Santiago Jiménez

Don Santiago Jimenez, Sr. stood out as the forward-thinking figure within a household devoted to the accordion. He earned nearly universal recognition for fusing the ranchera repertoire of northern Mexico with brisk German polka rhythms and button-accordion techniques. His own father, Patricio, had already built a busy career as an accordionist performing for audiences across southern Texas at the beginning of the twentieth century. Both of Don Santiago’s sons later achieved prominence on the same instrument: Flaco Jimenez emerged as a leading firebrand of norteño and conjunto music, while Santiago Jr. preserved the more traditional approach associated with his father.

The family’s musical lineage reaches back to the grandfather, Patricio, who regularly played for gatherings of Texans descended from German and Moravian settlers. To satisfy those listeners he mastered numerous mazurkas, polkas, waltzes, and schotishes. Young Don Santiago absorbed much of this material by accompanying his father to dances. In 1923, at the age of ten, he received his first accordion.

Throughout the 1930s he steadily built his own following in southern Texas through commercial recordings and regular radio appearances. When major labels curtailed sessions for this style in the following decade, independent companies increased their output in an effort to capture a bigger share of the market. That shift enabled Jimenez to commit several of his notable successes to disc, among them “Viva Seguin” and “La Piedrera.” During those years he ranked among the most emulated accordionists in the region, with countless players adopting elements of his approach. When a younger follower, Fred Zimmerle, introduced Mexican duet singing into the norteño mix, Jimenez incorporated songs of that type into his own sets. His final Arhoolie album featured original compositions that drew on both the newer and older strands of the music; one of those pieces, “Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio,” later appeared as a Los Lobos cover on the soundtrack of the film Revenge.

Jimenez never relied on extensive touring; his reputation traveled instead through word of mouth and the activities of international record collectors. One of the most striking aspects of his career was the decade-long weekly residency he maintained at the same San Antonio venue, El Gaucho, where virtually every performance drew standing-room crowds. He preserved a distinct personal style even as imitators proliferated and his influence became so widespread that many musicians unconsciously echoed him. Observers have sometimes attributed part of this individuality to his continued use of the two-row button accordion rather than switching to the three-row models that later became common.

Documentary filmmaker Les Blank included Jimenez in the 1976 production Chulas Fronteras, devoted to Texas-Mexico border music. After the film’s release the accordionist continued performing for roughly six more years, appearing each week at Jimmy’s, a Mexican restaurant in northeast San Antonio. He is survived by his sons and by the enduring norteño tradition that continues to flourish.