Gus Viseur

Gus Viseur Biography

Gus Viseur ( May 15, 1915 – August 25, 1974) was a Belgian button accordionist. Gustave-Joseph Viseur, born in Lessines, Belgium, was a virtuoso in the musette genre, during the swing era in the 1930s, with Gus Viseur Et Son Orchestre. He is the only jazz accordionist who is a member of the famous Hot Club de France, conducted by Charles Delaunay. Gus Viseur began his career playing in the streets of Paris. He managed to get a great sound from a chromatic button accordion. It was clear that he was doing something innovative: He helped create the accordion-jazz style known as manouche. Meeting Django Reinhardt and performing with the legendary Quintet of the Hot Club of France was an important new chapter in his life. Later he even played bebop in the fifties. He was the first to draw a link between Musette and Jazz, but he never forgot Musette. That was his main voice. There is an unbelievable strength in his playing, that gives him the ability to improvise in all those different music genres. In addition to his numerous recordings he also performed in cabarets and nightclubs with musicians including Didi Duprat. He recorded his first record in 1937 and accompanied Édith Piaf in 1940. He recorded all the genres of the musette repertoire: valse, tango, paso doble,... He died in Paris, France in 1974. Representative Recordings "Flambée montalbanaise" "Joseph, Joseph" "Automne" "Douce joie" "Josette" "L'imprévu" (with Joseph Colombo) "Nuit de Paris" (with Tony Muréna) "Soir de dispute" "Souvenir de Bruxelles" "Swing accordéon" "Swing-valse" (with Pierre "Baro" Ferret) "La valse des niglos" "Le Bal du p'tit jardin" "Jeannette" "46ème avenue" "5 Juin" "El Victor" "Lorsque Django jouait" "De Clichy à Broadway"