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Reel-to-reel: 2-TRACK VINCENT GERACI "REVERIES" 7 1/2 IPS REEL TAPE - CONCERTAPES INLINE

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29 Jan 2023
22 Jan 2023
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VINCENT GERACI
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2-TRACK VINCENT GERACI "REVERIES" 7 1/2 IPS REEL TAPE - CONCERTAPES INLINE

7-1/2 IPS 2-TRACK REEL TAPE

CONCERTAPES INLINE 24-5
VINCENT GERACI
REVERIES

Vincent Geraci was a serious accordionist, this album is not schmaltzy Lawrence Welk-style accordion or Polka; this music is far more advanced. I had expected something a whole lot cornier but I was wrong, testing this tape was an enjoyable eye opener.

Geraci accompanied such stars as Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Maxwell, The Andrew Sisters, Vivian Della Chiesa, and Ethel Merman.
Geraci, unfortunately, is not represented on YouTube but take my word on it, he’s really good, his music is not schlocky at all.

The sound quality of this 7-1/2 i.p.s. reel tape is excellent. The stereo presentation is as it should be.

This 2-track tape plays from start to finish with no problems of any sort. The tape still looks fresh, it’s flat, shiny and supple. The pack on the factory reel is flat.

A new long white leader and a new long red tail were spliced onto the ends of this tape.

This tape is wound to the reel tail-out, as all 2-tracks and quad tapes should be. To play you’ll need to first rewind the tape to an empty reel.

Please see the photos to check condition of the box and reel.

Reveries

I Love You - Cole Porter
Reverie - Debussy
Magic is the Moonlight - M. Grover
If You Go - M. Emer
The Breeze and I - E. Leucona
Autumn in New York - V. Duke
Take Me in Your Arms - S. Markush
Laura - D. Raskin
Adios, Mariquita Linda - M./A. Jimenez

An online tribute to Vincent Geraci from a former student:

Vincent Geraci was a student of the accordion teacher, Andy Rizzo Sr., who also taught notable students such as Art Van Damme and Sam Porfirio. In 1943 Geraci entered the Armed Services and became affiliated with the 81st Army Air Force Band at Mitchell Field, Long Island, New York. His talent soon earned him a position as Music Director. Upon leaving the service, Geraci entered the Mahattan School of Music where he studied under such illustrious teachers as Dr. Vittorio Gianinni and Dr. Feliz Deo of the Juilliard School and graduated in composition.

Geraci, a winner of the “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show,” also accompanied such stars as Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Maxwell, The Andrew Sisters, Vivian Della Chiesa, and Ethel Merman. He was staff accordionist at CBS radio and TV for many years, and performed in many radio and TV commercial recording sessions – plus countless recordings for Pop music stars.
Geraci had a music school in Chicago where he taught composition, arranging and modern improvisation as well as Classical music. My lessons with him, however, always took place at his home where he could spend 3 to 4 hours at a time teaching me all of those subjects. I don’t know if he treated any of his other students with the same privileged attention; perhaps he did, as he was a very generous man.

Geraci played the accordion and the piano, but his accordion was not of the usual design. Frustrated with the typical folk accordion limitations of left hand bass buttons that only span one octave, and chord buttons limited to those of the major, minor, diminished and augmented quality, he invented his own accordion. On the left hand side of his accordion were three rows of black and white keys – smaller than those of the single bank for the right hand. Each row began the interval of a 5th higher than the next, so that he could play a scale by staying on one row, or by crossing over from one row to the next in the way that a violinist crosses over from one string to the next. He could form chords in the way that a violinist, violist or cellist can by using one finger on each miniature keyboard, or by using all four fingers and thumb dispersed among all three keyboards. Vince could play many opera scores from memory on that accordion, and leave none of the complex, contrapuntal embellishments out. He could play the entire score of Porgy and Bess, and transpose it to any key one might ask for, with all of its intricate harmonies and informal counterpoints. Actually, I do not know what his limitations were, or if he even had any.

Geraci taught traditional harmony, cantus firmus, formal counterpoint, modern harmony, jazz harmony, improvisation, modern counterpoint, polytonality, serial composition, and atonal composition. There was not a genre, style, era, or nationality of music of which he was not a master. He was an accomplished symphonic composer as well as jazz musician, and he excelled in those and everything in between. I recall bringing him ten examples of eight bar phrases, each of which would be suitable as the beginning, expositional bars of a fugue. With them, right before my very ears, he proceeded to extemporize ten complete fugues that were perfect in every way, with no pauses, fumbles, or hint of “what should I do next?” in his output. He was, by far, the most gifted and knowledgeable instrumentalist, composer and teacher of music that I have ever known. At times, I thought that he might be a visitor from some other galaxy, but he looked too Italian to be an alien.

Geraci was a real Renaissance man, and was as much an inventor as he was a musician. His idol was Leonardo Da Vinci, and that almost says it all. Geraci took synthesizers apart and modified their circuitry to make them produce sounds that their manufacturers didn’t even know could be possible with their own products. He solved frustrating “delay” problems that occurred when using multiple synthesizer keyboards with MIDI tandem connections by having 7 or more synthesizers driven by MIDI instructions recorded on a SONY Beta VTR.