Accordions Worldwide (accordions.com) offers Accordion Memorials, an online place to post memorials for the greats of accordion around the world. As they say:

Our mission is to provide an honorable and more modern memorial to all past accordionists on the internet. Utilizing modern communications we wish to quickly inform around the world, the departure of a loved accordionist. We also want to make it easy for those wishing to communicate a message of condolence to the family to be able to do so.

Another post about Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz

Another post about Art Van Damme 1920-2010

Another post about Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz

Another post about Stephane Delicq

Another post about Accordion Factory Video

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

Accordions.com has a spectacular Memorial ‘Wall’ set up.

Wikipedia for Art Van Damme

Famous for his masterful block chords and vibraphone arrangements, in addition to ridiculous dexterity. No relation to Jean-Claude Van Damme.
VAN DAMME, Art
Art passed away at age 89 on February 15, 2010, in Roseville, Calif. Born in Norway, Mich., Art had been a resident of Roseville for 12 years. Art was a pioneer in the use of the accordion as a jazz instrument, and as a prominent jazz accordionist, he performed worldwide and made many recordings. He is survived by his wife Lory Lawry, daughters Sandra Mummert of Phoenix, Ariz., and Nancy Stompor of Elk Grove Village, Ill., son Arthur Van Damme of Napa, Calif., six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Visitation will be held on Friday, Feb. 19, from 3 to 8 p.m. at COCHRANE’S CHAPEL OF THE ROSES, Roseville, Calif. Services will be held on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 10 a.m. at St. Clare Catholic Church, Roseville, and burial will be in Chicago on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Remembrances in Art’s name may be made to Vine Village Inc., 4059 Old Sonoma Rd., Napa, CA 94558.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebnqt4VcBxQ]

Another post about Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz

Another post about Stephane Delicq

Another post about Accordion Factory Video

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

Jazz accordion on the radio!?! Gil lays it down behind Janis Siegel. On piano, but more importantly busting out the accordion.

Gil plays on two songs. Prelude to a Kiss, with Marian McPartland. And behind Janis Siegel on A Thousand Beautiful Things, an Annie Lennox song.

Listen to it here on NPR’s media player.

Another post about Art Van Damme 1925-2010

Another post about Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz

Another post about Stephane Delicq

Another post about Accordion Factory Video

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

Giant accordion festival in Hamburg Germany. Starting next week. I think the accordionists have more fun in Europe, and I’m here stuck in the snow. Well this is definitely an event I would like to go to!

(Translated from the website:)

Where else than in the port city of Hamburg should be the “Schiffer Piano” and his music just devote a whole festival? Venue of the Reeperbahn is no accident, however: For the international accordion scene, cheeky and very lively – hardly a musical genre in which they had not successfully taken root. Thus, the neighborhood festival “accordion,” the performance show that approximately 200 years old invention that has conquered the whole of the folklore of Europe and large parts of South America: Of course the “classics” are the instrument family to experience – that of the Argentine tango bandoneon, the accordion alpine folk music, the musette, the French dance music of the Viennese Quetschn Heurigenklänge. But there is no lack of the “young savages,” which is unprecedented advance into sound ground – in short, as everything turn, has to give away what joy of playing the accordion and Tanzwut.

• February 13th, 8pm – Carel Kraayenhof & Sexteto Canyengue, St. Pauli Theater
• 14th, 8pm – Klaus Paier & Asja Valcic, with the Jurek Lamorski Quartett, Imperial Theater
• 15th, 8pm – Kimmo Pohjonen Kluster, Grünspan
• 16th, 8pm – Teodoro Anzelotti, St. Pauli Kirche
• 17th, 8pm – Attwenger, Safari Cabaret
• 18th, 8pm – Richard Galliano Tangaria Quartet, St. Pauli Theater
• 19th, 8pm – Accordion Tribe, Imperial Theater
• 20th, 8pm – The Motion Trio; Akkordeon-Orchester Hamburg-Eimsbüttel (MD Hans-Georg Beyer), Fliegende Bauten

Another post about Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz

Another post about Stephane Delicq

Another post about Accordion Factory Video

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

NPR last week put up a tribute to McPartland’s long running show by creating a beautiful interactive grid of interviewees from the show. Its a very cool thing, and they chose a great variety for guests from Chick Corea to Willie Nelson. Click on a music celebrity and you’ll hear a roughly 6 minute piece from McPartland’s interview.

My three favorites are Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie and of course Bill Evans.

Enjoy!

Another post about Stephane Delicq

Another post about Accordion Factory Video

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

Master of diatonic button accordion.  Called the Piazzolla of the instrument. His waltzes he is known for.

Many in the accordion community and fans are broken hearted. Please listen to his work.

News of Delicq’s passing broke on Feb. 3rd, 2010.

Do you like Galliano? blog has a nice reflective piece about Delicq.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnAB3sCm7Bg]

Another post about Accordion Factory Video

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

Found this on the Providence Journal’s site.

My heart’s an accordion, it bellows my life, plays

polkas, sweet songs, sentimental tunes, ditties,

waltzes, marches, tangos, dirges.

The player plays, the player plays on.

The dance hall is congenitally frivolous, laughter endemic.

A Polish wedding in Central Falls. Men swill drinks,

beer and whiskey, they curse, shout, boast. They raucously

dance, stamp their feet. Wives and husbands and friends

whirl, the pine floor accepting their exuberance, as

it was meant to.

A Polish wedding in Central Falls. Where wooden houses

are compacted one by the other, along the streets. Brick mills flourish

along the river, guiding the Blackstone. People here work hard.

She dances stately as a Baroque court, my mother, with me.

We glide along the floor, partners dancing. The music in me and

outside, the band onstage oompahs beyond the contiguities

of Central Falls. He stolid, Slavic frame, blue eyes, and historicity

hark back to Polani. She’s there, not here.

Now glimmers her extinction. Death. Death from gray to black,

from reds, blues, yellows, magentas long since gone, and all the life

they inhabit. She shouts, she calls for Romenski, the undertaker

who buried her father. Romenski is dead, too. She doesn’t know.

The dance beat quickens.

The accordion player pulses a lullaby tonight. Little daughter

Rivka expects it. The music wafts around her, into the night,

around her, her dolls, drawings, favorite cat. Her eyes flicker shut,

softly. She’s asleep for tomorrow.

Tom Borek

Another post about Accordion Factory Video

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

English language Russian TV News item on an accordion factory. They make the russian bayan. Friedrich Lips also has a small cameo.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r2IKn1-LbI]

Another post about Accordionist Death

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

From the Jackson Citizen Patriot January 27th, 2010.

Daniel Sitko spent much of his life with an accordion in his hands.

An avid musician, Sitko spent some of his childhood evenings sitting on his family’s front porch playing the instrument, friends said.

“He found music comforting,” said his wife, Mary Sitko.

Sitko, a longtime member of the Jackson polka band the Hy-Notes, was killed Saturday in a traffic accident in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 64.

Sitko was walking across a road around 8 p.m. Pacific time Saturday when he was struck by a vehicle, according to Palm Springs police. He was pronounced dead at Desert Regional Medical Center later that evening, The Desert Sun newspaper reported.

The investigation into the accident is ongoing, and no criminal complaints have been filed, according to police.

Sitko started playing accordion with the Hy-Notes about 35 years ago. He also played organ and occasionally keyboard for the group.

When the band’s original accordion player left to join the military, band member Andrew Wrozek suggested Sitko take his place.

He played with the band for more than 25 years, taking a short hiatus when his sons were born, said Wrozek, who was raised near Sitko. He stopped playing with the Hy-Notes about seven years ago, Wrozek said.

“He just enjoyed playing polkas,” said Wrozek, who also is Jackson city treasurer. “He liked to watch people dance and be happy.”

Sitko bought a home in Palm Springs shortly before he retired from Consumers Energy about six years ago, Mary Sitko said. The pair spent their winters in Palm Springs and summers in Jackson.

“He visited and liked the area and the weather out (in Palm Springs),” said his brother, Richard Sitko, 67, of Jackson.

Friends and family called Daniel Sitko a friendly and outgoing man who would go out of his way to help people he knew.

Sitko is survived by his wife; sons John, Steve and Philip Sitko; three granddaughters; two brothers; and a sister.

Funeral arrangements in Jackson are being made by the Desnoyer Funeral Home, 204 N. Blackstone St.

Another post about Brad Mehldau at Carnegie Hall

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi

Great news if you are a fan of jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. Mehldau has been given a season-long residency at Carnegie Hall this season, 2010-2011. What this means? Alot of fantastic new Brad Mehldau music; there will be music with strings, music with words, music for two pianos! Exciting. (Thanks to Nonesuch Records site for having such a great press write up on this news.)

Tuesday, November 9, 2010: Mehldau’s composition Highway Rider with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Joshua Redman, and Matt Chamberlain.

Saturday, February 19, 2011: Expanded Love Songs cycle with singer Anne Sofie van Otter.

From Nonesuch Records:

Mehldau explores both his improvisational side and his interest in the formal structure of classical music with a solo program featuring some of his own original compositions interspersed with classical piano works that influenced him throughout his career. In February, he reunites with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter for the New York premiere of a newly expanded version of his song cycle Love Songs, along with traditional lieder and standards from composers like Brahms and Lennon & McCartney. The expanded version of Love Songs was commissioned by Carnegie Hall following the original’s spring 2009 debut by this duo. The original libretto comprises three poems by early 20th-century American poet Sara Teasdale, book-ended by poems from Philip Larkin and e. e. cummings.

Friday, March 11, 2011:  a concert featuring the world premiere of a new work for two pianos, six winds, and percussion co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4IFtgATxK0]

Another post about Richard Galliano in NYC

Another post about Ben Perowski

Another post about Edith Piaf

Another post about Musette Master Daniel Colin

Another post about Contemporary Accordion Classical Music

Another post about Communist Fighting Accordionist

Another post about World Accordion Trio

Another post about Bluegrass Accordion

Another post about my latest project

Another post about Guido Deiro

Another post about Richard Galliano’s recording Paris Concert

Another post about Accordionist Richard Galliano

Another post about Accordionist Maria Kalaniemi