js You have to admire Tommy Gumina’s tenacity and enthusiasm for his chosen instrument. Most people don’t normally associate the accordion with jazz, but Gumina did his best to change all that. In the 50s and 60s the accordion became popular with the easy listening and exotica crowd who wanted to hear music that recalled their vacation in Italy or France. Getting people to accept the accordion in the fast paced world of bop and post-bop was another thing. There was certainly no problem with Gumina’s technique, the man can fly on this instrument, and he swings hard with the best of them. In the early 60s Gumina had a nice break when the top clarinetist of the day, Buddy DeFranco, asked Tommy to join his band taking the place of the usual piano chair. Its interesting that DeFranco was the one who picked him up because the clarinet had fallen out of favor in jazz since the 40s, leaving DeFranco as an odd man out like Gumina. So in 1961 these two very talented oddballs in the jazz world recruited Bill Plummer on bass and Johhny Guerin on drums and recorded the first of four quartet albums, with this first one being called unsurprisingly enough, “Presenting the Buddy DeFranco, Tommy Gumina Quartet.

This is bop with a slight relaxed polish that leans a bit towards the cool, but does not sacrifice a thing in energy. Although there are plenty of nice ballads and mid-tempo numbers, the real treats on here are the fast paced ones because both of these guys are blessed with fleet fingers and very clean technique. Unfortunately a couple tunes on here are pop standards that had crossed over into the easy listening world furthering the stereotype of the accordion as an instrument for exotic daydreams. What is far more interesting is when this unusual quartet takes on the more modern jazz of the time such as Parkers high speed bop barn-burner, “Scrapple from the Apple” and the modern post bop sounds of “On Green Dolphin Street”. Possibly the best cut is Gumina's high octane hyper active original, "Runaway". They go nuts on this one and Gumina shows off that the accordion can blast swingin comp riffs much like the horn section in a big band. This is a good album, if you are interested in or curious about the accordion in jazz, this is not only a good place to start, but possibly the length of your journey. Its also nice to hear the clarinet and accordion play something besides Lawrence Welk.