Gustave Joseph Viseur (17 May 1915 – 25 August 1974) was a Belgian/French
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
ist.
Early life
Viseur was born in
Lessines
Lessines (; nl, Lessen, ; pcd, Lissene, wa, Lissene) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. As of the 2014 census, The municipality's total population was 18,637. The total area is 72.29 km² (27 ...
, Belgium, on 17 May 1915.
His father was a bargeman, so the family moved around a lot until 1920, when they settled in Paris. Viseur was given basic instruction in how to play the accordion by his father from the age of eight, and then had lessons from a music professor. Father and son played together in an amateur band from 1929. After his father died, Viseur "began performing on the streets of Paris in fairs and markets".
Later life and career
In the early 1930s, Viseur played second accordion under bandleader Médard Ferrero. In 1933, he met René "Charley" Bazin, and the two accordionists started improvising, inspired by hearing jazz. This led to Viseur forming his own band in 1935. It played in a variety of styles and recorded four tunes that year. "Viseur had the reeds in his Fratelli Crosio accordion filed down and retuned", which replaced the traditional vibrato of a musette accordion with a more modern sound.
Viseur "was a member of the orchestra led by the pianist Boris Sarbek, then worked in France and Belgium with
Philippe Brun,
Joseph Reinhardt
Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt (1912-1982) was the younger brother of guitarist Django Reinhardt and played rhythm guitar on most of Django's pre-war recordings, especially those with the Quintette du Hot Club de France between 1934 and 1939. He was ...
, and his own quintet".
Together with guitarist
Baro Ferret
Pierre Joseph "Baro" Ferret (1908–1976) was a gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was known by his gypsy nickname "Baro," which meant "Big One" or even "King" in Romany. Through his brother Jean "Matelo" Ferret, Baro met Django Reinhardt, a ...
, Viseur added elements of swing to traditional musettes that they played from 1938 and into World War II. He had more public attention after recording "
L'Accordéoniste
"L'Accordéoniste" is a song made famous by Édith Piaf. It was written in 1940 by Michel Emer, who then offered it to her.
Commercial performance
"L'Accordéoniste" became the first million-seller in Piaf's career.
Composition
The song te ...
" with singer
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf (, , ; born Édith Giovanna Gassion, ; December 19, 1915– October 10, 1963) was a French singer, lyricist and actress. Noted as France's national chanteuse, she was one of the country's most widely known international stars.
Pia ...
in 1940.
He toured the United States in 1963, then stopped playing and opened a record shop in
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
.
He started performing again around 1970,
and recorded the album ''Swing Accordéon'' the following year. Viseur died in Le Havre on 25 August 1974.
Representative recordings
*"Flambée montalbanaise"
*"Joseph, Joseph"
*"Automne"
*"Confessin'"
*"Douce joie"
*"Josette"
*"L'imprévu" (with Joseph Colombo)
*"Nuit de Paris" (with
Tony Muréna
Tony Muréna (1917 – 1970) was an Italian-born Bal-musette, Musette accordionist and jazz composer who lived and worked in France.
Life and career
Antonio Muréna was born in Borgo Val di Taro, Italy. His family emigrated to France in 1923 and ...
)
*"Soir de dispute"
*"Souvenir de Bruxelles"
*"Swing accordéon"
*"Swing-valse" (with
Pierre "Baro" Ferret)
*"La valse des niglos"
*"Le Bal du p'tit jardin"
*"Jeannette"
*"46ème avenue"
*"5 Juin"
*"El Victor"
*"Lorsque Django jouait"
*"De Clichy à Broadway"
See also
*
Medard Ferrero
Medard () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
...
*
El Ferrero
*
Jo Privat
Jo Privat (15 April 1919 – 3 April 1996) was a French accordionist and composer. Privat was born at Ménilmontant, Paris. He played for many years at Balajo, a musette club in Paris where he worked with Django Reinhardt, the Ferret Brothers ...
*
Guerino and his orchestra
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
Jazz accordionists
Belgian accordionists
1915 births
1974 deaths
20th-century French musicians
20th-century accordionists
{{France-musician-stub