The Main Squeeze
By Marene Gustin
When Fort Bend County Sheriff Milton Wright isn’t putting bad guys behind bars he’s playing the squeezebox.
An accomplished accordionist, the sheriff has seven of the bellows-driven boxes and devotes an entire room to them and his keyboards. How did he pick up this traditional instrument of ethnic European and South American music?
“By the straps,” he deadpans. And more seriously: “I’m second generation Czech on my mother’s side, the accordion was very big with Czech and German immigrants in Texas, then the Mexicans picked it up and added it to mariachi bands.”
Wright started to play at 15 with a country and western band. Although he gave up playing professionally for school and law enforcement, he still plays several times a week just for himself, and squeezes out some tuneage with friends for charity events and at churches and nursing homes.
Two of his boxes are antiques dating from the 20s and 30s and one is a Gabbanelli MIDI, with an electric sound module that mimics other instruments.
“You can make it sound like anything,” Wright said. “A guitar or horns. It’s a regular one-man band.”
Gabbanelli Accordions & Imports LLC is based right here in Houston, although its roots are in Italy. Founder Gianfranco “John” Gabbanelli learned accordion making from his father in Italy, before coming to America and founding his own company here in 1961. Today his son Michael and his wife Elia run the business.
“Mike can build an accordion blindfolded,” said Elia Gabbanelli proudly.
“Musicians come from around the country to have him repair their accordions.” Gabbanelli’s are hand crafted at their factory in Italy and range in price from $2,000 to $12,000. The Houston showroom is full of gorgeous squeezeboxes brightly painted and jeweled.
“The more bedazzled,” she said, “the more the musicians seem to like them.” Gabbanelli said the folk instrument — which dates back to early China — is becoming more popular than ever. “That’s why we are still here, getting ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary.”
And there’s a plethora of squeezebox clubs around Texas including the Houston Accordion Club founded in 2003 in Fort Bend County by Mario Pedone, an Italian native who has a recording studio in Sugar Land (he and Wright recorded a CD there recently) and who tours around the world playing and teaching.
“I don’t know why I love it,” he said. “But I do. It can fill in any party. You can dance to it, you can play all kinds of music on it. Not just oom-pa-pa but jazz, romantic, even classical.” The Houston Symphony has even used Pedone and his squeezebox for a concert.
If you’re not familiar with accordion music, you might want to check out the 21st Annual Accordion Kings & Queens Festival June 5 at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Thousands turned out last year to listen to some of the best accordion musicians perform European polkas, mariachi music, conjunto and even funky Louisiana zydeco. Check it out. It’s free and it’s a world of wonderful music
