Marcel Azzola

Marcel Azzola (10 July 1927 – 21 January 2019) was a French accordionist.

He performed with Stan Getz and Jacques Brel, among others. The famous line "" ("Heat up, Marcel") in Brel's song "Vesoul" refers to Azzola, who played the accordion during the recording.

Biography Marcel Azzola was born in Paris in 1927 to Italian parents: his father, Giuseppe (a builder, 1896–1978) and his mother, Angelina (1901–2002) both came from Bergamo. Marcel had two elder and two younger sisters. His parents had moved to France in 1922.

His father had conducted a mandolin orchestra in Italy, and Marcel, like two of his sisters, learned to play the violin. He abandoned the instrument after a year. In 1936, he began playing accordion, after he became familiar with the accordion orchestra of Pantin. Six months later, he started lessons with Paul Saive, who had been the music teacher of Jo Privat. Soon after, Azzola started taking lessons from Attilio Bonhommi instead. He accompanied Bonhommi during jazz concerts, first as a percussionist, and later as an accordionist.

He taught music at the Ecole de Musique d'Orsay for more than 20 years.

Personal life Azzola married Jacqueline, who died young. They had one daughter. Marcel died in January 2019 in Villennes-sur-Seine, where he lived with musician Lina Bossati.

With Stan Getz Mort d'un Pourri (Melba, 1977)