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09/21/2017 12:01 AMWhat is a bandoneon? Is it a small South American lizard? Or, an exotic Polynesian citrus? Maybe it’s the trademark name for a brand of floor covering?
No, no, and no.
Attendees at the Robbie Collomore concert series at the Chester Meeting House will be able not only to see a bandoneon, but also to hear one. The instrument is a small accordion, popular in Argentina in tango music. At the Robbie Collomore concert on Sunday, Oct. 15, Julien Labro will play classical music and jazz on the bandoneon as part of a duo with noted guitarist Jason Vieaux, who won a Grammy in 2015 for his most recent solo album, Play. “When I heard they were playing together, I immediately wanted to get them here,” says Martin Nadel, longtime head of the Collomore Concert Series committee.
This is the third time Vieaux has appeared at the Collomore series and the second time for Labro, who was a member of the Detroit Hot Club that performed two years ago. According to Nadel, Labro was a standout in that performance.
“Usually people are focused on the lead guitar in a jazz group, but with the Detroit Hot Club, it was Labro on the accordion,” he says.
When an audience member asked Labro about the accordion he was playing, Nadel recalled he gave a lucid explanation of the difference between European and American accordions.
“I’m sure he’ll do the same thing for the bandoneon,” Nadel says.
Vieaux and Labro are not the only return performers this year. In 2014, cellist Julia Bruskin appeared as part of a duo with her husband, pianist Aaron Wunsch. This year she is appearing on Sunday, Sept. 24 as a member of the Claremont Trio with her sister, violinist Emily Bruskin, and pianist Andrea Lam. They are the only piano trio ever to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and they appear in Chester as the Barbara and Edmund Delaney Young Artists.
On Sunday, Nov. 5, the concert not only has a Latin theme, but also a local flavor. Zaccai and Luques Curtis, who bring their Latin Jazz quartet to Chester, grew up in Hartford, attending high school there before continuing their music education—Zaccai at the New England Conservatory, and Luques at Berklee College. Zaccai and his quartet have on two occasions been selected by the United States Department of State to perform abroad as musical ambassadors. The five-piece quartet with Ray Vega on trumpet has a musical style that blends elements of blues, swing, and Latin music.
The last concert in the Collomore series, on Sunday, Nov. 26, features Gullah gospel music from low country and Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina. “Gullah” describes a people, a language, and a culture. The Gullah are descendants of slaves who settled in the low country, developing a distinctive dialect and culture. In Gullah, Ranky Tanky translates loosely as “work it,” or as it is sometimes rendered, “get funky.”
“People have heard gospel music before, but not this gospel music from the Sea Islands,” Nadel says. “This is really unique music.”
The Robbie Collomore series, now celebrating its 44th season, was named to honor the proprietor of Robbie’s Store, once a local landmark in Chester. More than 25 years ago, the Collomore committee decided the series would have wider appeal if it broadened its offerings. As a result, two of the concerts are classical and two come from the worlds of folk and jazz—but all have one thing in common.
“Whatever they are, we want them to be the best music of their kind available,” Nadel says. “People tell me they have been introduced to new kinds of music that they are not familiar with. They tell me they would have never come to a concert of this kind of music if it weren’t in the series and now they are glad they did.”
Musicians, Nadel says, like to perform at the Collomore series for reasons that range from convenience to acoustics. For touring professionals, Chester is a mid-way stop convenient to concertizing in both New York and Boston. For artists regularly based in either city, Chester is an easy, in–and-out day trip.
Beyond that, performers are delighted by the excellent acoustics of the Chester Meeting House.
“It’s a wonderful place to hear music; the acoustics are phenomenal,” Nadel says. “All the artists comment on it once they have performed here.”
He added that the first thing many performers do when they enter the building is snap their fingers—“They listen to the reverberations and say, ‘This is good.’”
Last year the Collomore series changed its schedule. It used to be two concerts in the fall and two in the spring. Now all four concerts are held in the fall. Nadel says that audiences have welcomed the change. There is less conflict with other musical series, and the new schedule also enables people who go away for the winter to attend all four concerts.
“They would miss the two concerts in the spring because they were not back yet,” Nadel explains.
All the concerts are followed by receptions, where the audience can meet the performers.
“The receptions are very nice, but no one comes to the concerts for a glass of cider,” Nadel says. “They come for the music.”
Robbie Collomore Concert Series at the Chester Meeting House
Sunday, Sept. 24, the Claremont Trio
Sunday, Oct. 15, Jason Vieaux and Julien Labro
Sunday, Nov. 5, Curtis Brothers Quartet
Sunday, Nov. 26, Ranky Tanky
All concerts begin at 5 p.m.
For tickets and information, visit www.collomoreconcerts.org
or call 860-526-5162