Sound of Philadelphia is not a novelty record—one that some critics might dismiss as world music. Jacques Pellarin's music is inflected with myriad cultural influences, so this rather empty epithet is likely to be used on the composer. This labeling is especially tough on an artist who is as seriously talented as the French/Basque musician. Pellarin is a master of the bayan, a Russian, chromatic button accordion developed in the early 20th century that is deceptively easy to play, and while the instrument may conjure up the classic sound of South American tango, in this case, nothing could be further from the truth. Pellarin is a bold innovator and is blessed with a rare genius. His music is vivid, changing and surprising, awakening the once whispered suggestion that the French introduced jazz to America.

The accordion has a relatively shrill sound, but Pellarin also exhorts from his magically endowed bellows a gruff timbre, creating an inner duet between the low male and high female voices. They pirouette around the broad, rectangular reeds and the horns of Diego Fano, who taunts the accordion as a modern snake charmer would a pair of serpents. Percussionist Yann Pajean magically transports the singing and dancing conjunto across the Mediterranean, North Africa and, yes, to the streets of Philadelphia, where the music melds into the swinging idiom of urbane jazz.

Pellarin has listened to musicians from