How or Who.... introduced you to Conjunto?

[DJ Jammin J..aka"The Mixxmaster"]

I have a question for everyone!! Since we are all Conjunto Music Lovers here.....the question is simple!

How or Who... introduced you to Conjunto?

Think back to the 1st time you heard this beautiful music....we want to hear it....let the world know!

Su Amigo;
DJ Jammin J

[El Padrino]

I remember when my parents would take me to a Cursillo weekend (it is like a spiritual retreat) and at the closing a Conjunto would always lead the music - Toby Torres being among them! I was blown away by the power of the music that sent chills down my spine, I must have been about 12 yrs old. My uncle also played accordion, and I remember my dad and him jamming out to a few tunes. They are both in heaven now. Viva Conjunto!

[Israya2]

Por quien tengo el gusto del conjunto,,,,creo que la respuesta es muy facil...a mi me gusta el conjunto por el conjunto tradicional norteño, doneñños, carlos y jose, los alegres de teran.....pero el conjunto tejano es algo mas versatil, mas pesado como se dice, caso ruben vela, angel flores y don tony de la rosa.

Tenia 6 años cuando escuche por primera vez a los Dos Gilbertos, (1989)...de una cassette que le regalaron a mi abuelo y de otro disco de Tony de la Rosa, donde venian dos canciones unicamente, cancion famosa de Carlos y Jose el Borrachito, llamada por tony de la Rosa mi vida de Borracho......Make it Conjunto....

[Jose Luis Chavez]

My dad introduced me to the guitar. I was five and in a matter weeks I was playing solo. I used to be a shoeshine boy and at this bar the bartender had a bajo sexto and an accordion on the shelf. His clients would drink and then ask to borrow the accordion and bajo sexto. I would sit on my shoeshine box and listen to them play and sing. I was mesmerized by the accordion (corona, black, white bellows). That's when I pestered my dad to buy me one. The rest is history. I learned on a 2 row hohner. Later a 3 row. Started recording in the 60's for IDEAL at the age 14. I would wake up with our hits being played on the radio and on our way to school.

[Martha]

My mother, she was born in 1920 so you have some idea of the years of the musica she listened to, her father played the guitar and hermonica or accordian...and her bnother too and they would also sing.......she always loved it and listened to it and so I grew up listening to it as well....and now even as an elderly woman....I cant even explain how much this music moves me.....I love to hear it and dance to it and I enjoy the new bands as well as long as they are Puro Conjunto....People who don't know Conjunto , dont really know the difference.....They think that Tejano and Conjunto. are the same.........sort of ......but then....If you mention a Conjunto band or accordionist.....they dont have a clue......they will never have heard of them.....or the Music.......They just look at me like I'm crazy....and I wont even go hear a Tejano band......I mean its just not for me....

[Rachel Castilleja]

i dont remember a time when i wasn't surrounded by conjunto music....as far back as i can remember, my dad(a bajo player) and uncles...all had a love for conjunto...forming their own band at a very young age....however! i'll never forget the first time my dad took the family to a concert for the first time....featuring, non other than Los Dos Gilberto's and Ruben Vela!!!! I must have been about 9 years old...i knew at that very moment,,, that conjunto music was, and always would be my greatest passion!

[Sandra Knight]

I first heard it when my mother and father moved from Ohio to Brownsville Tx in 1957. I was about 14 or 15 and I saw all these brown colored spanish people and went wild over them and heard that conjunto music - never heard anything like it. Over the years its been my only music, have recorded and gone to all conjunto festivals i can. I can honestly say, I speak better spanish and dance mexican music better than some natives. Hee Hee

[JESSE]

Wow, good question....I am guilty of listening to Tejano music first....I was into groups like David Lee Garza, Emilio, Tropa F, ....but I guess you can see the simialiarities .....the ACCORDION.....back when i started listening Tejano was in its all time popularity, and conjunto to be honest wasnt as popular....as I got older, i grew away from Tejano and listened to Rock and Roll....then one day, one of the guys that played on my softball team mentioned that he had a band....come to find out that LEO NUNEZ had a band called LOS 4 ACES....so he convinced me to go to one of thier shows. I was impressed by the raw energy and the skill of the musicians, nothing fancy....just 4 guys doing what they love best....then I heard "ME IMPORTA MADRE" by Boni Mauricio and was just blown away....Tejano has had its day, everytime I look to see who's playing at the local "big name clubs" its always the same tejano bands....so I started looking at the local "dives?" cantinas, sports bars, and thats where the real talent is.....not to mention all of the conjunto bands that I have met, have been great people, never to busy to say Hello, thanks for coming out, hope to see you again, so....Thank you Leo Nunez, for introducing me to CONJUNTO.....

[Gabriel Lara]

My Dad and my Tio were in the conjunto Los Nativos Del Valle back in the 70s and I think early 80s. I remember them practicing in my Tios garage while me and my cousins played. Going to some of the gigs unloading and loading stuff. I loved the music then and I love it even more now.

[Tejano_Total]

My Friend from San Nicolas in the hight school

[Tony & Gloria Adams]

My uncle Silvestre had a radio on the kitchen table and we would listen to a program called Serenata Nocturna. It was a diverse and very lively program, people would mail their dedications of songs to someone special in their life and the radio announcer would play the requested song and that's how I learned of Conjunto music. Thank you tio Silvestre. The first conjuntos I heard were Gilberto Perez, Ruben Vela, Tony De La Rosa and of course, Paulino Bernal. Years later when I grew up and started going to dances, my husband Tony and I met while dancing to our all-time favorite Atotonilco Polka some 46 years ago.

[BRUNO E SEPEDA]

i remember when i was in second grade on a monday morning goin to school my head was still ringing from all the raw conjunto being played the night before ,my father always said that sunday was the last day for fun day before the week started. that morning being asked by the teacher what song i was humming too, and i told her tony de la rosa , she had a weird look on her face , i told her she would never understand where i was coming from , proud to be a conjunto junkie, bruno  

[Piper LeMoine, Rancho Alegre]

A few years ago, Frank (the DJ and heart and soul of Rancho Alegre Entertainment) gave me a ride home from work. I opened the door to the car, and I heard what I would later know to be Ruben Naranjo flowing out of the speakers.

"Sorry, let me put on something else." He said, and grabbed his CD case. I kept listening as he flipped through and found something he thought I would like better, and as he reached for the eject button on the CD player, I told him to let it play.

"Let me listen to this," I said. "Who knows, I may like it. I'll need you to translate it for me, though," I said. And so he did. With each break, he translated the lyrics, and I was transfixed by their beauty and how they expressed the things we all experience, especially love and pain, so simply yet so elegantly. 

I listened to each facet of the song...the bass, the drums, the bajo sexto, the accordion, the voices. I asked questions...what kind of instruments were they? Was there a traditional arrangement? How do you tell Conjunto from Tejano? Who were the heavyweights? Were the songs original? Or were there traditional standards and staples? What are the different styles? What is a cumbia? What is a ranchera? A bolero?

And the questions keep on coming to this day as I continue my exploration and increase my knowledge. I began to equate it with other roots genres I love: blues and western swing. I began to see the areas where Tejano began, who has influenced whom, and where things began to fall apart for Conjunto. I began to see the importance of dances and music for families and communities as well. It may sound like a cliche, but it is truly the soundtrack of many people's lives in Central and South Texas, either through the stories told in the songs' lyrics or through the experiences they shared at a dance or by listening or singing or playing the music themselves.

I get funny looks from people at a stop light when I've got Nick Villarreal cranked up with the windows down. I learned to play a regular 6-string guitar years ago, but endeavor to master the bajo. Someday.

Our goal at Rancho Alegre is to help preserve and promote Conjunto for the generations to come and hopefully win over some new fans by introducing them to this music as well.