from 1966 because he’s performing just with his brother on rubboard and a drummer
https://youtu.be/I11Pvvjpa4o
#zydeco

Clifton Chenier - Live at the 1966 Berkeley Blues Festival

YouTube
Show threadTufty Indigo 🪗
@AccordionBruce Only just got to listening, and I see what you mean. The accordion is so forward in the mix, while the drums and washboard could be in the next room. It's a lot closer to today's close-miced recordings; back then it was more usual to mic farther from the instrument and get a lot more bleed and room tone.
Feb 24 at 11:38amWeb
Show threadAccordionBruceFeb 27

@tuftyindigo
Later in his career he wanted to fill halls and get R&B’d up like Ray Charles so had to have the full band

And once you have an electric bass guitar you don’t need the left hand of an accordion

So the sound of zydeco was changing