Almost twenty years ago, Walter Kühr opened Main Squeeze, an accordion shop on Essex Street on the Lower East Side. He was also the frontman of a jazz band called The Last of the International Playboys, and the impresario behind Main Squeeze Orchestra, an 18-piece all-female accordion band. Kühr died January 2nd of lymphoma.

Read the The Lo-Down's coverage and the New York Times obituary.

I photographed Kühr and the Main Squeeze shop in 2009 on assignment for The Lo-Down.