Accordion – Julien Labro

Julien Labro Expresses Love for Jazz Through the Accordion

June 20, 2015December 31, 2018
by julien

By J.C. Lee

When Julien Labro was a young boy in Rodez, France, he never thought his accordion would take him around the world.

But in the last year, the 34-year-old’s music has taken him throughout the Middle East, to Kuwait and Qatar, from China to Brazil and more. And this weekend, Labro will travel to northern Indiana to play his accordion as part of the Hot Club of Detroit at the Elkhart Jazz Festival.

The journey all started with a television show. The accordion is a common instrument in traditional…read the rest here

Uncategorized

Premiere of “Dialogues of Love” by Avner Dorman w/…

November 23, 2014December 31, 2018
by julien

By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk

Grand Rapids Symphony music director David Lockington led an epic night of epic music making with choral and instrumental music of the highest caliber.

The Grammy Award-nominated orchestra performed a work by a composer of a Grammy Award-nominated recording. Mandolinist Avi Avital and the Metropolis Ensemble getting the nomination for Best Soloist with Orchestra for their recording for Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto.

No mandolin appeared in “Dialogues of Love,” but accordionist Julien Labro and saxophonist Amanda Heim, plus baritone soloist Lee Poulis, were key players in a work of vast undertaking, inspired by the topic of love in its many permutations, elucidated in texts in four languages spanning two millennium.

Dorman’s imagination, which absorbs, synthesizes, and kicks out something new, is up for the challenge. He achieves authenticity by drawing upon ethnic and folk music, bits of jazz syncopation, a hint of rock rhythms, and a generous serving from the classical canon of music. Full article & review here

Uncategorized

Interview for Detroit News ‘University Musical Society celebrates the…

October 29, 2014June 24, 2015
by julien

By Patrick Dunn

Having presented popular shows last season featuring the ukulele, mandolin and bass saxophone, University Musical Society programming director Michael Kondziolka knew just what obscure instrument he wanted to highlight next.

“We had a lot of positive response to most of the concerts on that … curatorial line that ran through our season,” Kondziolka says. “So it was very much in my mind that we still needed to do something with the accordion.”

The instrument will receive its moment in the spotlight Saturday at Hill Auditorium in an “accordion summit” titled “The Big Squeeze.” Several individual accordionists will be featured, as well as the Accordion Virtuosi of Russia, a 35-member ensemble. Kondziolka says he envisioned the performance as a tour through the cultural history of the accordion, with the Virtuosi as “our accordion house band.”

“It’s pretty shocking that almost every culture has their own manifestation of the accordion, which in many ways is just a portable organ,” he says. “So it’s really fun, when you start thinking about the accordion and how it manifests itself in different cultures, how you can put an evening together.”

Hot Club of Detroit member Julien Labro will represent the South American heritage of the accordion and its “cousin,” the bandoneon, which features heavily in the music of Argentine tango legend Astor Piazzolla. Labro, who is also co-curating the summit, recalls first being “mesmerized” by the accordion when he saw it on TV at age nine. Full interview here

Uncategorized

Review: Cleveland Orchestra Fridays@7 with Lang Lang and Hot…

October 20, 2014June 24, 2015
by julien

by Carlyn Kessler

On Friday, October 10, The Cleveland Orchestra presented its first Fridays@7 concert of the 2014-15 season. Creating a more informal concertgoing experience, these concerts feature an earlier start time and shorter duration bookended by pre- and post-concert non-classical music, organized by world percussion luminary Jamey Haddad.

The Fridays@7 series embodies these recent developments and is undoubtedly a measure of their success. “The Fridays@7 concerts target a younger, more hip audience and are played without intermission,” wrote TCO associate principal cello Richard Weiss in an email.

The pre-concert “starter” begins at 6:00 pm in Reinberger Chamber Hall. The October 10 show highlighted Haddad along with accordion virtuoso Julien Labro and harmonica legend Howard Levy performing together in a unique musical collaboration. Read the full review here

Uncategorized

Review: ‘Pushing the South American Envelope’

October 17, 2014June 24, 2015
by julien

By Bruce Hodges

Inexplicably making their New York debut—only because this cracking, Chicago-based ensemble has been in existence since 2010—the Spektral Quartet packed SubCulture for a concert celebrating its newest recording, From This Point Forward (on Azica Records). Adding to the evening’s many delights was accordionist Julien Labro (who also arrangedthe works on the album). But like many virtuosos, Labro also plays related instruments: the bandoneón and the accordina—the latter similar to a melodica, but with buttons replacing the keyboard. Continue to read the full review here

Uncategorized

Labro featured on The Sound of Applause

October 14, 2014October 14, 2014
by julien

Dee Perry chats with Emily Anthes author of Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts who speaks Friday night at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History for the Explorer Series. Plus we share the music of local country crooners Rachel & The Beatnik Playboys who play The Stocker Center in Elyria this weekend.

Dee also welcomes back accordion master Julien Labro to the Key Bank studio for a preview of his performance at Severance Hall for The Cleveland Orchestra’s Fridays@7 series.

Check the interview & performance here

Uncategorized

Review: San Jose Jazz Festival delivers serious fun

August 11, 2014October 14, 2014
by julien

By David Becker

Many other jazz festivals seem to encourage the musicians to act like brain surgeons, egging on their artistic sensibilities and treating the work as high art. Not the San Jose Jazz Festival, which just wound up its 25th annual blowout.

Hot Club of Detroit: At least something in the Motor City still works! One of the least doctrinaire of the many Django Reinhardt tribute bands circling the globe, this quartet takes a more pan-European approach to its mostly original songs, not least because the usual violin spot has been replaced by accordionist Julien Labro, who turned out to be the star of the show. Lead guitarist Paul Brady was no slouch, picking out evocative and incredibly nimble leads. But Labro’s solo turns were truly heroic. And when was the last time the words “jaw-dropping accordion solo” passed anyone’s lips at jazz show? Read the full review here

Uncategorized

Byblos hypnotized by Khalife, orchestra, ensemble & soloists

July 19, 2014October 14, 2014
by julien

BYBLOS, Lebanon: Oud virtuoso, vocalist and composer Marcel Khalife brought the Byblos International Festival audience to its feet Thursday evening. For more than two hours, the spectators witnessed a night of outstanding instrumental solos, performed alongside mass choral and solo voice performances and orchestral compositions.

…. Accordionist and bandoneon-player Julien Labro also delivered and absolutely hypnotizing solo. Fingers moving like the wings of a hummingbird, his eyes shut, Labro infused the evening’s music with Latino grace notes.

Full article here

Uncategorized

Review: Labro/Vieaux @ The Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival

June 21, 2014October 14, 2014
by julien

By Mike Telin
June 3, 2014

The evolution of classical guitar music continued at 7:30 when guitarist Jason Vieaux was joined by his frequent collaborator Julien Labro on bandoneón, accordion and accordina. One always hopes the final concert of a festival will be something special that sends audiences home in anticipation of the next edition and Vieaux and Labro did not disappoint.

Given the two began their musical partnership with their 2011 celebrated recording on the Azica label titled The Music of Astor Piazzolla, it was fitting for them to begin their program with a work by the father of Tango Nuevo. Composed in 1986, Histore du Tango consists of four movements that describe the evolution of Tango. Vieaux and Labro performed the first, “Bordel 1900” and the fourth, “Concert d’Aujourd’hui”.

Originally scored for flute and guitar, the piece is often performed in various instrumental combinations (guitar and bandoneón for this performance) Now for my dirty little secret: I have always hated this piece. That was, until last Sunday night. In the hands of two accomplished musicians who are well-versed in both classical and jazz, Vieaux and Labro’s performance captured the essence of Tango Nuevo. As they would throughout the evening the dynamic duo performed from one musical mind – all unison technical passages, no matter how fast, were perfectly in sync. And they were obviously having a lot of fun during some extended improvisations. Keep reading the full review here

Uncategorized

The next accordion star: Julien Labro

May 14, 2014June 21, 2014
by julien

by Howard Reich
May 13, 2014

The accordion doesn’t get much respect in the United States – not since “The Lawrence Welk Show” and uncounted polka bands placed the instrument well outside the realm of chic.

Nevertheless, the glorious squeezebox holds a noble tradition in jazz, with artists such as Art Van Damme, Leon Sash, Guy Klucevsek, Richard Galliano and Astor Piazzolla (playing bandoneon) proving the instrument can convey lightning virtuosity and profound musicality as eloquently as any other.

The latest and most promising addition to this regal list is Julien Labro, whom Chicagoans have heard dispensing his wizardry in various club and concert halls but never quite the way he does in a surprisingly seductive new album, “From This Point Forward” (Azica). Playing with Chicago’s Spektral Quartet, which will celebrate the release with him Wednesday night at City Winery, Labro emerges as a triple threat: brilliant technician, poetic melodist and cunning arranger. Read the full article here.