Mark Pentleton » accordion

329/365 Songs: Tico Tico

admin — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:25:44 +0000

This is the final song in my accordion collection for this week! Tico Tico, or to give it its original title, Tico Tico no Fubá is a piece of Brazilian choro music dating from 1917. The word choro means “lament”, or “cry” and the song was performed by Carmen Miranda and later by Ray Conniff. The tico tico is a bird and curiously the musical patterns of the song pay homage to Beethoven’s Für Elise. I’m afraid I got a bit carried away when recording the song towards the end! I’d also like to apologise for my introduction which sounds as if it’s going to turn into Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive!

328/365 Songs: Födelsedagsvals till Mona – Benny Andersson

admin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:17:51 +0000

This is a lovely little waltz written by Benny Andersson for his wife, Swedish TV presenter Mona Nörklit on her birthday. I’ve seen the Benny Anderssons Orkester play this live, and it’s one of those songs which the performers obviously enjoy performing.

327/365 Songs: Vieni sul mar – Enrico Caruso

admin — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:14:01 +0000

If I didn’t know much about yesterday’s song, I know even less about today’s! I believe it’s a Neapolitan song and at one point it was recorded by Enrico Caruso. I think this is a song my mum likes, so I hope you enjoy this, mum!

326/365 Songs: Summertime in Venice

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:09:59 +0000

Today would have been my gran’s birthday and so I thought it would only be right to play an Italian tune. I don’t really know much about this song, but I think she liked it! This recording is a piano / accordion “duo” so I hope it works, and there are a few more accordion recordings coming in the next few days. You’ve been warned!

I’ve also just remembered that 22nd November was the date of the first time I ever played the piano in public. I can’t quite remember the year – possibly 1980 or 1981, but it was at a church concert in the Volunteer Rooms in Irvine!

311/365 Songs: When you say nothing at all – Ronan Keating

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 22:39:23 +0000

The accordion is back! When I was listening to the Ronan Keating version of today’s song I heard an accordion in the arrangement and thought perhaps it was time to resurrect my own accordion! I’ll need to get practising before my forthcoming trip to Strasbourg when I’ll have to play the accordion for various Swedish Masquerades in the streets! So I decided to record a piano track and then accompany myself on the accordion. The song has actually been a hit for various performers: country singer Keith Whitley had a #1 Billboard Country Hit in 1988; Alison Krauss recorded it in 1995 and the Ronan Keating, formerly of Boyzone, recorded it in 1999, and this recording was featured in the soundtrack for the film Notting Hill.

180/365 Songs: La Corrida – Francis Cabrel (featuring Pierre-Benoît Hériaud)

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:08:17 +0000

It’s time for something a bit special on my 365songs project today: my friend and colleague Pierre Benoît Hériaud was over at the weekend and we decided to record a song we performed live a few years back at the Partners in Excellence Film Festival. It’s Francis Cabrel’s La Corrida, a very powerful song told from the point of view of a bull entering the bullring. The bull asks itself, “est-ce que ce monde est sérieux?” – “is this world for real”, and “je ne pensais pas qu’on puisse autant s’amuser autour d’une tombe” – “I didn’t think it was possible to have so much fun around a tomb”. On the recording Pierre-Benoît is singing and playing guitar and I’m on piano and accordion.

Like many other Scottish teachers, Pierre-Benoît will be stopping for his summer holidays today, so I’d like to wish him and all my other Scottish teaching friends a good summer break – bonnes vacances à tous!

365 Songs – Caledonia – wishing luck to Andy Murray!

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:20:23 +0000

This final entry in January’s 365song collection is the beautiful Dougie MacLean song, Caledonia, and it’s dedicated to Andy Murray who will take on Roger Federer in the Australian Open starting at 8:30 GMT tomorrow morning. I’m publishing this a few hours early to help inspire Andy, although I guess he’ll have other things on his mind I’m sure the whole of Scotland will be behind Andy tomorrow!

365 Songs – The Dark Island

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:59:54 +0000

It had to happen sooner or later… today marks the debut of my accordion on 365 Songs! I bought myself an accordion last April and have been enjoying teaching myself to play it. When I was recording some Scottish songs for this week I decided that it may be nice to do an arrangement of The Dark Island and record myself playing the piano part and then overdub the accordion. Because there’s so much rubato in a song like this it’s a bit difficult to get the timing perfect, but I hope you enjoy this nonetheless!

The Dark Island is often thought of as a traditional Scottish song, but it was in fact written for the BBC series of the same name in 1963 filmed in South Uist about the discovery of a torpedo on the shores of Benbecula.