{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Gus Viseur | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Gustave Joseph Viseur | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1915|5|17}} | birth_place = [[Lessines]], Belgium | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1974|8|25|1915|5|17}} | death_place = [[Le Havre]], France | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = Accordionist }} '''Gustave Joseph Viseur''' (17 May 1915 – 25 August 1974){{refn|group=note|These details are from Grove.<ref name="Grove" /> Dregni gives his name as "Joseph Gustave Viseur" and his date of birth as 15 May 1915.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}}}} was a Belgian/French [[accordion]]ist.

==Early life== Viseur was born in [[Lessines]], Belgium, on 17 May 1915.<ref name="Grove">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Pernet |first=Robert |date=2003 |entry=Viseur, Gus(tave Joseph) |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online|publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J468300 }}</ref> His father was a bargeman, so the family moved around a lot until 1920, when they settled in Paris.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} Viseur was given basic instruction in how to play the accordion by his father from the age of eight, and then had lessons from a music professor.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} Father and son played together in an amateur band from 1929.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} After his father died,{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} Viseur "began performing on the streets of Paris in fairs and markets".<ref name="AM">{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Zac |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gus-viseur-mn0000542416/biography |title=Gus Viseur |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=8 March 2020}}</ref>

==Later life and career== In the early 1930s, Viseur played second accordion under bandleader Médard Ferrero.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} In 1933, he met René "Charley" Bazin, and the two accordionists started improvising, inspired by hearing jazz.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} This led to Viseur forming his own band in 1935.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} It played in a variety of styles and recorded four tunes that year.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=155}} "Viseur had the reeds in his Fratelli Crosio accordion filed down and retuned", which replaced the traditional vibrato of a musette accordion with a more modern sound.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|pp=155–156}}

Viseur "was a member of the orchestra led by the pianist Boris Sarbek, then worked in France and Belgium with [[Philippe Brun (musician)|Philippe Brun]], [[Joseph Reinhardt]], and his own quintet".<ref name="Grove" /> Together with guitarist [[Baro Ferret]], Viseur added elements of swing to traditional musettes that they played from 1938 and into World War II.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|pp=99–100, 156}} He had more public attention after recording "[[L'Accordéoniste]]" with singer [[Édith Piaf]] in 1940.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=157}}

He toured the United States in 1963, then stopped playing and opened a record shop in [[Le Havre]].<ref name="Grove" /> He started performing again around 1970,<ref name="Grove" /> and recorded the album ''Swing Accordéon'' the following year.{{sfn|Dregni|2008|p=161}} Viseur died in Le Havre on 25 August 1974.<ref name="Grove" />

==Representative recordings== *"Flambée montalbanaise" *"Joseph, Joseph" *"Automne" *"Confessin'" *"Douce joie" *"Josette" *"L'imprévu" (with Joseph Colombo) *"Nuit de Paris" (with [[Tony Muréna]]) *"Soir de dispute" *"Souvenir de Bruxelles" *"Swing accordéon" *"Swing-valse" (with [[Pierre Ferret|Pierre "Baro" Ferret]]) *"La valse des niglos" *"Le Bal du p'tit jardin" *"Jeannette" *"46ème avenue" *"5 Juin" *"El Victor" *"Lorsque Django jouait" *"De Clichy à Broadway"

==See also== *[[Medard Ferrero]] *[[El Ferrero]] *[[Jo Privat]] *[[Guerino and his orchestra]]

==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}

==References== {{reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''

{{refbegin}}

*{{cite book |last=Dregni |first=Michael |title=Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing |year=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-531192-1 }}

{{refend}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Viseur, Gus}} [[Category:Jazz accordionists]] [[Category:Belgian accordionists]] [[Category:Belgian emigrants to France]] [[Category:French accordionists]] [[Category:1915 births]] [[Category:1974 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century French musicians]] [[Category:20th-century accordionists]]

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