Photo by Richard Lautens, Toronto Star.
I’m not the only accordion guy in town, and I’m glad to see some younger folks taking up the instrument. Here’s an excerpt from a Toronto Star article titled Squeezing Life Into His ‘Hood:
Ronen Segall uses his bright red accordion to inject life into his Huntley St. home near Bloor and Sherbourne Sts.
The 25-year-old is an information technology employee by day, but come the weekend he’s an accordion-squeezing entertainer. French favourites are always a crowd pleaser, he finds.
Segall played the piano for years but he was looking for a more portable way to share his love of music. He picked up his 48 bass-button piano accordion in Kensington Market about a year and a half ago.
He admits it takes a sense of humour to walk the streets with an accordion. But he is a social guy.
“I like talking with people. I think this breaks the ice.”
Segall can be hired to play events but doesn’t play for money on the street.
To earn cash as a busker, you need to crank out the show tunes, he explains, and he prefers songs from movies such as Amelie and the Oscar-winning tune “Falling Slowly” from the film Once.
Segall likes to play music on a stone bench in front of his home. “I think it adds a nice atmosphere to the street.” When he plays it’s common for people to stop, start a conversation and occasionally dance. “Old folks love to dance,” and a French tune is almost guaranteed to get them stepping, Segall says.
You can catch Ronen at the corner of Bloor and Brunswick on weekends or at Crêpes A GoGo in Yorkville. I salute him with a filet mignon on a flaming sword for his keeping the accordion alive!
[Thanks to vinyl demon for pointing me to this story!]
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So, does the Accordion world have an Underground Rap Battle equivalent? ... cause you two may need to throw down ;)
Funny!
I'm actually here because I blogged about this guy, as he seemed to follow us for ages in The Annex on Saturday, and I wondered how you felt about it.
What's even funnier perhaps, if a little clichéd, is that I mentioned it felt like we were on the set of Amelie or something. Turns out it's probably exactly what he was playing.
Ha. Awesome. I just noticed the article.
I've never seen you on the street, Accordion Guy, but I read your blog :)
I do play a lot of Amelie on the street. If there's an underground network of accordionists, I'd love to see it.
I like listening to music on the street. Romantic. I pass by this other accordion guy and I like his music. Thanx for posting the article, I know more about him now. Do you have his mail? Can you give him mine?