Since 1980, Al’s drummer Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz has been by his side, photographing and documenting his career. Jon has taken more than 20,000 images of Al in his element: on tour, in the studio, on video sets, and backstage.
Lights, Camera, Accordion! presents over 300 images of Al, culled from Jon’s personal collection of color photography, all restored from the original negatives. This exhaustive volume represents the 25 years that Jon shot Al on 35mm color film, from 1981 to 2006, before switching to digital photography. Jon additionally provides previously unheard stories and anecdotes throughout.
From “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon” to later classics such as “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Amish Paradise,” and the Star Wars parody “The Saga Begins,” Lights, Camera, Accordion! showcases a body of work that spans ten albums, five Grammys, and nearly 2,000 concerts to millions of fans – and is packed with the weirdness and fun that always surrounds the undisputed king of comedic music.