If you know anything about Tejano music; more specifically conjunto, then you probably have heard of the Jimenez family. Born on April 8, 1944, Santiago Jimenez Jr. was born into a musically gifted family. His father Santiago Jimenez Sr. Is known to be one of the pioneers of this style of music. Both Santiagos father and grandfather were amazing accordionists. So, it’s no surprise that Santiago Jr followed in their footsteps.
Santiago started playing at a young age learning from his family members. His father was known as one of the most innovative and influential figures in Tejano music, so he passed his knowledge and skill down to his son. Compared to Santiago Jr’s brother, Flaco, he followed the more traditional route of the music, like his father before him. The more contemporary conjunto bands would use an electric bass as opposed to the more traditional tololoche, or string bass as well as rarely incorporating drums into his pieces.
Santiago started playing at events like weddings, clubs, and Quinceanera’s at the young age of sixteen. Santiago and his ÷brother Flaco recorded their first album “El Pr’incpe y El Rey del Acordeon”(the prince and king of the accordion). He would then go on to record many more records with regional labels like disco grande, disco sombrero, and disco corona. So, he was very well known in the Tejano culture as a musical icon. He also recorded many songs with nationwide labels like Arhoolie, Rounder, and Watermelon. Arhoolie was a label that focused on folk music from different regions in the United States and it was based in California. Both Santiago and his brother Flaco were big names at the record label. Rounder is a record label based in Massachusetts and another label that records folk music. I think that this label was important in widening the listening audience of Tejano music. I can imagine there weren’t too many people at the time listening to conjunto music in Massachusetts. Watermelon Records was an Austin based label whose focus was recording Texan musicians across all genres and cultures. Santiago Jr went on to start a record label of his own called Chief Records. He wanted to shine light on all the young Tejano musicians.
Santiago Jr is still alive and making music to this day, keeping the Tejano tradition alive. In the past decades he’s done tours all over the world in places like Mexico, Russia, Great Britain, France, and Spain. So, it no question that he has made an impact on Tejano culture and the world too.
Below I have posted some songs by Santiago Jimenez Jr:
Sources:
“Santiago Jiménez, Jr..” Santiago Jiménez, Jr., National Endowment for the Arts, 2000, https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/santiago-jimenez-jr.
“Flaco & Santiago Jimenez.” Flaco & Santiago Jimenez , Texas Cultural Trust, https://txculturaltrust.org/bio/flaco-santiago-jimenez/.
Nicole Mullen, courtesy of the SFO Museum, and Curator and Senior Archivist —Jeff Place. “Arhoolie Records.” Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Smithsonian, https://folkways.si.edu/arhoolie.
“Our Roots Run Deep.” Rounder Records, 23 Feb. 2021, https://rounder.com/.
“Watermelon Records.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Jan. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_Records.
