Biography
Over a span of six decades in conjunto and Tejano music, few artists have earned the critical regard that has come to Flaco Jiménez, and none have carried the accordion-driven Tex-Mex style before a wider public. Without altering his core approach, Jiménez brought traditional conjunto sounds to pop and country audiences through partnerships with the Texas Tornados, Dwight Yoakam, and the Mavericks, while rock listeners discovered his playing via sessions with Ry Cooder, Carlos Santana, Doug Sahm, and the Rolling Stones. Born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1939 into a musical household, Jiménez grew up with a grandfather, Patricio Jiménez, whose accordion work embraced the polkas and waltz tunes that preceded conjunto, and a father, Santiago Jiménez, Sr., who helped pioneer Tex-Mex music by cutting the 1936 single “Dices Pescao” b/w “Dispensa el Arrempujon.”
Jiménez began on the bajo sexto at age seven; once he could accompany his father onstage, he shifted to accordion and cultivated a buoyant, lyrical approach shaped by Clifton Chenier alongside his father and other Tex-Mex players. At fifteen he assembled his first group, Los Caporales, which quickly built a strong local following in San Antonio through independent recordings and a regular slot on a regional television variety program. By the early 1960s Jiménez had become a Texas institution, performing throughout the state and packing San Antonio dancehalls with sets that blended classic Tejano elements with blues and country touches.
Doug Sahm, founder of the Sir Douglas Quintet and another Texas musician drawn to hybrid roots styles, became a steadfast admirer; when Sahm recorded his debut solo album for Atlantic Records in 1973, he enlisted Jiménez (alongside Bob Dylan and Dr. John), giving the accordionist his first substantial exposure beyond Tejano circles. Ry Cooder featured Jiménez on the 1976 album Chicken Skin Music, and Arhoolie Records issued Flaco Jiménez & His Conjunto in 1978, extending his reach past the Southwest. Continued recording and touring expanded his profile nationwide and internationally until, in 1988, Dwight Yoakam invited him to add accordion to a duet with Buck Owens; the resulting “Streets of Bakersfield” became a major country hit, and touring alongside Yoakam placed Jiménez in the spotlight at age forty-nine.
In 1989 Jiménez reunited with Sahm for a new venture alongside country veteran Freddy Fender and fellow accordionist Augie Meyers, one of Sahm’s former Sir Douglas Quintet bandmates. Billed as the Texas Tornados, the quartet signed with Reprise Records and charted with a re-recorded version of Meyers’s regional favorite “(Hey Baby) Que Paso.” Their debut album also yielded “Soy de San Luis,” which earned a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Performance in 1991—the first of five Grammys Jiménez would collect by decade’s end. Now established as a major figure, he moved to Warner Bros. and delivered the 1992 solo album Partners, which featured appearances by Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and Los Lobos. The Rolling Stones called on him for an accordion solo on the 1994 album Voodoo Lounge, while that same year he released a self-titled Arista set that included vocals from Raul Malo of the Mavericks. A year later Jiménez and Malo reunited on record when Flaco contributed a spirited solo to the Mavericks’ “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down” from Music for All Occasions, returning his sound to the upper reaches of the country charts.
The Texas Tornados issued their final studio album in 1996, yet Jiménez joined another collective in 1998—Los Super Seven, a lineup of leading Latin-American musicians that included members of Los Lobos as well as Joe Ely. Since then he has sustained a demanding schedule of recording and performance that would challenge performers half his age, all while serving as one of Tex-Mex music’s foremost ambassadors worldwide. The Complete Arista Recordings appeared in late summer 2015, followed a year later by a reissue of the independently released Con Sus Amigos. In 2017 Jiménez collaborated with Los Cenzontles and Los Texmaniacs on the studio album Carta Jugada.
Jiménez began on the bajo sexto at age seven; once he could accompany his father onstage, he shifted to accordion and cultivated a buoyant, lyrical approach shaped by Clifton Chenier alongside his father and other Tex-Mex players. At fifteen he assembled his first group, Los Caporales, which quickly built a strong local following in San Antonio through independent recordings and a regular slot on a regional television variety program. By the early 1960s Jiménez had become a Texas institution, performing throughout the state and packing San Antonio dancehalls with sets that blended classic Tejano elements with blues and country touches.
Doug Sahm, founder of the Sir Douglas Quintet and another Texas musician drawn to hybrid roots styles, became a steadfast admirer; when Sahm recorded his debut solo album for Atlantic Records in 1973, he enlisted Jiménez (alongside Bob Dylan and Dr. John), giving the accordionist his first substantial exposure beyond Tejano circles. Ry Cooder featured Jiménez on the 1976 album Chicken Skin Music, and Arhoolie Records issued Flaco Jiménez & His Conjunto in 1978, extending his reach past the Southwest. Continued recording and touring expanded his profile nationwide and internationally until, in 1988, Dwight Yoakam invited him to add accordion to a duet with Buck Owens; the resulting “Streets of Bakersfield” became a major country hit, and touring alongside Yoakam placed Jiménez in the spotlight at age forty-nine.
In 1989 Jiménez reunited with Sahm for a new venture alongside country veteran Freddy Fender and fellow accordionist Augie Meyers, one of Sahm’s former Sir Douglas Quintet bandmates. Billed as the Texas Tornados, the quartet signed with Reprise Records and charted with a re-recorded version of Meyers’s regional favorite “(Hey Baby) Que Paso.” Their debut album also yielded “Soy de San Luis,” which earned a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Performance in 1991—the first of five Grammys Jiménez would collect by decade’s end. Now established as a major figure, he moved to Warner Bros. and delivered the 1992 solo album Partners, which featured appearances by Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and Los Lobos. The Rolling Stones called on him for an accordion solo on the 1994 album Voodoo Lounge, while that same year he released a self-titled Arista set that included vocals from Raul Malo of the Mavericks. A year later Jiménez and Malo reunited on record when Flaco contributed a spirited solo to the Mavericks’ “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down” from Music for All Occasions, returning his sound to the upper reaches of the country charts.
The Texas Tornados issued their final studio album in 1996, yet Jiménez joined another collective in 1998—Los Super Seven, a lineup of leading Latin-American musicians that included members of Los Lobos as well as Joe Ely. Since then he has sustained a demanding schedule of recording and performance that would challenge performers half his age, all while serving as one of Tex-Mex music’s foremost ambassadors worldwide. The Complete Arista Recordings appeared in late summer 2015, followed a year later by a reissue of the independently released Con Sus Amigos. In 2017 Jiménez collaborated with Los Cenzontles and Los Texmaniacs on the studio album Carta Jugada.
Albums
