Various Artists”Legends of the Accordion” RhinoHow hip...

Various Artists

“Legends of the Accordion”

Rhino

How hip is the accordion these days? Look no further than Neil Young’s “Sleep With Angels” album. The eminent Godfather of Grunge, the Duke of Distortion can be heard squeezing away on “Western Hero.”

So retire the jokes and listen up to brilliant Tex-Mex button accordionists Flaco Jimenez and Steve Jordan, Cajun-zydeco players Clifton Chenier and Andrew Cormier, novelty-tune squeezers “Weird Al” Yankovic and Those Darn Accordions!, boundary benders Guy Klucevsek and Art Van Damme and even a couple of conventional bellowsmen who were so unhip for so long with a generation of rock fans--Lawrence Welk and Dick Contino.

Fittingly, this sampler leads off with Contino playing the much maligned “Lady of Spain,” his blinding virtuosity demonstrating just what a truly astonishing number it can be in the right hands.

The remaining 17 songs give a solid, though not definitive, look at the remarkable variety of music to which the accordion--possibly the most intricate, most unlikely musical contraption ever devised--has been applied. (You’d need a couple more CDs to cover it all, from Nigerian juju and South American tangos to Danish classical music and Russian folk.)

The other Yankovic--Grammy-winning polka-band leader Frankie--is here too, playing the bouncy traditional “Trollie’s Polka.” And lest you begin to think the accordion is limited to various types of dance music, the haunting, otherworldly beauty of Klucevsek’s solo composition “Awakening” will forever change your thinking.