Johnny Meijer (born 'Jan Cornelis Meijer' 1 October 1912 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

; died 8 January 1992 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

ist who played classical, folk, and swing. For a time he was known as a jazz accordionist and his 75th birthday was celebrated at the

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. ...

. He was also the subject of a film.Jura Film
/ref> Besides the popular songs he also played fast swing numbers, Romanian music and classical pieces and was widely recognized as a virtuoso jazz accordionist. In 1974 he recorded the

Dutch Swing College Band The Dutch Swing College Band (DSCB) is a traditional dixieland band founded on 5 May 1945 by bandleader and clarinettist/ saxophonist Peter Schilperoort. Highly successful in their native home of the Netherlands, the band quickly found an in ...

Johnny Goes Dixie LP, which went gold. He will be remembered primarily as a live performer of folk music in Amsterdam. He was typically seen during performances with a cigar in his mouth, and his accordion (which can be seen at the Gert Nijkamp Muziekhuis in Apeldoorn) shows several burn marks as a result of this. In the last years of his life, Johnny Meyer was rarely invited to play large performances, mainly in connection with his short temper and his drinking, and thus the King of the Accordion saw out his final days mostly in silence, occasionally playing at weddings and parties. In a televised interview during the North Sea Jazz Festival 2015

Richard Galliano Richard Galliano (born 12 December 1950, Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes) is a French accordionist of Italian heritage. Allmusic biography/ref> Biography He was drawn to music at an early age, starting with the accordion at 4, influenced by his father ...

specifically named Johnny Meyer as a major influence on his work.

References

External links

Biography (In Dutch)
Jazz accordionists Dutch jazz musicians Musicians from Amsterdam Dutch accordionists 1912 births 1992 deaths 20th-century accordionists {{Netherlands-musician-stub