Flaco Jimenez and the conjunto sound

Conjunto, Texas-Mexican accordion music, has risen as a popular and culturally significant art form across South Texas and in northern Mexico. Its acknowledgement among the mainstream popular music industry has emerged only relatively recently in the works of Flaco Jiménez.

Born into a well-known conjunto family in San Antonio in 1939, Leonardo “Flaco” Jiménez achieved mainstream prominence through his musical collaborations with artists like Ry Cooder, Dwight Yoakam, and the Rolling Stones.

Texas-Mexican conjunto traditionally employs a standard quartet of button accordion, bajo sexto (a 12-string Mexican bass guitar), electric bass (previously a tololoche, a Mexican upright bass), and drum set in an amalgamation of German polka music, Mexican musical traits, and—increasingly—a range of Latin American and US-based styles.

The genre has served as a symbol of cultural identity among the rural, working-class Texas-Mexican population. This is the context in which Flaco began playing conjunto alongside his grandfather, Patricio, father, Santiago Sr., and brother Santiago Jr. (among other family members).

Growing up in San Antonio surrounded by a kaleidoscope of folkloric and more commercialized musical styles, Flaco notes that he was interested in a range of music from a young age, gradually incorporating these disparate sounds into his own interpretations of conjunto.

Guest:

Erin Bauer is Chair of the Music and Art Departments and Associate Professor of Musicology at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio. She also serves as media editor for the Journal of the Society for American Music.

Bauer’s research examines musical relationships through systems of globalization. Her book, “Flaco’s Legacy: The Globalization of Conjunto” (University of Illinois Press, 2023) addresses the worldwide popularity of Texas-Mexican accordion music, called conjunto, a regional tradition historically forming a symbol of working-class, cultural identity.

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This interview will be recorded on Wednesday, January 22, 2024.

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