2006 Latin Grammys Wrapup

The 2006 Latin Grammy Awards were held last Thursday in New York and a handful of accordion-toting artists walked away with awards. A few of the highlights:

Remembering Freddy Fender

Legendary Tex-Mex singer/songwriter Freddy Fender died of lung cancer yesterday at the age of 69. Freddy wasn’t an accordionist, but he certainly played with a few — most notably Flaco Jimenez when they were part of the Texas Tornados. In fact, last night at the International Accordion Festival in San Antonio, Flaco had the crowd observe a moment of silence in Freddy’s honor.

Born as Baldemar Huerta in San Benito, Texas, he played honky-tonks throughout the South and had some early success with a Spanish version of “Don’t Be Cruel”. It wasn’t until 1974, though, that he broke through with “Before The Next Teardrop Falls”, which topped both the country and pop charts. In 1989, Freddy joined with Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, and Flaco Jimenez to form the Texas Tornados, who fused rock, country, and Mexican sounds with alternately serious and silly lyrics; this video for “Who Were You Thinking Of?” shows the sillier side:

If you want to explore Freddy’s music, this greatest hits collection (featuring hits like “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Secret Love”) is a good place to start. There’s also the Best of the Texas Tornados, which I’ve been listening to all morning. And if you’re already a longtime fan, stop by his website and pay your respects in the guestbook.

Vaya con Dios, Freddy.

International Accordion Festival 2006

Sometimes I feel like California just isn’t cutting it; all the accordion excitement seems to be in Texas. Case in point: the sixth annual International Accordion Festival starts Friday night in San Antonio with a cajun and conjunto kick-off party featuring the Gulf Coast Playboys and Mingo Saldivar.

And that’s just the beginning. The festival continues throughout the weekend with an incredible lineup of performances, workshops, and jam sessions featuring accordionists from all over the world. There’s the Renato Borghetti Quartet from Brazil, Les Primitifs du Futur from Paris, the Marian Pelka Trio from Poland, Helen Xu & Zongti Lin from China, and many more.

Texas, of course, will be well represented, too. A trio of conjunto legends — Flaco Jimenez, Joel Guzman, and Sunny Sauceda — will perform together on Saturday night. Texas bands Los Desperadoz, the Gourds, and Brian Marshall and his Tex-Slavic Playboys will also be playing. Check the festival site or the San Antonio Express for a full schedule.

If you’re like me and you’re stuck somewhere besides San Antonio this weekend, you can still sample the sounds of the festival by listening to the clips below:

(If anyone knows the title of that Primitifs du Futur tune, let me know!)

Calling All Atlanta Accordionists…

Michele Torres — who may be familiar to some as the host of HGTV‘s Country Style — wrote in to tell us she’s currently looking for an accordionist for a western swing/tejano band she’s forming in the Atlanta area. If you’re interested, you can get in touch with her via her website.

Viva Seguin Conjunto Festival

Listen and learn from the conjunto masters this Saturday (October 7th) at the 3rd annual Viva Seguin Conjunto Festival in Seguin, TX. The day begins with a workshop led by two-time Grammy winner Joel Guzman, followed by a conjunto jam session (a chance to show off what you’ve learned!). Then you can dance the night away to a lineup that includes Los Hermanos De Leon, Los Enmascarados, Callejon Oscuro, 4×4, Los Padrinos and “El Chief” Santiago Jimenez Jr. Of course, it was Santiago’s father, Don Santiago Jimenez Sr., who wrote the classic polka “Viva Seguin”:

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Flaco Jimenez vs Spongebob Squarepants

“Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” Flaco Jimenez! No, the Tejano accordion legend hasn’t moved next door to Patrick and Squidward, but he does make a guest appearance on Spongebob’s latest album, SpongeBob Squarepants: The Best Day Ever. Put together by Tom Kenny (the voice of Spongebob), the album includes a track called “Barnacles!” that features Flaco jamming with cult rockers NRBQ.

And Bikini Bottom isn’t the only place you’ll find Flaco these days. He’s just released a new full-length album called Fiesta Del Rio. I’ve had a hard time finding any information on it — it isn’t on Amazon or iTunes yet and I’ve yet to see any reviews — but you can order it at tejanoclassics.com or directly from Flaco’s site. Judging from the track below, it sounds like it’s well worth hunting down.

Accordions at the Texas State Fair

In Texas, the State Fair isn’t just a place to gorge yourself on fried Coke (seriously, they’ve elevated fried food to an art form) and ride the Scrambler until your head explodes, it’s also a great place for an accordion history lesson. “The Accordion and its Roots in Tejano Music” will be one of the showcase exhibits at this year’s fair, which starts Friday in Dallas and runs until October 22nd. The exhibit will feature artifacts, photographs, video and performances highlighting the role of the accordion in Tejano music.

The centerpiece of the exhibit will be a display of vintage accordions on loan from private collections, which include 1940s-era Hohners played by Narciso Martinez and Los Donneños. There will also be numerous accordion workshops and performances at the fair, including appearances by El Conjunto Bernal, Conjunto Motivo Hermanos Martinez, Barajo de Oro Conjunto, Los Texmaniacs, Joel Guzman, and Mingo Saldivar.

Narciso Martinez Conjunto Festival

Dubbed “El Hurac?n del Valle” (“The Hurricane of the Valley”) due to his lightning-fast playing, Narciso Mart?nez is considered “the father of Texas Mexican conjunto.” Mart?nez grew up outside Brownsville, Texas, and was eventually drawn to the accordion music played in the Rio Grande Valley. After taking up the accordion in 1928, he moved to Bishop, where he became steeped in the accordion-playing traditions of local Czech and German immigrants. His pioneering innovation was in the way he focused entirely on right-hand melody (trills, cross-row runs, and vibrato) and left the rhythm and bass to his excellent bajo sexto player, Santiago Almeida. Their style and sound became the blueprint for the generations of conjunto musicians who followed.

So it’s no surprise there’s a big conjunto festival named for him: the 15th annual Narciso Mart?nez Conjunto Festival this weekend in San Benito, Texas. The three-day festival features performances by Los TexManiacs, Amadeo Flores, Eva Ybarra, Los Fantasmas del Valle, and many more. If you can’t make it to the festival, you can listen to coverage on your local Radio Bilingue station or online at www.radiobilingue.org. Also, check out the album recorded at the 1998 festival by Smithsonian Global Sound.

Accordionist Sought in San Jose

Bernadette Machado wrote in to let us know that her band, Bernadette and the Element, is looking for an accordionist. They play new onda Tejana-style music and traditional conjunto. If you’re interested, you can contact her at bernadetteandtheelement@yahoo.com. You can also check out her band this Saturday at the Moose Lodge on Mount Pleasant Road in San Jose, CA, where they’ll be playing at the 16 de Septiembre dance.

New Discussion Forum: Accordionist.org

Accordionist.org is a new discussion forum for accordion players that I found via the Accordion Guy’s blog. Share news, promote gigs, swap tips, buy/sell gear, or just hobnob with your fellow squeezeboxers. It’s only been running for about a week, so spread the word and hopefully it’ll attract a critical mass of accordion enthusiasts.

Some other good places to rub elbows with accordionists online:

  • Reyes Accordions forum
    Part of the excellent Reyes Accordions site, this is probably the best tex-mex/conjunto/norte?o accordion forum around. Lots of knowledge players (Joel Guzman drops in occasionally) and resources for beginners.
  • AccordionFreedomForum
    A more general accordion forum hosted on Yahoo Groups. Members frequently share their own recordings (which are usually pretty good!) with the group.
  • alt.music.polkas
    All polka, all the time. Sometimes gets sidetracked by polka community politics, but even those discussions are strangely interesting.
  • Cajun Accordion Discussion Group
    Lots of good cajun/zydeco accordion news and tips, straight from the Bayou.

This is by no means an exhaustive list — just a few of my favorites, all of which have a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio. Leave a comment below if you have any other good ones to share.

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