Art Van Damme

Jazz accordion is a jazz practice that features the accordion—either piano accordion or chromatic button accordion—as a principal improvising and comping instrument. It adapts swing-time phrasing, bebop vocabulary, and modern jazz harmony to the bellows-driven mechanics of the accordion. The right hand typically carries melodic lines and solos, while the left hand provides bass motion and harmonic support, either via the traditional stradella bass system or a free-bass system that enables walking bass and rootless voicings. In European contexts the style often draws on musette waltzes and Parisian café idioms; elsewhere it readily blends with tango, Latin, and chamber-like small-group settings. The result ranges from fleet, guitar-like single‑note runs and elegant chord‑melody textures to luminous, reed‑choir timbres—capable of both lively swing and intimate, lyrical ballad playing.

Vocal jazz is a jazz tradition in which the human voice is treated as an instrument—matching the phrasing, articulation, and timbral nuance of horns or piano. Singers often improvise melodically and rhythmically, including using scat singing (nonsense syllables) to emulate instrumental solos. At the same time, many vocal‑jazz performances favor traditional, pop‑leaning song structures and clear lyric delivery, reducing the overall role of extended improvisation compared with small‑group instrumental jazz. Repertoires frequently draw from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway standards (the Great American Songbook), rendered with swing, ballad, or Latin feels.