Melodeon.net Forums

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome to the new melodeon.net forum

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Paolo Soprani  (Read 3282 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Jimmy

  • Respected Sage
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 296
Paolo Soprani
« on: March 14, 2017, 11:50:05 AM »

Hi,

This is one of mine, does anyone know how old it is?
I think the sixties myself, but I'm not sure.
Thanks, Jimmy
Logged
Too many accordions, selling some off cheap as chips.

Pearse Rossa

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 696
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2017, 12:11:39 PM »

Early to mid 1970s I would say.
Logged

hspeek

  • Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 21
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2017, 02:05:42 PM »


Hi Jimmy,

That's the same model that Sliabh Luachra box player Johnny O'Leary played, the last few times I saw him play.
See for example , or do a search for other photos of him playing. Would be a 1970s model, as Pearse Rossa said. His was a C#/D - what key is yours in ?

Rgds,

Han.
Logged

Jimmy

  • Respected Sage
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 296
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2017, 02:18:43 PM »

Hi lads,

Thanks for the info, this one of mine is B/C.

Jimmy
Logged
Too many accordions, selling some off cheap as chips.

Winston Smith

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3769
  • AKA Edward Jennings
    • "Our Luxor B&B" Luxor life, slice by slice.
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2017, 02:19:23 PM »

At first glance, I thought that Mr O'Leary was holding a power washer lance, but couldn't figure out why!
Logged
At last, broken and resigned to accept conformity.
Oh, how I LOVE Big Brother!

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2017, 03:41:16 PM »

WE had a thread about Johnny O'Leary's box
not so long ago, to which I contributed the following:

Here is very solid evidence that Johnny already had that box in 1973 anyway - this picture of him, playing with Julia Clifford and Denis Murphy, is from the Fleadh Cheoil that year in Listowel. (They're playing outside the doorway of the Bank of Ireland, on The Square.)


Indeed you can see them (and the box) in action, in that very same spot, at the opening of the Fleadh 73 documentary: Fleadh Cheoil Listowel (1973) Cartlann TV50 RTE

I'll see if I can find any older images of him with it...

rees

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4734
  • Windjammer
    • Wesson Accordions
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2017, 08:15:15 PM »


Indeed you can see them (and the box) in action, in that very same spot, at the opening of the Fleadh 73 documentary: Fleadh Cheoil Listowel (1973) Cartlann TV50 RTE
[/quote]

Ha, Neil Wayne in there being moved on by the police!
Logged
Rees Wesson (accordion builder and mechanic)
Gungrog, Welshpool, Wales, UK
www.melodeons.com

Winston Smith

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3769
  • AKA Edward Jennings
    • "Our Luxor B&B" Luxor life, slice by slice.
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2017, 09:48:01 PM »

"Neil Wayne" ? Hehehe!
The last time I saw him he sold me a "Concertina Consciousness" T shirt, I loved it. Seeing as the boss threw it away (only about 20 years later), I wonder if he has any left over, about ten sizes bigger?
Logged
At last, broken and resigned to accept conformity.
Oh, how I LOVE Big Brother!

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #8 on: March 14, 2017, 11:59:25 PM »

Indeed you can see them (and the box) in action, in that very same spot, at the opening of the Fleadh 73 documentary: Fleadh Cheoil Listowel (1973) Cartlann TV50 RTE

Ha, Neil Wayne in there being moved on by the police!

Oh yes, I'd forgtten that bit (proper order too!  ;))

There's also the Liverpool Ceili Band with their "signature tune" the Dingle Regatta, Paddy Taylor on the flute with Sean Keane, the Murphy Family, Paddy Keenan (head down as usual), Con Curtin (whose pub The Balloon Tavern, in Lots Road, could be hard to escape from!), Paddy Cronin, Paddy Glackin and Sean Keane, Leslie, Tara and Terry Bingham, and finally Tony McMahon himself... (not forgetting a few more that I couldn't tell you).

KLR

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 618
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2017, 12:13:06 AM »

John Whelan wrote on FB about playing the D/D# box Cooley gave to Jeremey Kammerer, when John was in Seattle recently.  Forget if John recorded that.  Jeremey let me play that box years ago when I was starting out.  The skinny straps stick out in my mind.  A student of his gave me a learning tape that Jeremey made for his students when he was living in Eugene Oregon, I digified that, here's a reel.  Jeremey repairs accordions/'tinas, or did, he's a bit senile these days; he set the basses in concert pitch and he took some of the wetness out of the treble too, it sounds like, it's not abrasive at all, 15 cents maybe.

Jeremey would play the thing inside out, of course.  I'm a piper and remember Jeremey asking me why I was wasting my time with these accordions, too.   ::)  Good question! 
Logged

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2017, 04:21:01 AM »

John Whelan wrote on FB about playing the D/D# box Cooley gave to Jeremey Kammerer, when John was in Seattle recently. 

Thanks for mentioning that Kevin, I ploughed my way back through John's facebook page and found that post on 24th September: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1279676508709260&set=a.247428388600749.75893.100000007702881&type=3&theater

I also found photos of his old 9-coupler Paolo Soprani, which (pertinent to this thread) has a similar style grille to Johnny O'Leary's box, and I can remember John playing it, at the West London Comholtas, when I first saw him in 1974.

Not surprisingly, that early '70's box has the same green plastic pallets as my late-'60's ("Joe Cooley model") 3-voice D/D#:


They're also to be found in John Lavelle's 2-coupler D/C# from earlier in the '60s:




Mick

  • Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 39
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2017, 03:07:35 AM »

Forgive me for what might be a self-evident question..., but I'm new at this and still wrapping my head around the various key arrangements on the various boxes. I recently saw a two row Paolo Soprani for sale online and it was listed as a "Sol-Do" or C-G.

Who this mean the outer row is C and the inner G--and thus a 5th apart? Or is it a backwards way of saying it is a GC box?

Thanks for helping clarify!

Mick
Logged

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2017, 03:55:57 AM »

You've got it the wrong way around Mick - Sol is G and Do is C, so it's a G/C box, plain and simple.

Malcolm Clapp

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1095
  • Loving my Hohner-reeded wet MMM CastaTommy
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2017, 04:30:35 AM »

There's a 2 row Paolo currently listed as fa/sol....sounds unlikely.
Maybe the fa row is really F#, in which case its like a B/C taken up a 5th (or down a 4th)
Not that I've ever seen one, but could be an interesting fingering, though more likely a listing error.
Logged
Tuner/repairer, now retired, but still playing! Happy to offer advice on repairs etc., and might be persuaded to undertake the odd emergency job for local and longtime  customers. Selling a few melodeons from my collection currently....

Mick

  • Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 39
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2017, 11:44:38 AM »

You've got it the wrong way around Mick - Sol is G and Do is C, so it's a G/C box, plain and simple.

Doh.  Thanks, Steven.  Of course.   :-[

The box is described as both C-G and Sol-Do, so you must be right and that the first "C-G" flipping probably had the letters flipped.

Makes a lot more sense to me now.  Julie Andrews's efforts notwithstanding, the Solfege system is coming slowly to me.

Mick
Logged

Steve C.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1901
  • Erica, Laura, Morse Anglo
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2017, 12:40:16 PM »

My better ½ and my visit to Neil's lair in late '70's
Logged
Located in Central North Carolina, USA; credit for picture: livingplanet.ca

Melissa Sinclair

  • Regular debater
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 220
  • Got my first squeeze... box(es)
    • Melissa's Melodeons
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #16 on: March 24, 2017, 06:50:35 PM »

I think I see that GC listing too... But it doesn't seem to match others I've seen... and it's missing a badge, but I see no evidence of there ever being one from the photo. Since I'm trying to learn, I am curious about it.

Logged
Plunking on my 1st box: Vintage burl Hohner in GC,  a lonely Hohner Liliput in CF, and a borrowed Streb to have a "silent Melodeon" and a melodeon of many keys!

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #17 on: March 24, 2017, 08:34:54 PM »

Since I'm trying to learn, I am curious about it.

I'm curious about it too, I've never seen one like it. It's certainly not from "the golden age" and much more recently made...

pgroff

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1797
Re: Paolo Soprani
« Reply #18 on: March 25, 2017, 01:52:59 PM »

There's a 2 row Paolo currently listed as fa/sol....sounds unlikely.
Maybe the fa row is really F#, in which case its like a B/C taken up a 5th (or down a 4th)
Not that I've ever seen one, but could be an interesting fingering, though more likely a listing error.

Sorry for the thread drift Malcolm, but I have a Crucianelli in F#/G (MM if you compare the rows to a G/C, or LL if you compare the rows to a D/G).  Putting together an F#/G tuned an octave higher has long been a goal of mine, but not urgent enough I guess.

I think Jackie Daly has recorded with an F#/G "accordiola"

PG
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 


Melodeon.net - (c) Theo Gibb; Clive Williams 2010. The access and use of this website and forum featuring these terms and conditions constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions.
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal