“It’s important to continue my dad’s legacy,” said Miguel Aguilar, who plays keyboards. “And of course, my uncle (Genaro) still has his voice. He’s still active, and he wants to continue so we’re going to respect that … continuing is what my dad would really, really have wanted us to do.”

Emilio Aguilar was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when he was 55. But even at the end of his life, when he couldn’t recognize his button accordion “and didn’t know what to do with it,” he could still keep time.

“He never lost his beat. My mom would tune in the Radio Jalapeño station (KEDA-AM), and he would always stomp his foot. He would just smile,” Miguel recalled. “That’s a good memory.”

Los Aguilares’ life story is right out of a movie.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/article/Los-Aguilares-celebrate-52-years-and-a-good-2588432.php#ixzz1kc19WUt3

A bittersweet night of puro conjunto – San Antonio Express-News.

“It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” said Pulido from his Edinburg office.

The fruits ‘n’ vegetables metaphor is fitting.

As a child of migrant farm workers, he grew up listening to conjunto and norteño as well as the music of Little Joe & the Latinaires and Sunny & the Sunliners while working in the fields.

Read more in the Express New: http://goo.gl/B32xI   

Max Baca still has miles to go.

The leader of the Grammy-winning Los TexManiacs says 2012 is shaping up to be a great year for the conjunto rock ‘n’ rollers with upcoming gigs in China, a series of dates with Los Lobos (including a Fiesta stint) and a new Smithsonian Folkways album, “Texas Towns & Tex-Mex Sounds.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/article/Latin-Notes-2367664.php#ixzz1g5BkkjBg
]]> http://puropadrino.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/busy-2012-for-texmaniacs/feed/ 0 lospadrinos http://puropadrino.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/top-10-reasons-the-grammys-dropped-best-tejano-album-category/ http://puropadrino.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/top-10-reasons-the-grammys-dropped-best-tejano-album-category/#comments Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:59:28 +0000 El Padrino http://puropadrino.wordpress.com/?p=772 ]]> 10. They want to concentrate on the profane obscene no talented members of society.

9. Emilio Estefan couldn’t find a way to rig it.

8. The second-rate Latin Grammys killed the real Grammys for U.S. Latinos.

7. If Tejano music was sung in English, it could win in most Country music categories.

6. There were only ten submissions last year, you need 25.

5. Little Joe Hernandez ran out of thank you speeches.

4. It will be replaced by the Best Regional Mexican or Tejano Album category, so non-Americans will win every year from now on.

3. Texas is a beautiful place; Tejanos are a beautiful race…

2. The Grammy committee is made up of Las Vegas/New Jersey boxing judges.

1. La Onda Chicana is not about Grammys, its about ganas.

via LatinoLA | ¡Exprésate! ::

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/article/Band-Los-Hermanos-Farias-a-family-affair-2282572.php#ixzz1fLwsH8ml

Guarded by posters of rock and pop legends like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Michael Jackson, a group of young men from Palmview High School worked on perfecting the sounds of their region that holds strong routes throughout South Texas and Mexico since the 19th century.

“It has a good beat to dance to, to listen to,” said 17-year-old Omar Garza, an accordion player with La Tradicion, PHS’s conjunto group.

Read more here: Progress Times.

I sat with him on Wednesday August 18, 2011 at his Barber shop located on 319 North First Street in Harlingen, Texas, where Reuben, looking like a true dandy Conjunto player, agreed to this interview.”

Click here to read interview -Reuben Garza’s Journey with Tejano Music | La Vida Valle.

At Janie’s Record Shop, Juanita Esparza is a legend to her customers. They come from all over to pick “Miss Janie’s” brain on everything conjunto or Tejano, and she doesn’t disappoint.

“People come in here to test her,” says her daughter Rebecca “Becky” Deleon. “She’s never failed. People say, ‘Janie doesn’t have it? You don’t need it!’”

Esparza was honored earlier this month with the 2011 Tejano Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award alongside Flaco Jimenez for being a pioneer and trendsetter in Tejano music. She has also been inducted into the National Hispanic Music Hall of Fame and has appeared in Billboard Magazine, thanks to her record shop, now 26 years old.
Read more: - San Antonio Express-News.