Juan Villarreal and Paulino Bernal

Gilberto Reyes and Paulino Bernal

One of my favorite destinations online is ReyesForo (Reyes Forum). Harlingen native and Hohner executive Gilberto Reyes created this forum for fans of accordion style music. Gilberto recently made this post, which I feel would be a great interest to everyone that is a fan of border music. This post features the great news that conjunto icon, Raymondville native Paulino Bernal and norteño accordion maestro Juan Villarreal were recently awarded with lifetime achievement awards from Hohner. Congratulations to both gentleman!

Here is Juan Villarreal performing with Ramiro Cavazos at the Discos RyN in McAllen.

Paulino Bernal - Polka Idalia

The name of Paulino Bernal evokes very different emotions for many different people. It almost makes me want to see someone tackle a film about the man. It doesn't even have to use his actual name, they can construct a fictional character out of the unique life and career that Bernal has had. Some time in the future, I might write about his life but now might not be the best time. I don't really feel I posses the knowledge to write about his legendary conjunto contributions and his contentious religious career accurately. He's a pretty complex personality, and there are so many people out there, from fellow conjunto musicians to university professors that cover music or religion that can offer more interesting thoughts about Bernal.

The only thing I can do right now is state the obvious and that is - what a virtuoso he is on the accordion. This entry is to share a live video of Bernal playing one of his most famous compositions and polkas - Idalia. Not sure what the earliest recording of Idalia is, I don't think this is it but this is an early recording he did together with Oscar Hernandez on the chromatic accordions. Pretty amazing from Conjunto Bernal.



Now this is the video I really wanted to share. It's from 2008, looks like at the age of 69, Bernal is still phenomenal. He's playing a Dino Bafetti, a really beautiful instrument that I am assuming he got from Karlos Landin. One of my favorites accordionists, Joel Guzman uses Dino Bafetti accordions as well, and I've heard he gets his from Landin. Look how clean and graceful Bernal is, it's a sight to see how smooth he is. He's a true maestro, and this is evidence as to why his technical accordion skills are so revered by writers, historians, critics, and his fellow musical peers.

Jose Guadalupe Hernandez

The Valley has long been a home base to some of the best button diatonic accordionists in the world. Many were born in this area, but many also came from Mexico and different parts of Texas to record their music with regional record companies here that specialized in Mexican-American and Mexican music.

Jose Guadalupe Hernandez (also referred to as Don Lupe) was born in Zacatecas, Zacatecas in Mexico on December 12, 1930. He would eventually move with his family to Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas at the age of 10 years old. While in Valle Hermoso, he started playing the accordion and would later meet bajo sexto player Jose Luis Reyes there. The two formed a musical bond and would soon relocate to Reynosa for better opportunities.

Like many musicians of the time period and many future musicians on both sides of the border, Hernandez was a big admirer of Los Alegres de Terán. As a young accordionist, he was influenced by them and was also a fan of Los Donneños and Valley accordion icon Narciso Martinez. Soon, shortly after moving to Reynosa, Hernandez and Reyes came across the border to record for Discos Falcón in McAllen. They recorded the songs "Adios Mi Rosa Maria" and "Reina de Mi Vida" under the name "Hernandez y Reyes".

After that, Hernandez and Reyes would name their group Los Madrugadores Del Valle. In the early 1960's they would go on to accompany "El Piporro" (Lalo Gonzalez) on a United States tour, on two records and on the film Se Alquila Marido. The most famous song they performed with El Piporro was the tune "Chulas Fronteras", which was a very popular hit in those days.

"We were with [Piporro], but we were only with him for about two years cause we had our own band and we wanted to concentrate on our own music," said Don Lupe in Spanish.

Los Madrugadores Del Valle only recorded once for Falcón, they then decided to move to other record labels in the Rio Grande Valley. They recorded for other hugely popular labels like Discos Del Valle, Ramiro Cavazos' Discos RyN, and Discos Bego. Outside the Valley, they would go on to record for Discos Marsol and Joey Records in San Antonio. From the 1960's through the 1980's, they played in numerous dance halls and venues across the Valley.

"We would play in a lot of places [in the Valley], so many different places but it's been such a long time I can't remember them all," laughs Don Lupe.

Hernandez and Reyes also spent a lot of time traveling outside these borderlands to spread their music across the United States. Don Lupe is very proud that he was able to tour across the nation with Reyes and his bandmates.

"We would go to California, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina, and many other places," Don Lupe said.

One of Don Lupe's most famous polkas was titled "La Pan Americana", which he recorded for Harlingen's KGBT studios. That composition would end up becoming a well-known piece as KGBT would use that spirited polka during their radio broadcast promos. Another famous piece he composed during this time period was "La Baby Del Valle", which also got a lot of air play and was eventually recorded by Discos RyN. Not only were they on the radio, but they were also on television as Los Madrugadores Del Valle would make a memorable appearance on "The Johnny Canales Show" in the 1980's.

"We played 2 or 3 corridos in his program, basically our music was listened to a lot in the Valley," Don Lupe said.

In the late 1980's, after a long time partnership with Jose Luis Reyes, they recorded their final record together. That record contained their version of "Piel Canela" for Joey Records. Shortly after that, Reyes would pass away.

"We were together for many years until he passed away in 1988," Don Lupe said. "We were together as musicians for around 29 to 30 years."

Don Lupe now resides in South Bend, Indiana with his longtime wife of many years and his close family. He still plays the accordion in a band he has formed with his sons. Don Lupe plays the squeezebox as strong as ever, incredibly youthful for a man who is now 82 years old. It seems that at this point in time, Don Lupe could potentially be the oldest active norteño accordionist still playing in the world. He keeps in touch with his longtime musician friends like accordionist Ramon Ayala, who he regularly talks to on the phone and meets up with when Ayala visits Indiana. When he's not playing with his sons, he gives accordion lessons to his students and introduces younger generations to his style of music. It's been 21 years since he's recorded for a label but it gives Don Lupe a lot of joy that many people are using the internet to bring attention to older musicians such as himself. One of his accordion students, Santa Rosa native Robert Rodriguez, has worked towards uploading many of Don Lupe's most famous tunes on YouTube. Don Lupe feels very gracious that his family, friends, students and fans are helping keep his music alive.

"He is to this day, very, very serious about music and he feels that it is a very important part of our culture and our contribution to society," said Robert Rodriguez. "These very songs that [Don Lupe] gave life to, are now coming back to return that life to him."

------------------------------------------

La Historia de Esteban Jordan (Entry 5) - Jazz Covers

These are two of my all time favorite Jordan videos. Similar to what I mentioned in a previous Caballero post, you're also not going to find many professionally shot videos on Jordan. But I'm really glad we have these, to capture why Jordan was a big influence and inspiration to so many guys like Guzman, Caballero, Yanez, and Castillo. Hermes filmed this live Jordan performance, and it seemed to have aired on a TV show and was released on DVD (limited? to a select few?). Where did this TV show air (which includes an interview with Jordan, Castillo, and Jordan's sons) and where did this DVD get sold? I have no idea but I really would love to know. Anyways, after Jordan passed away, these videos were uploaded by Gilbert Reyes, a Harlingen native that works with Hohner so I should probably contact him.

Jordan considered himself a jazz artist. In some interviews he did during the course of his career, he expressed frustration at not doing as much jazz as he would like. He was able to do jazz, blues, and totally experimental accordion licks during his conjunto music. He was a total maestro at what he accomplished as a musician.  Here he is doing two jazz standards on the button diatonic accordion - "Summertime" and George Benson's "Clockwise". Really fantastic videos that captured Jordan's greatness. Also, the drummer to the video is Juanito Castillo, Jordan's accordion protege, a kid who can go on to become one of the best accordionists ever. The third video here is a TV recording of this same event.