Reyes Accordions

The Accordion / Tradition

There are a many different brands of button accordions in the market today. Italian and German seem to dominate the market. Italian made accordions have a richer sound and some models come with an option of having two sets of keys instead of one. In other words, you don’t have to be carrying two or more accordions around if you play in different keys; press a button, and you convert your accordion from a GCF to an FBE; and some are avilable with handmade reeds and tend to be fancier looking than your standard German models.

1960s Santa Marsala - Made in Italy


Ramon Ayala - 1960s	Ruben Vela - 1970s	Juan Villarreal - 1960s

Hohner

A large number of musicians continue to use the traditional Hohner German made accordion which comes in one, two, and three-row buttons. The three-row button is however the most popular today. The Hohner is not as fancy as Italian accordions, but, the hohner is a extremely light in weight, has a nice down-home folk sound if you are into that, easy to carry around, and is extremely sturdy. This box can really take a beating. The bass reeds are also removed since the bass section is not utilized at all in Conjunto or Norteño. The bass keys are basically used as an air escape valve giving you the ability to open and close the bellows extremely fast.


Flaco Jimenez 1960s	Eugenio Abrego - 1960s	Tony De La Rosa 1960s

Custom tuning is another feature that can be used for both German and Italian made accordions. Basically dry and wet tuning. This gives you the option to have your box tuned to the Tex-Mex sound like Flaco Jimenez, The Home Town Boys, Esteban Jordan (jazz), and Valerio Longoria (asordinada).

There has been a lot of speculation as to the time period and who introduced the diatonic accordion to Mexico and Texas. One thing that we can be sure of is that German influence is clearly evident in Texas. Germans in the early 19th century founded the city of New Braunfels, which is one hour east of San Antonio, Texas. The German influence can also be traced to northern cities in Mexico such as Monterrey. Because of this influence, we cannot discount the piano accordion. The piano accordion also has a long tradition in the German and Mexican community. More so in the German community, but , there are a lot of conjunto and norteño bands today that use the piano accordion. Many rock bands are using the piano accordion as a part of their ensemble. Check out this early rock-n-roll band that used the piano accordion Bill Haley and The Comets.