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Acordeon Reloaded

07/06/2016Quantic Readies '80 Years' Tribute Mix To The Lightning-Quick Anibal Velásquez
 

The inimitable and prolific musician, producer and selector Will Holland, better known as Quantic, has done it again. Currently residing in Brooklyn, the UK-born jack of all musical trades continues to dig deep, dedicating his latest mix to the great Anibal Velásquez, legendary and lightning-quick accordion player and singer, or as Holland puts it:

"This is a short mix dedicated to Maestro Anibal Velásquez, incredible musician and the world’s most hardcore, trail blazing Acordeon players and singers. If you can dance it, he can play it, lightning speed Guarachas are his trademark, but he has a deep back catalogue of Pasebols, Cumbias & Charangas."

It is necessary to note that Holland, who has 16 studio albums under his belt to date, spent seven years living and working in Colombia and also collaborated with Velásquez:

"When I was living in Colombia I was fortunate enough to learn accordion first hand from Anibal in his home in Barranquilla, over a year or so he schooled me on his approach, an open book on his the gun slinging technique, no button spared, bellows always drawn. His principal has sometimes been overlooked by a country consistently moving on to the next, but Anibal has been a staple of the Afro-Carribean diaspora as much as Arsenio Rodriguez or Beny More."

Velásquez as a matter of fact is one of the few artists, who began his career on the radio and is still releasing music in the digital age. Holland himself has found it hard to keep up with the latter's musical output:

"I gave up expecting to collect every Anibal record years ago, partly because there are just so many, I think you’d need a whole Anibal room for it in your house, but maybe that's what we all need."

Anibal Velásquez just turned 80 years old. Listen to Quantic's tribute mix in the player above, fittingly entitled "80 years of Anibal: Stop that Acordeon, the celluloid is burning!".

For more Quantic, check out his SoundCloud page including this 30-minute mix revealing the musical influences of his superb 2015 album "The Western Transient – A New Constellation".

AUTHOR: Lev Nordstrom