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http://accordions.com/news.aspx?d=02-Oct-2020&lang=en&s=16891
http://accordions.com/news.aspx?d=02-Oct-2020&lang=en&s=16891
02-Oct-2020
John Crawford (1925-2020), Scotland – UKby Rob Howard |
  John Crawford, from Freuchie, Fife, was one of Scotland’s real stalwarts of the accordion, a first class player, bandleader, composer, and an accordion technician and tuner. Born into a musical family, his father played the pipes, fiddle and melodeon, and his mother was a pianist. His brothers and sisters all played instruments, and Jimmy Shand was a frequent visitor to their home and a lifelong friend.Young John played the melodeon, the fiddle and the pipes, and graduated to the piano accordion, at which he excelled. After leaving school he worked as an engineer, and played for dances in the evenings. He also began repairing accordions, and one of his first repairs was to a Wurlitzer accordion that was part of a fairground steam organ. During World War Two John served in the army with REME, and by 1945 was stationed near Trossingen in southern Germany. He learned much about tuning and repairing from an accordion repairer who had worked for Hohner, and took this knowledge back home to Scotland. John Crawford entered accordion competitions in the 1950s, culminating in winning the coveted All Scotland Accordion Championship at Perth in 1960 playing the march ‘Jim McBay’s Welcome’, the strathspey ‘Maggie Cameron’ and the reel ‘The Marchioness of Tullybardine’. The adjudicators that day were Ian Powrie and Bobby MacLeod. He also composed several tunes in the Scottish dance idiom, such as ‘Bill Ewan’s Reel’, ‘The Bruntley Reel’, ‘Ian’s Reel’ (composed for friend and bandleader Ian McCallum), and a march ‘Freuchie’s March to Lords’ written to commemorate the success of the village cricket team. In the 1970s John recorded an album for Thistle Records, but it was not until 1998 that the real John Crawford was to be heard at his best. His ‘Piping on the Box’ CD, complete with Crawford tartan design, showing that when it comes to pipe music John has few equals. As a bandleader John Crawford did many BBC radio broadcasts plus some TV appearances. He recalled that his band would do a live broadcast and then go to play at a dance elsewhere later the same night. On one occasion he recalls having to play at a dance in the Assembly Rooms, Dumfries, after a broadcast and on the way home the band’s Ford car got stuck in a swollen ford and they had to put all the equipment on the roof of the car and push it out of the water. And just to compound the misery, John had to get home to Fife to start work at 7am the following morning. Above all, John Crawford was renowned widely as a tuner and repairer par excellence, with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things to do with accordions. Accordionists and other accordion technicians frequently sought his advice or services, and he will be missed. RIP. |