From Cajun and Zydeco to Tex-Mex and Rock'n'Roll, bellows are squeezing out dance tunes that reach the ears of young people all across the country.  With this return to favor, the accordion has turned people on to types of music they have never heard before.  But perhaps the most ignored; the Musette.  Even among accordion players and enthusiasts, the dance music that had its' beginnings in Paris at the turn of the century, thrived through the 40's, and now experiences a tremendous revival in its' native home, is largely over looked.  This may be because recordings and sheet music have been so hard to find until now.  I will help clear up both of these problems in my own way.  

 If we have any  ideas at all about the nature of musette, it is generally the nation of a delicate, but dusty collection of waltzes that has all but disappeared out side the soundtracks of moody, black & white art films-this couldn't be farther from the truth.  

 Stated most simply, the Musette is a descendant of folkdance melodies from the Auvergne, blended with German influence (the accordion), Italian classical and popular song, Tzigane or Manouche (Gypsy) scales and string instruments, and American Jazz and swing rhythms.  These elements shape not only the waltzes, but also the tango, paso dobles (2-steps), fox-trots, polkas, marches and swing numbers that were essential in the repertoire of any musette orchestra of the 20's through the 40's.  If the term had been in use in the early half of the century, this would certainly have been known as "world-beat" music.  Consider if a young musician told you his or her band used polka instrumentation, to play light-opera and Euro-folk melodies, using middle-eastern scales and jazz syncopations and chord theory, you would say, "oh, a world beat thing, huh?, and they would agree.   

 The Augvergnat instrument of choice was the cabrette, or cornemusette (from whence the word musette comes), a type of bagpipe that had a clear, loud reedy tone.  When German and Italian accordionists first began arriving in Paris, Bastille district, where the Auvergnat community was settled, the squeeze-boxes were thought of as a  threat to the beauty of the music.  (Report has it that some Augvergnat cafes where the "bals-musette" "regularly occurred posted notices prohibiting accordionists from playing the tunes!)  But by 1902 when one of the leading cabrette players had hired accordionist Charles Peguri as a regular part of his band, the tradition had begun.  

 The early accordion-oriented musette band often consisted of one or two accordions (chromatic button-boxes) with accompaniment of piano, violin and/or clarinet or saxophone, and banjo.  The banjo was the contribution of Manouche (the Gypsy people who lived on the outskirts of society, but in the heart of the city), Django Reinhardt first performed and recorded as a banjo accompanist to the accordion.  

 In the 1920's recordings of American Jazz and Swing became increasingly available in Europe, and, attracted to the rhythm style, banjoists readily traded their instruments for guitars.  Thus, the Manouche became donors of three elements of the musette, first the banjo, then the guitar and also the odd, "Eastern" sounding scales that give the swing-era musette its trademark exotic sound.  Through musette and jazz were not originally thought to be an appropriate mix by dancers and club-owners, it turned out that many of the finest players in Paris were gigging one night in a swing ensemble, and the next night playing for a bal-musette.  In time, pieces from the two repertoires began sneaking into the others' sets, and by the 1940's, it was common to hear the two styles intermixed throughout the course of an evening.  

 The Tango was already part of the musette repertoire by the early 1930s'.  In fact, it was the French who brought this Argentinian music to the attention of the world, because Paris was the center of fashion, and anything that was cool in Paris had to be cool elsewhere as well.  One style of Tango that gained great popularity owas the Paso-Doble (two step), which seemed to be the specialty of Italian musicians in Paris.  These tunes are recognizable for their distinctively "Spanish" sound.  So the groundwork was already in place for the introduction of other Latin styles that occurred after the Second World War.  

 The popularity of the likes of Xavier Cougat and Carmen Miranda was not overlooked by musette orchestras.  By the 50's the bolero, beguine and rhumba  were essential elements of the 60's. French music began to sound almost more Latic than French.  One example is the recording of "Very Frenchy" by Jo Courtin, King International Records.  By this time, much of what originally constituted musette was obscured, and many recordings from the period sounded very dated, or "schmaltzy" by todays standards.  The musicianship is good, the tunes are fine, but the production and arrangement are very "muzak-ish" to a great extent.  

 As far as the delicate and dusty nature associated with musette, one needs only to look at its cultural context to dispel this notion.  The cafes where the balsmusette originated were frequented by scrap dealers, metal workers, down-0n-their-luck transients and immigrants, gypsies, factory-workers and generally people who lived in the lower end of Parisian society of the day.  People gathered at the cafes for much the same reason as they gather at the local watering hole today, to talk, drink and forget about their troubles.  The exotic blend of sounds from around the world that made up the musette were perfect for evoking images of far away places, or memories of home, where ever the listener was from.  Mostly, it was music for dancing.  It was well-crafted and played, but also loud and raucous (consider the combination of bagpipes, accordions, banjo, saxophone and piano, what would you expect?) It is reported that fights broke out at the dances quite frequently, and many early photos of the musicians who played, leaves one with the impression that they were sailors, longshoremen, thugs or hard laborers.  They looked tough, cool, and as ready with a drink, punch or switchblade as with a waltz or two-step.  This was a macho, lively music and dance and the best recorded examples readily convey this feeling.  

 So where does one find this music?  Until recently, it has been difficult to find.  But thanks largely to the efforts of a few young people in France, old recordings are being preserved and re-released with new ones coming out regularly.  A list of my personal favorites, as well as recordings I believe are "important" are available at Mahler Music Center.