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Jim Gilman was seemingly fated to<br />
play the accordion. At the age of seven,<br />
a local Chicago accordion school called<br />
his parents and offered six weeks of free<br />
accordion lessons because they had heard<br />
their son “had talent.” After resisting a<br />
high-pressure accordion salesman, private<br />
lessons were arranged.<br />
A move to California during Jim’s high<br />
school years seemed to halt his accordion<br />
career, but fate stepped in once more. Jim’s<br />
father actually saw in the Long Beach paper,<br />
“Wanted: <strong>Accordion</strong> player.” I ask you…<br />
how many times have you ever seen that?<br />
Jim earned his way through college playing<br />
at Knott’s Berry Farm as a street musician.<br />
In 1972 he met up with (by chance?)<br />
a saxophone player by way of a 3x5 card<br />
posted on a bulletin board and they went<br />
“on the road” playing at Holiday Inns all<br />
over the Midwest. After over 35 years,<br />
Jim Gilman<br />
they’re still together along with a guitarist<br />
and a drummer that were added in 1975.<br />
Jim’s not a one-man band; he’s a one<br />
man orchestra. “It’s truly amazing what<br />
electronics, computers and MIDI have<br />
done for the accordion. Acoustic purists<br />
may turn their noses up at all this stuff but<br />
the audiences love it,” says Jim.<br />
You can contact Jim at 714-777-6667<br />
or jimgilman@bigfoot.com ▲<br />
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