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.

Peter Torgerson Busted

Lottery winner and memorable KRGV personality Peter Torgerson has been arrested for a DWI charge. Here is the full story from KRGV's rival KGBT station. 

Harlingen Police arrested a former Valley news anchor for driving while intoxicated early Thursday morning. 

Officers responded to the 3200 block of Treasure Hills Boulevard at 2:20 a.m., in reference to a car accident. 

When they arrived, they found a blue 2006 Porsche Cayenne, driven by Peter Torgerson, 56, that had struck a parked car. 

The officer noticed Torgerson had blood shoot eyes, slurred speech, poor balance, and the strong smell of alcohol on his breath. 

He submitted Torgerson to a field sobrierity test, which he failed. 

The officer arrested him on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. 

Torgerson refused to take a breathylizer test. 

He faced a judge Thursday morning and was issued a $500 bond. 

Torgerson was a longtime television anchor for the 5 p.m. evening news at KRGV. 

He quit in 1999 after winning the $37 million dollar Texas Lottery, along with a friend. 

Both men chose the cash option and split more than $19 million between them.

I wrote about Torgerson before on here. By the looks of his photograph, it looks like he's been enjoying the  the good life. Probably partying at South Padre Island. At least he he didn't get pulled over at a strip club parking lot with two women like Jon Jones.

Frankie Caballero in San Perlita, TX

Jazzy and creative, with Caballero you're usually not going to find him in professionally shot videos or anything of that sort. You're going to find small glimpses of him at a house, outdoors, or at a local cantina being recorded by a friends cell phone camera. Just raw shot video footage of Caballero being great for the niche audience that really digs his artistry. As the years pass and we get older, one thing we can count on is Caballero being a unique individual and musician in the Valley. What a life he's had. 

R. Bruce Tharpe now controls the National Wrestling Alliance

This is fascinating news for professional wrestling fans of the Rio Grande Valley. IWF promoter and Brownsville lawyer R. Bruce Tharpe looks to have now taken over the National Wrestling Alliance. Here's the initial report from Dave Meltzer:

Those who stated that the lawsuit filed by former Championship Wrestling from Florida ring announcer and now Brownsville, TX, attorney Bruce Tharpe was a way to garner control of the NWA were right. But those who predicted he had no case appear to have been wrong. 

The lawsuit was settled this week, and as part of the settlement, the NWA name and intellectual property has been transfered from Pro Wrestling Organization, LLC, headed by Bob Trobich, to a new company headed by Tharpe. Trobich had resigned as head of the NWA as a result of the suit, which charged the NWA as committing insurance fraud by having insurance for shows that would draw 100 fans or less when many shows drew more tha that. Tharpe claimed the NWA was able to garner new members by the promise of having their house shows insured if they joined. 

Trobich appears to be the only major player out as the other members of the board will stay on with the new company headed by Tharpe.

Hopefully this will be a positive for the local wrestling community here in the Valley. Lately, it seems that Tharpe has only been running shows out of the Cameron County market, I would like to see him have shows throughout the Valley in the near future. When IWF was on television in the past, it wasn't the greatest pro wrestling show by any means. I was critical of some stuff here and there, but it felt like an actual professional wrestling show with actual veteran workers and I really appreciated the entertainment they brought me on the weekends. The McAllen promotion Wrestling Revolution doesn't feel like a pro wrestling show to me. Tharpe has a much better and deeper understanding of professional wrestling than the Wrestling Revolution crew. Tharpe grew up in the business, he was around when Florida wrestling was at its peak, he refereed and worked as a ring announcer around guys like Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes. You can ask Tharpe about Eddie Graham's booking and promoting in the Florida territory and he'll be able to discuss it with you from an insiders point of view since he worked under Graham. So at the very least, Tharpe "gets" wrestling better than some 25 year old kids pretending to wrestle in McAllen on 17th street. No offense to the WR crew, they seem like nice people and they seem like they're having a lot of fun (and I know they have a lot of supporters), but I'll take Tharpe (and the great Golden King) over them any day of the week. Also, Tharpe understands how important lucha libre is to a market like this (he's brought up many luchadores before, including El Hijo Del Santo, whose iconic "tope de cristo" was replayed many times during Tharpe's IWF show run).

So will Colt Cabana be making another appearance soon to defend his NWA crown? Will Tharpe be running more in the McAllen market? Will we be seeing more of the Golden King, who I think is probably the best worker here? I just hope this means more solid, quality professional wrestling for all of us here in the Valley. Huge congratulations to R. Bruce Tharpe, I wish him the best of luck in handling the NWA. Genuinely happy for Mr. Tharpe.