“Mi Ranchito” by Los Donneños - Ramiro Cavazos, who celebrated his 90th birthday in February and who is one of the great pioneers of music in the Rio Grande Valley, is still playing the bajo-sexto and singing at his shop in McAllen, on 23rd street. Cavazos first recorded with Mario Montes in the late 1940s for Falcon Records, where they were named Los Donneños by label owner Arnaldo Ramirez. In this video, he is joined by longtime his longtime accordionist Beto Espinoza, as they do their rendition of “Mi Ranchito” at Cavazos’ shop. Cavazos, along with Montes, appeared in a few films that starred Piporro, and with Narciso Martinez in the Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz documentary “Chulas Fronteras”.
“Eva Ybarra Honored at the 2017 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert HD at Concert” - Eva Ybarra showcases her unique and progressive accordion-playing style in this new video recorded by the National Endowment of the Arts. Ybarra is a San Antonio native, and developed a completely unique style that stands out on its own as one of the best in conjunto music. Ybarra became the first conjunto musician ever to be an artist-in-residence at a major university when she was invited to be one by the University of Washington’s Ethnomusicology Department in 1997. That experience inspired her to record an album titled “Space Needle”. Ybarra has been a regular at the major conjunto festivals over the decades, including both the Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio and the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Festival in San Benito.
“Los Texmaniacs at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival: “México Americano’” - Los Texmaniacs have become conjunto music ambassadors, and this is another example of them doing just that. Led by bajo-sexto player Max Baca, his accordion playing nephew Josh Baca, and Edcouch-Elsa native and bass player Noel Hernandez, the group performs a great take on the classic “México Americano”. Baca has been playing the bajo-sexto since he was a child, and learned under the legendary accordionist Flaco Jimenez and bajo-sexto maestro Oscar Tellez. Baca also collaborated with Jimenez and the Rolling Stones for the album “Voodoo Lounge”.
"Linda Escobar on Domingo Live" (07/30/2017) - Linda Escobar has been singing for conjunto bands since she was a child, and continues to do so in 2017. A few years ago, she celebrated her 50th anniversary in conjunto music, just to give you an idea of how long she’s been doing this. In this video, she appears on the Corpus Christi-area program “Domingo Live” to sing several songs with her conjunto, Conjunto Amable, and to promote “Vi Una Nube”, the groups’ new album. The last time I saw Escobar perform in person was at the 23rd annual Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Festival, where she performed with the iconic Edinburg conjunto Los Dos Gilbertos.
No comments:
Post a Comment