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Beto y Los Fairlanes, now more commonly known as Beto and the Fairlanes, is a worldbeat, latin pop, jazz and salsa band from Austin, Texas, founded in the late 1970s by Robert "Beto" Skiles. The band came out of the prolific 1970s Austin music scene. [1] Early in their career, the band played at Austin venues such as the Armadillo World Headquarters, Liberty Lunch, and Soap Creek Saloon. [1] The band released their first album, Midnight Lunch in 1978.
Worldbeat is a music genre that blends pop music or rock music with world music or traditional music. Worldbeat is similar to other cross pollination labels of contemporary and roots genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural contrast between its modern and ethnic elements.
Latin pop is a pop music genre that contains sounds or influence from Latin America, but it may also refer to pop music from anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. Latin pop usually combines upbeat Latin music with American pop music. Latin pop is commonly associated with Spanish-language pop, rock, and dance music.
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States. It originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music". Since the 1920s Jazz Age, jazz has become recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms".
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The band is the brainchild of Robert Skiles, a native of San Antonio who has degrees in music from the University of Texas at Austin and University of North Texas. Before forming Beto and the Fairlanes, Skiles was, and still is, a prominent jazz pianist in Austin. On the classical side, he played piano for the Austin City Ballet and the University of Texas dance department. He has also written and conducted four major works for orchestra. In 1980 the group performed on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits. [2]
San Antonio, officially the City of San Antonio, is the seventh-most populous city in the United States, and the second-most populous city in both Texas and the Southern United States, with more than 1.5 million residents. Founded as a Spanish mission and colonial outpost in 1718, the city became the first chartered civil settlement in present-day Texas in 1731. The area was still part of the Spanish Empire, and later of the Mexican Republic. It is the state's oldest municipality, having celebrated its 300th anniversary on May 1, 2018.
The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. The University of Texas was inducted into the Association of American Universities in 1929, becoming only the third university in the American South to be elected. The institution has the nation's eighth-largest single-campus enrollment, with over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 24,000 faculty and staff.
The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. Eleven colleges, two schools, an early admissions math and science academy for exceptional high-school-age students from across the state, and a library system comprise the university core. Its research is driven by about 38 doctoral degree programs. North Texas was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later. UNT is the flagship institution of the University of North Texas System, which includes additional universities in Dallas and Fort Worth. UNT also has a satellite campus in Frisco.
Why Beto and the Fairlanes? In his own words on his website, Skiles explains, “Beto was a result of my bilingual roots in San Antonio, a love of jazz and classical music that came from my parents who were both accomplished artists, and a desire to write and perform highly energetic, improvised music that was both challenging to play and fun to dance to! My vision was to combine, in a unique way, what I love about jazz and Latin music"... "The name 'Beto and the Fairlanes?' was something I just thought up as a fun name for a typical South Texas street band. In time, the name and the music stuck and here we are! What are we doing now? Well, after so many years of playing concerts and recording, we still get together for the same reason we did when we started: simply to have fun! Sure, we still have other projects in the works, but nowadays we have about one gig a month and it’s a family party: band and fans. And it’s fun. That’s what we’re all about!"
Drummer John "Mambo" Treanor, who died of cancer on August 20, 2001 at age 48 was an original member. Treanor also founded the group 47 Times Its Own Weight and was known for his hats and ties made from the fur of roadkill animals. [3]
Roadkill is an animal or animals that have been struck and killed by motor vehicles on highways. It has increasingly become the topic of academic research to understand the causes, and how it can be mitigated. Some roadkill can also be eaten.
The band's sixth album, Conga Dog was released January 6, 2006. [4] Later that same year, the band played a show at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.
The Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on two consecutive three-day weekends. Inspired by the KLRU/PBS music series of the same name, the festival is produced by Austin-based company C3 Presents, which also produces Lollapalooza. The reputation of the ACL television show helped contribute to the success of the first festival.
In the fall of 2012 (end of August to the beginning of October), Beto and the Fairlanes embarked on a 35-day tour in and around Austin Texas as a celebration of their 35th anniversary (playing something somewhere every day, inclusive of shows at Guero's Taco Bar, Ruta Maya, South Austin Museum of Popular Culture, La Cabana, Antone's, Continental Club, Reunion Grille, Rattle Inn, Elephant Room, Iguana Grill, and Threadgill's) - This tour was called the 35 DAZE tour.
During the 35 DAZE tour, The Cowboy (Mr. Allison Barton Rice) recorded fifteen of the shows and a sampler of those recordings entitled 35 DAZE - Beto and the Fairlanes in the Live Music Capital of the World - Austin Texas was released at Beto and the Fairlanes 36th anniversary show on September 15, 2013 at One World Theatre in Austin, TX.
