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| Central Florida Accordion Club Featured Member for October 2003 |
| Anders Bakke |
| From Classical to Cajun, Andy's done it all !! |
Andy, also known as the Accordion Man, began playing at
age 6 after visiting his grandfather's farm in Bergen,
Norway . . .
age 6 after visiting his grandfather's farm in Bergen,
Norway . . .
| The year was 1961 and Andy's grandfather took him to the city that day. He found himself in front of a music store staring at a beautiful Red Hohner with Red and Gold Bellows that Andy still has today (photo below). |
| This past Memorial Day weekend, Cajun Dave and Andy played a Cajun festival in Shreveport Louisiana. |
| At the age of 9, Andy started playing 'professionally' for the ethnic clubs and local housing development clubhouses and condominums on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale, Fl. He also formed a dance band with local high school students. When he was 14, he won 3rd place in Florida state competitions for an original composition, a Scandinavian tune he called Mom's Hambo. |
| Andy participated in National competitions with the Webster Accordion Symponettes (classical) and the WW Jazzettes (jazz combo). At 17 years of age, Andy joined the US Coast Guard. While in the service, he played for Chief's and Officer's clubs. He ended up in Jacksonville, Fl. where he got connected with the Sons of Norway. This brought him gigs throughout the state. |
| After being discharged, he found himself in St. Augustine where he played the local German and Scandinavian clubs. He played a full time weekend gig at a German restaurant for 12 years. Andy got the opportunity to go to a Cajun Festival in White Springs Florida and ended up on stage playing with the Louisiana Swamp Grass band. That day, he met Cajun Dave Becnel who mostly plays fiddle but does vocals, string instruments, and harmonica. One thing lead to another and Andy met up with Rick Weidley, another fiddle player. The Bayou Teche Band formed and started playing the Cajun/Zydeco Festivals around Florida for crowds between 50 and 100 thousand people. While on the way to Shreveport to play for a Memorial Day festival, they got an opportunity to play on 101.1 FM KBON Radio right in Eunice, heart of Cajun Country. "Max", the D.J. and owner of the station loved the group's new CD and marked all 10 tracks to play on the air. Andy had played every weekend at Old Germany Restaurant in Orlando since September 2002 until things slowed down over this summer. He currently repairs accordions and builds new accordions for sale under the name of Augustina. His latest model is a triple musette 120 bass accordion with tuba bass reeds. The accordion will be fitted with a special microphone system and etched circuit boards. This will be the first Augustina midi accordion which Andy hopes to have ready to play for SMASH 2003. |
| For accordion sales and repairs, Andy can be reached at http://accordionman-us.web-ring.info or eMail to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it."> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
