Passport to the future by Dana Countryman

You might not know the name “Jean-Jacques Perrey”, but chances are that you’re heard his music. It’s been everywhere: on commercials, in cartoons, and Top 40 hits. It’s been sampled by over 70 hip-hop artists including Ice T, Dr. Dre and A Tribe Called Quest. Even the Beatles sampled his music.

This book chronicles Perrey’s musical transformation from being just another young accordion player in France, to eventually becoming a pioneer of electronic pop music.



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Music lessons (3) The ondioline

From wikipedia:

The Ondioline is a vacuum tube-powered keyboard instrument, invented in 1941 ^[1] by the Frenchman Georges Jenny, a forerunner of today's synthesizers.

The Ondioline was capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. Its keyboard had a unique feature: it was suspended on special springs which made it possible to introduce a natural vibrato if the player moved the keyboard (not the entire instrument) from side to side (laterally) with their playing hand. The result was an almost human-like vibrato that lent a wide range of expression to the Ondioline. The keyboard was also pressure-sensitive, and the instrument had a knee volume lever, as well.

A few videos:

First a vintage record demonstrating Georges Jenny's Ondioline tube-driven electronic instrument, an important but almost forgotten ancestor of the modern synthesizer. The uploader included English translation of the French-language narration in this video.



From I've Got A Secret an episode of co-inventor of the ondioline Jean Jacques Perrey. (thanks to JJP for posting this on fb)





See also this previous post on the subject.

Mr. Ondioline

Mr. Ondioline's secret identity revealed as....Jean-Jacques Perrey.

Musique Electronique Du Cosmos

Jean-Jacques Perrey - Musique Electronique Du Cosmos (1962) is available thanks to 36 15 MOOG.
boomp3.com

Classic "Bing Bang Boing" Toy Commercial

Video added by daftmahatma
(via BoingBoing)