Narciso Martinez Conjunto Festival

Dubbed “El Hurac?n del Valle” (“The Hurricane of the Valley”) due to his lightning-fast playing, Narciso Mart?nez is considered “the father of Texas Mexican conjunto.” Mart?nez grew up outside Brownsville, Texas, and was eventually drawn to the accordion music played in the Rio Grande Valley. After taking up the accordion in 1928, he moved to Bishop, where he became steeped in the accordion-playing traditions of local Czech and German immigrants. His pioneering innovation was in the way he focused entirely on right-hand melody (trills, cross-row runs, and vibrato) and left the rhythm and bass to his excellent bajo sexto player, Santiago Almeida. Their style and sound became the blueprint for the generations of conjunto musicians who followed.

So it’s no surprise there’s a big conjunto festival named for him: the 15th annual Narciso Mart?nez Conjunto Festival this weekend in San Benito, Texas. The three-day festival features performances by Los TexManiacs, Amadeo Flores, Eva Ybarra, Los Fantasmas del Valle, and many more. If you can’t make it to the festival, you can listen to coverage on your local Radio Bilingue station or online at www.radiobilingue.org. Also, check out the album recorded at the 1998 festival by Smithsonian Global Sound.