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Silver Taps is a CD archive remaster of an album recorded for Giulietti in 1978 that was never released. Silver Taps, William Cosby, Accordion, was actually recorded twice – the first time on a Super Continental V custom-made all-bassetti free bass system instrument that William Cosby played in the Coupe Mondiale and the UCLA Frank Sinatra Musical Performance Competitions in 1967. 50 cassette copies of this original album were provided to Julio Giulietti in 1978. The set of tapes presented on this CD were recorded on a special instrument loaned to William Cosby by Julio in the summer of 1978. Prior to now, it has never been available.

From notes of William Cosby

“Julio had a duplicate instrument that he let me play whenever I came to the New York shop, but he wouldn’t part with it. The sound was considerably brighter and had more ‘bite’ than the older instrument, but another difference was the technical response of the bassetti keyboard. It was extremely fast; unquestionably the fastest keyboard I had ever played. I finally convinced Julio to loan me the instrument in the spring of 1978. I wanted to record with it, and I wanted to use it at a couple special performances. Only sometime later did I convince him to sell it to me!

“I proceeded to re-record the entire album. The response and tone quality of the instrument offered a whole new set of musical opportunities I totally enjoyed exploring. I recorded in my basement – direct into a vintage two-channel Ampex using a matched set of Neumann. For the most part, there were no edits, no retakes. But the room was incredibly dead. I did some remixes with Bill Turowski (the recording engineer for the West Point Band), but a few months later, I seized an opportunity to take my tapes up to Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Studio near Woodstock. Mark Harmon did the remix. Though we were excited, I continued to entertain the idea of recording the entire project at Bearsville. The years passed. I began to focus more on the piano. Fate also interceded – nearly all the Ampex professional tape produced at that time was defective. It became ‘sticky’, hanging up in the tape path. Becoming unplayable, the second version was only heard by a few friends in 1978.

Program:

Sonata in F Major,

Third Movement,

Beethoven

Humoresque,

Rachmaninoff

Ritual Fire Dance,

de falla

Hungarian Rhapsody #19,

Liszt/Cosby

Rhapsody in Blue,

Gershwin

Prelude and Fugue in C# Major

, Well Tempered Clavier I,

Bach

Sonata, High Energy,

Cosby

Allegro

Moderato

Allegro

10.

Celebrations, from ]

“Compendium

of Descriptive Etudes,”

Cosby

Bonus Track

11.

Toccata and Fugue in d minor,

J. S. Bach

“Almost 30 years later, thanks to ‘baking’ the tapes, we were able to produce a high-definition digital copy. This is a CD archive remaster of the original tapes. There are several interesting things about this recording. First, it includes the only released recordings of my ‘Sonata, High Energy’, and ‘Celebrations’ from “Compendium of Descriptive Etudes. The recording also includes Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Though I performed it in my second National Competition in 1965, I didn’t perform it again in concert until 1978. It took that long to finally feel I could make it work musically. Finally, the recording includes a performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. This was done at a dress rehearsal prior to a concert. I transposed one of the sequences in the Toccata (in the left hand) and was so disgusted that I had no interest in even listening to the performance for several years. In those days I was into this huge, amplified sound. The young man doing the sound for this particular concert took my philosophy to even higher levels. Though some may consider it a bit ‘over the top’, for now, it is still on the track list!

Julio Giulietti had a passion for the accordion and the free bassetti system that was second only to his passion for life. This album represents a few moments of magic from an era that his vision helped to inspire.

Album Liner Notes:

A native of Los Angeles, California, William Cosby showed intense interest in music and the accordion at an early age. His formal music training began at seven and has continued ever since with several instructors – currently Anthony Galla-Rini. Young Mr. Cosby is presently attending his senior year at the University of California at Los Angeles majoring in Music in the College of Fine Arts.

William Cosby has included in his short career, the study of voice, piano, organ, and conducting, as well as the accordion. He has received numerous awards, the most recent being the Frank Sinatra Performance Award, which is the first time the accordion, has been accepted as a legitimate musical instrument.

The approach taken to the Giulietti Bassetti Accordion, is honest, and with genuine sincerity in the concept that this is a truly serious musical instrument. With superb execution and technical skill, and mature romantic warmth for the music on this album, the accordion gains a new honor.

The character and choice of Mr. Cosby’s registrations are uniquely his own, and indicates his sensitive understanding of the music he is performing and the careful attention to which he details each composition. The transcriptions and original compositions are especially designed for accordion with extended left hand tonal range by Donald Balestrieri, Anthony Galla-Rini, and William Cosby.

The soulful intimacy of the accordion has been carefully presented in this album and is a brilliant tribute to the magnificent artistry of William Cosby

Allan Emig

Silver Taps

Accordion Masterworks (1967)

Program

Air and Variations

from “Clavier Suite No. 5

(“The Harmonious Blacksmith”) Balestrieri-Ars Nova

Prelude Arabesque

Gregory Stone

Galla-Rini-Credo

Toccata #2

Ole Schmidt - Leeds

The Little White Donkey

Jacques Ibert

Alphonse Leduc

Cathedral in Ruins

Vaclav Trojan

Concerto #2 in G Major

for Piano and Orchestra

Opus 44, First Movement

Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky

Galla-Rini-Ars Nova

Le Coucou

Louis Claude Daquin

Balestrieri-Ars Nova

Flight of the Bumble Bee

“The Legend of Tsar Sultan”

Cosby-Ars Nova

Gypsy Shawl Dance

Gregory Stone

Galla-Rini-Credo

Bonus Track (not included on the original recording)

10-

Chinese Boogie

Stone/Cosby

Accordion Masterworks (1965)

A CD archive copy of one of the most rare of the Giulietti Neofonic releases –NEO 100 – Accordion Masterworks, Featuring Bill Cosby - - - Accordion Virtuoso – on the Giulietti Bassetti Free Bass System Accordion. Released in 1965, Julio Giulietti still hadn’t moved from 250 to 257 Park Avenue South!

The original album idea was to feature the bassetti accordion with one side performed by William Cosby and the other side performed by Steve Dominko, however Bill and Steve ended up each doing their own albums.

Very few copies of this album were distributed as it was followed by a second ‘William Cosby Accordion Masterworks’ Neofonic LP 100, in 1967, after William had been one of the original winners in the Frank Sinatra Musical Performance Competitions at UCLA and continued to win National titles.

This album is exceptionally unique for another reason – it was one of the last recordings by Armin Steiner in the studio located above his mother’s garage. The studio was the birthplace of numerous milestone recordings in the 60’s, but Armin was forced to stop recording there because neighbors were complaining about people coming and going at all hours of the night. The project was completed as one of the first projects in Armin’s ‘Sound Recorders’ – located on Yucca and Argyle – another Hollywood studio legend. Armin is still recognized as one of Hollywood’s top recording legends and as a musician in his own right. The sound quality captured by Armin is still amazing after 40+ years and has translated well into this digital archive.

Program

1 – Hungarian Rhapsody #19

Franz Liszt

2 – Sonata in E Major – L. 430 – D.

Scarlatti

3 – Sonata in G Major – L. 029 – D.

Scarlatti

4 – Toccata # 2, Opus 28

Ole Schmidt

5 – Important Event, Opus 15, Mo. 6

Schumann

6 – 2 Part Invention in D Minor

Bach

7 – 2 Part Invention in E Major

Bach

8 – 3 Part Invention in B Minor

Bach

9 – Spinning Song – No. 34 Opus 67

Mendelssohn

10 – Humoresque

Rachmaninoff

11 – Passepied

Delibes

12 – Tenderly

arr. Cosby

13 – Well Tempered Boogie

Cosby

From the liner notes:

Nineteen year old William (Bill) Cosby is currently an advanced Music major at El Camino College where his studies have introduced him to advanced voice, organ, and piano. Bill has also introduced the college to the potentials of the Bassetti Accordion in the field of serious music with his performance at several college and area concerts.

Bill started studying music and the accordion at the age of seven and was winning accordion contest titles at the age of ten. In spite of winning the Rocky Mountain Championship and Western States Championship at the age of fourteen, he doesn’t feel that he was seriously studying music and the full potentials of the accordion until his introduction to the Giulietti Continental Free Bassetti system shortly thereafter.

With this instrument, he has continued to win contest titles such as National Jazz Champion in ’61 and ’62, third place in the International Contest in ’62, the Accordion Teachers Guild National title in ’64, and second place in the World Title in ’64.

Of greater importance to Bill is the recognition and acceptance of the Giulietti Continental Free Bassetti Accordion in concert performance by musicians and the awareness of music listeners and appreciating public. To obtain this goal, Bill has appeared in contests and concerts from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles to Carnegie Hall in New York and is currently studying with Mr. Anthony Galla-Rini,

ABOUT THE GIULIETTI CONTINENTAL FREE BASSETTI ACCORDION, INSTRUMENT AND THE MUSIC

The Bassetti consists of three additional rows of buttons on the bellow side of the left hand with each button playing a single tone. There are no pre-set chords in this section.

The notes are arranged with directional pitch uniformity. This means that the low tones start at the top of the accordion and proceed upward, tonal wise, as you move your hand down the bass keyboard. This is the same as the right hand of a chromatic or piano keyboard accordion.

Because the Bassetti buttons are in addition to the Stradella buttons, you have the ability to play one or both systems individually or combined. This allows for playing of the great masters works in the original form and also allows for a greater technical means for arrangements or paraphrases or transcriptions, which allows the performing artist his full freedom of feeling or thoughts in his performance.

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