Bolero Fantasia is the fourth volume of accordion solos performed by Zevy Zions.
As on his other discs, Zions nicely plays through accordion repertoire, including tunes composed or arranged by Pietro Deiro, Pietro Frosini, and Charles Nunzio.
The recording also includes Zions’ own arrangements of Saint-Saens’s “The Swan” from “Carnival of the Animals” and an accordion reduction of Haydn’s Serenade (from his String Quartets Opus 3, No 5). Sweet!
Naturally, there’s well-played klezmer here too. “Klezmer Suite #4” is a tribute to the late clarinetist Paul Pincus, and features Zions’ tasteful performance of a Doina, Volakh, and Skochna that Pincus used to play. “Klezmer Walk” is a ten-minute long medly of three khosidls; “Drohobitsher Khusid”, Dem Tsadek’s Zemer’l”, and “Tate Ziser.”
I enjoyed this disc a lot. The musicianship is excellent, clearly performed by someone who loves this music, and it’s a very happy-making album. Zions' mastery of accordion technique, from solo bass lines to bellows shakes, from quick arpeggios to his tasteful reed switching, his approach takes full advantage of the sonic possibilities of the accordion.
You can read my reviews of Zevy's three earlier accordion albums here.
You can find more information and order the album at Zevy's website.
