Accordion Tribe

A fine portrait of an unusual accordion quintet, all well-known artists in their own right who get together for a special collaborative project called Accordion Tribe. The film crew follows them on a tour of Europe in a big red bus. The musicians are from all over (one is from the NYC area, the others come from Sweden, Finland, Slovenia and Austria) and the filmmakers are very good at establishing a sense of place at the musicians' various home bases. They are also highly effective in observing the different characters of each member of the group and giving an impression of how the five star-egos manage to accommodate each other with grace. They get some great quotes during interviews - Maria Kalaniemi, the accordionist from Finland, says (and I paraphrase): music shouldn't be over-analyzed, otherwise it becomes boring. Right on!

The film is less successful at creating a linear narrative, for example, we never know where the heck the band is playing at any given time or where they're supposed to go next, so the repeated shots of life in the bus and European countryside flowing past are, in the end, picturesque but meaningless.

That is a minor quibble because the filmmakers do their job in capturing the spirit of the music, which is beautiful, not only the Accordion Tribe together, but separately (Ms Kalaniemi's duet with another folksinger beside a lake is exquisite). There are moments so beautiful they will bring tears to your eyes. And there are a few good laughs (the bus getting lost in whatever European capital that was).

Highly recommended.

Hi, My name is Mary Beth. I am a pianist,student accordionist, and a member of the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society (WMAS) which is based in Falls Church, VA. located approximately 5 mi. outside Washington, DC in a residential part of Northern VA. We receive monthly e-mail newsletters from Maria Cherkasky. She said one of our members, Domic Karcic, asked if anyone had seen Accordion Tribe 2004, Stefan Scheietert or knows where to get a copy? Thank you for commenting on the film. It sounds like a lot of fun to me and I'm sure our group of accordionists would appreciate it too. Your comments were a good lead in our search for a copy! MB

I took accordion lessons from about the age of ten until I was sixteen and remember trying to defend it in a high school music theory class (I had no luck). I gave it up in favor of the saxophone (only slightly less disreputable) and then the violin and seldom gave a thought to the accordion,unless to wish I'd had the sense when I was a child to ask for piano lessons instead of the accordion .

All this is to say that I was only mildly curious when I saw this title on Link TV, "The Accordion Tribe," and I decided to watch it for a few minutes. But I couldn't stop watching--and listening. Not only is the music superb, but also the film conveys what it must feel like to be a musician--a superior musician--and what joy can come from playing in an ensemble of superior musicians.

Although the members of the "tribe" have in common a love of the accordion and a dazzling skill in playing it, they bring different orientations and sensibilities to the music. We come to understand how such contrasting styles can become a source of power as we see the musicians listening to each other while playing, echoing and amplifying and commenting in musical terms, with a smile or nod of the head communicating their pleasure, acknowledging each other's understanding.

More than once I was moved to tears, but, as others have suggested, the beautiful duet performed by the Finnish accordionist Maria Kalaniemi and a singer was a special occasion. I've never heard anything like it. But this was followed by another duet just as moving, with Maria Kalaniemi and the blind Austrian, Otto Lechner. Lechner, whose orientation is jazz, was remarkable throughout and highly articulate, witty in speech as well as in his music, but in this duet he soared.

The interweaving of the performers' talk with their music and travel is seamless. You feel you know each of them well by the end and hate to say goodbye. In a theater I would jump to my feet and shout, "Bravo, Bravissimo!"

Last night my companion and I saw "Accordion Tribe" at the Skirball Center here in LA. We, and the audience were, as the euphemism goes, "Blown Away". Yes, there were a few accordion players in the audience. They were asked to identify themselves at the beginning of the program. To fully clear the air, I am not an accordionist or an aficionado of the instrument. Further, though the stated purpose of these five accordion players is to get some respect for their once ubiquitous instrument, this film is only incidentally about accordions or accordionists. It is about "Art" and how it is created. The musicians are filmed in their homes and on tour in Europe.

The first thing to note is that the film is excellent in every respect including all that we look for cinemagraphically. For me it is, in fact, the way that Schwieter, the director, amalgamates very fresh imagery, cuts, transitions, etc. with the music and performances – individual and grouped – that puts the contrasting near mysterious musicianship and emotional depth of these five individuals into one big bouillabaisse and pushes the pot right under our nose to savor. Really, this is film making at its best.

Of course he has to have something to work with and these five give him all the ingredients he needs. As musicians they are at the top of their game. All are excellent. And, all could not be more different. Maria Kalaniemi and Otto Lechner bookend the five. Klucevesk the American, Hollmer the Swede and Bibic the Slovakian are each gifted musicians with highly individual styles. They are also pretty much regular guys. The type that any of us might enjoy helping on a Saturday pour a slab for a bedroom addition. They talk a little and have some good insights into writing and playing the way they do. Yet it is Kalaniemi working from the Karelian tradition of Finland and Lechner, the blind, self trained, wild Viennese steeped in the internationalism of Jazz that push this group beyond just music…no matter how excellent it may be.

Kalaniemi, the lovely but sober Finn, opens her heart completely in conversation and performance. It is not explained but over the tour she develops a special bond with Lechner, her musical and personality opposite. Perhaps it is that he, like her, can completely lay bare the emotional basis for his art. The bond between them comes out in a duet that she wrote specifically to play together. In the last few notes he breaks into tears. You may also.

Lechner is also the funniest of the bunch. He does a great riff on their tour buss's GPS system guiding them to that night's hotel. He of course can only hear the female voice giving them directions. He can't see where they are actually going but keeps up a running argument accusing the voice of misdirecting them into calamitous situations.

"Accordion Tribe", when all is said and done, is one of the most moving films I have ever seen. I am not limiting this judgment to the music/documentary genre. The very enthusiastic applause from the Skirball crowd confirmed this for me.

To tell you the truth, we all agreed to meet and watch Hotel Rwanda... except that I showed up at the wrong cinema, bought the wrong ticket and didn't notice a thing until the movie actually started... I almost left. But then (having payed € 6,00 to go inside), I decided to give it a shot. It turns out that the film was not that bad, really! OK, everyone in the audience looked like an accordion player (I'd say there's lots of them around!!!). Yeah, and the start is sort of slow. But once you get in the mood, and you start to enjoy the "emotional reportage" kind of approach that Stefan Schwietert chose, you actually appreciate it.

This is a documentary about 5 accordion musicians - one American-Slovenian, one real Slovenian, one Finnish, one Swedish and one Austrian. They all get together to... well, you guessed, play accordion! It's the story of how they got together, how they organized their tour, how they learned about each other's very different backgrounds, but also their common love for music. Above all, it's a very honest, sensitive, beautiful and actually touching portrait of pure love for music. Perhaps the most touching of all is the way Maria Kalaniemi (from Finland, and the only woman in the group) views it. Her matter-of-fact attitude is very "Suomi-woman", she seems more reserved than all the others, but her part of the story was the most poetic, almost lyrical. Imagine Finland in the Summer: a lake, barely anyone around, and she plays and sings with another woman in that beautiful, musical and poetic language. I would be omitting something important if I didn't tell you I had tears in my eyes. I had. And that is exactly the way she feels her music, and the way she wants people to feel her music: to, despite not understanding the words, being able to feel how strong the melody and the storyline are. Undoubtedly, one of the nicest pieces of music I've heard. I hope they have a sound-track.