By Bob Kerr

Providence Journal Staff Writer

bkerr@providencejournal.com

When going for the world title, Cory Pesaturo did what any worthy champion would do. He improvised, he moved to the moment. He called on his experience and on all the people who influenced him in his rich, full musical life.

He is a mere 25 but a world champion. He is the first person to win world championships on the digital, acoustic and jazz accordion.

Yes, the accordion, the stomach Steinway, the instrument with dusty connections to Lawrence Welk and guys wearing shiny shirts. And, of course, “Lady of Spain.”

The accordion is an instrument with bellows and a keyboard and an image problem. Pesaturo says only half kiddingly that he’s glad the accordion died because that means he can bring it back.

“Someone has to go out there and make it cool,” he says. “And that’s what I’m trying to do.”

And he’s doing it with the help of a self-described freelance mad scientist. That would be J.D. Fontanella, who approaches his work with the wish that there was more work to do.

“The problem is people don’t ask for weird enough stuff,” says Fontanella.

But Pesaturo asked. He and Fontanella met four years ago in the Big Nazo Band.

“I realized he was pretty much a genius,” says Pesaturo.

They talked about the accordion, about bringing it out of the shadows and making it an instrument people would notice.

“I wanted the keys to light up when I play,” says Pesaturo.

Now, as he straps on what was once a basic accordion, he checks a small computer screen at the top which is his guide to the things his accordion can do. He runs his fingers over the keys. Then he plays, with an amazing charge of energy and speed.

And the lights flash all over the keys. They flash to the music. This is not the accordion as we know it. It is a show of its own. Fontanella has it wired.

“The hardest part was coming up with something that could go as fast as Cory can,” he says.

Fontanella’s apartment near Providence City Hall is a fascinating workshop filled with keyboards and tools and containers of things a mad scientist needs close at hand. One of his projects, among many, is building generators powered by bicycles.

“I like good ideas,” he says. “I’m involved in several good ideas that are underfunded.”

He studied musical composition in college, played a lot of piano. He toured with some bands, including one that had all its equipment stolen after a show in New York.

A few years back, Fontanella found a beat-up keyboard in a dumpster behind Lupo’s in Providence.

“I kept finding stuff to fix. I started to build my own instruments.”

He builds and he fixes and he looks for ideas that can take shape in his workshop. With Pesaturo, he has created an electric accordion with sights and sounds never seen or heard before. He talks of affecting music with movement, of sensor technology and motion tracking.

“It’s better to make an instrument and learn what it does. That’s the best way to play.”

He and Pesaturo continue. They talk of developing an accordion that won’t look like an accordion at all. It might be three-sided. And if they create it, it will be one more step in Pesaturo’s effort to give the accordion some sizzle. His generation, he thinks, is ready for an accordion that’s cool.

“The accordion is like a huge oil field that hasn’t been tapped,” he says.

He was 9 when his father, Fred, took out the accordion he hadn’t played in a lot of years and asked his son if he wanted to give it a try.

“If I’d been 12 or 13, I might have said I didn’t want to play the accordion,” says Pesaturo.

But he was 9, and he picked it up. His father took him for lessons with Tulio Gasperini, a well-known player and teacher.

“I was never a practicer. I practiced less than an hour a day. But I was listening. I listened a lot, and when I was 10 or 11 I was progressing quicker. I thought, maybe I’ve got something here.”

He discovered jazz early and that helped fuel the desire to play. When he was 15, he won a national competition in Minneapolis.

After graduating from Cumberland High School, he went to the New England Conservatory in Boston. He loved it. He loved the atmosphere, the high expectations and the way students would trade favorite pieces of music.

“I was the only person to go there for accordion and graduate in accordion.”

And he traveled — to Canada where he won the world jazz competition, to Finland for the acoustic and to New Zealand for the digital. New Zealand, he says, is the best place he’s ever been.

Pesaturo says the ability to improvise has set him apart. Too many players, he says, are too robotic.

Robotic he is not.

He plays with all kinds of people, including violinist and singer Yasmine Azaiez, who he says is one of the great musicians he has worked with. She will join him Aug. 11 at “CumberlandFest 2013” at Diamond Hill State Park, Route 114, Cumberland. They will play Gypsy, improvisation and pop.

Performances get under way at 5 p.m. with a concert by the Young Giants of the Jazz World. Pesaturo will join them. Pesaturo and Azaiez will play at 6 p.m. At 7, Pesaturo will join the band backing up another Cumberland native, Kelley Lennon.

Do you know someone Bob Kerr should write about? Drop him a line at 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902. Or, email bkerr@ providencejournal.com. Feel free to attach photos — high-resolution jpegs, please — and music files.

Q&A: Accordion Extraordinaire Cory Pesaturo

Cory Pesaturo with his one-of-a-kind accordion, complete with flames and interactive lights.

Allison Pharmakis