The best of accordion music is coming to LA in bulk at the Squeeze Fest LA, presented by the Los Angeles Accordion Festival. On Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. at LA County’s historic John Anson Ford Amphitheatre we’ll have an opportunity to enjoy the three bands that incorporate this exotic instrument into their work. For a musical time-travel will bring us:

Vagabond Opera, the six-piece Portland band is fearlessly comprised of musicians and neo-bohemians with lashing, amorphous purpose. Described by the Washington Post as “A band of ceaseless charisma, boundless energy, impeccable musicianship and more than a little touch of both the naughty and exotic.” the group delivers passionate offerings of Bohemian cabaret for young and old. Paris hot jazz, gut bucket swing, tangos, Ukrainian folk-punk ballads, klezmer and vigorous originals meet a world of riverboat gambling queens, Turkish belly dancers, and the enigmatic Marlene Dietrich. Weaving elements of Kurt Weil, Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf with absurdist flair, theatrics and an old world mood, Vagabond Opera presents the new wave of opera–lusty voices singing in 13 languages and presenting a cabaret of rich musical phrasing, sparkling lyrics and indomitable stage presence, all played with exuberance, skill and a gritty Vagabond edge. This is Opera liberated and reinvented for everyone!

Conjunto Los Pochos’ core members, Otoño Luján (button-accordion) and Elliott Baribeault (bajo sexto) met in 1996 at the California Institute of the Arts. The two Southern California natives played traditional conjunto music as a duet at backyard barbeques and for anyone who wanted to enjoy Conjunto music. In the summer of 1997, the four-piece ensemble “Conjunto Los Pochos” was born and has performed regularly at the Annual Grassroots Music Festivals in New York and North Carolina and at the Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio, Texas. The band has appeared on KMEX/Channel 34’s “Los Angeles Al Día” and has performed alongside legendary musicians such as Poncho Sánchez, Los Dos Gilbertos, Flaco Jimenez and Little Joe y La Familia. The band’s name initially came about to address the perceived peculiarity of a bunch of [primarily] acculturated Mexicans (Pochos), barely speaking Spanish and playing “Norteño” music (border music from Northern Mexico). Ironically though, this music - having stemmed from the merging of European and Texas-Mexican cultures in the late 1800’s - continues to reflect the process of Pochismo (or acculturation) through its lyrics and music.

Feufollet has often been referred to as the future of Cajun music, a more current assessment must admit that they are now the present of Cajun music. Once idolized at early age for their precocious musicianship and sent all over the world as youthful emblems of Acadiana’s cultural resurgence, the members of Feufollet have, in the meantime, grown into the music as young adults leading the way once again as Cajun music extends itself into a new century. What sets Feufollet apart from other young bands is this ability to speak—and especially sing—in Cajun French. Their mastery of the language along with the music has enabled them not only to understand songs from oral tradition, but has opened up the creative possibility of writing new material—all with a beguiling mix of authoritative voice and youthful passion, seriousness of purpose and artistic risk-taking.

All of them are going to amuse us in the beautiful Hollywood Hills, the 1200-seat Ford Amphitheatre on Sunday, June 28. Let’s squeeze the box together!