ROB REICH

The Balancing Act

self-released (2008)

San Francisco is an accordion hotspot. First Those Darn Accordions embraced the instrument's outsider status and made it hip. Now Rob Reich has come along to make the humble accordion not only acceptable, but embraceable in all forms of music, including classical.

Reich is a virtuoso of the accordion. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory (in composition) who also plays piano, guitar, and drums, his bio says he didn't start playing the accordion until age 22 – presumably after his conservatory studies, which makes his musical mastery of the instrument even more amazing.

The Balancing Act is an apt title for the CD, because Reich balances his chosen instrument between many different musical worlds. He is musical director and plays accordion with San Francisco's Circus Bella, and that connection can be heard in the uplifting and energetic polka, "Perles de Cristal". Kurt Weill's "Je Ne T'Aime Pas" transports the listener mentally to a smoke-filled cabaret in wartime Berlin, and you may just want to jam a rose between your teeth and dance along to an Argentine tango or open a bottle of wine as you listen to a French musette. There are also a couple of klezmer tunes, a pair of Cuban dances, and a Scott Joplin rag that cross classical, popular, and folk genres, equally at home under any of those tents.

What sets this album apart is Reich's playing on classical pieces, including a waltz from Chopin and J.S. Bach's "Invention No. 6," to which he brings an unerring musicality to his performance. The latter performance in particular is not just gee-whiz-look-at-me technical grandstanding; it brings the accordion the same respect as an organ in a cathedral.

There are also two compositions from Reich. The title track is a musical piece that has a visual equivalent in a crying clown. While there is a lightness and gentle, uplifting swing in the tune, an underlying melancholy and hesitancy bring a yin-yang balance to the well-named composition. "Abigail's Waltz" is not a slow drifting waltz, but rather a driving tune with some of that shadowy, semi-malevolent feel that keeps "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in a constant motion. One feels that dancers are being compelled rather than merely inspired.

Rob Reich brings the three r's to accordion playing: revelry, revelation, and respect. It will be truly exciting to hear what he does next.

- Susan Hartman (Baltimore, MD)