Accordeon: Musette/Swing Paris 1925-1954

Yet another hefty chunk of plastic from Frémeaux & Associés, this is the fourth volume of a series of compilations of the accordion music of Paris from the 1920s to 50s, spanning the vogues for waltz, java, and also the later Gypsy jazz-influenced swing, packed with names famous – Viseur, Deprince, Vacher, Murena, Privat – and obscure. If you're a musette anorak, you'll certainly be adding this to your collection, but even if you're not, there are plenty of reasons to be tempted for pure listening pleasure. Among them is the interesting range of larger format bands, which augment the better known accordion, banjo and guitar-led combos. The Orchestre Ideal supply a monster of a tuba-boosted waltz, featuring the forgotten Folies Bergères songstress La Houppa. The first CD’s third track is a juju-java, no less, by the Orchestre Musette Gigetto, a tsunami full of brass, glockenspiels, swannee whistles and much more. And for the coup de grace, whip the second CD on, for track eight, a Tyrolian waltz by the Deprince Musette Orchestra, featuring yodeling. There’s nothing like a good yodel to blast the Gitane soot out of the bronchial tubes. With an excellent booklet full of liner notes and archive photos, this is one more reason to be grateful companies like Frémeaux are still at work.