World class accordion in Windsor

By Glynis Hart
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CLAREMONT — Walter Gomez Tucci seems to be always smiling, but why not? The accordion player lives in Windsor with “around 10” different accordions, and although he considers himself retired, he still plays three hours a day.

“After two hours my fingers are (fast),” he says, making a gesture of running them up the keyboard.

Originally from Uruguay, Gomez got his first sight of an accordion belonging to an uncle, at age 3. “Are there people who are born to play accordion?” he asks. “There are people born with the wish,” he answers. He remembers running to find the accordion, and gazing at it in fascination.

Although their parents were not musical, Walter and his brother both took up the guitar and other instruments. At home he played guitar and piano before starting the accordion at age 14. After receiving his diploma from the Maurice Ravel School, which certified him as an accordionist in Uruguay, he stayed on as a teacher, signing other students’ diplomas as they became certified.

At 18, Gomez formed a band where he played accordion, sax and guitar. While the band was performing, including two years on the radio, he received a scholarship to study music at the National Academy of Uruguay: harmony, and saxophone, flute, clarinet. He played in the Air Force Band of Uruguay for four years, writing and arranging music for the band and for his own band.

His eventful life has taken him to Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Miami. He became a favorite at the Venezuelan presidential palace in the 1980s, where he played holiday celebrations and the First Lady’s birthday. He picked up the national instrument of Venezuela, the ‘cuarto’, a four string guitar, and taught a cohort of students to play it.

Moving to Miami, he performed in restaurants and clubs and became a US citizen. He has two daughters with autism, and so he looked around for a good place for them to live: Vermont was it. “It was Texas, North Carolina or Vermont,” he said. “I chose Vermont!”

Since 2003, Gomez’ smile and his accordions have played out in numerous places; for seven years with the band The Black Beans. In addition to his solo work in restaurants around Vermont and New Hampshire, he has worked with Maricel Lucero of the Feminine Tone Choral Group, making arrangements for the 40-plus female singers and seven musicians.

At home he has a small studio, where he industriously turns out CDs that bring in musical styles from around the world: polkas, waltzes, tangos, salsas, merengues, you name it. Recently he was playing in Burlington, and essayed a cumbia (the national music of Colombia): a couple from Colombia was in the crowd and they started to dance.

Like many musicians, he loves to see people get up and dance, showing their enjoyment of the music to which he has devoted his life. Nowadays he often plays nursing homes and farmers markets, private parties and fundraisers, as well as sharing his talents by teaching private lessons.

Gomez will return to Claremont to play in the gazebo in Broad Street Park on Sept. 7.