Eva Ybarra (born March 2, 1945) [1] known as the "Queen of the Accordion", is a professional conjunto musician. [2]
Ybarra was born on the west side of San Antonio, Texas, one of nine children. [2] Her father was a truck driver. [1] As a child, she played piano and accordion, later recounting: "I started by listening to the radio, and I learnt by ear, copying what I heard. But I didn't want to copy anyone, I wanted my own style." [2] She performed locally and on the radio from a young age, [1] and won her first record deal at age 14 with Rosina Records. [2]
Ybarra writes original music as the leader of the band Eva Ybarra y Su Conjunto. She is known for using non-standard chord progressions in her compositions. [2] She has said about her style: "I use a lot of inversions and scales. Pentatonic scales. Major 9th chords...I go to dances and can play traditional for people to dance, but I prefer concerts where I can play progressive music." [3] She performs on the accordion as well as the bajo sexto, guitarrón, electric bass, and keyboards. [4]
Her albums include A Mi San Antonio (1994), and Romance Inolvidable (Unforgettable Romance) (1996). [2] They encompass several styles of music including rancheras, country songs, bolero tangos, huapangos, and ballads. [5] Some of her well-known songs include "A mi San Antonio", "El gallito madrugador" (The Early Rising Rooster), "El perico loco" (The Crazy Parrot), and "A bailar con Eva" (Dance with Eva). [4]
Ybarra began performing regularly in the Tejano Conjunto Festival, hosted by the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, in 1981. [6] She has also taught music performance at the University of Washington and Palo Alto College, at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, and for the Apprenticeship Program of Texas Folklife. [2] She was featured in the touring exhibit "American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music." [7]
She continues to live and perform in San Antonio. [3]
Album title | Record label | Catalog number | Release year | Song title(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Planet Squeezebox: Accordion Music from Around the World | Ellipsis Arts | 3470 | 1995 | "A Mi San Antonio" |
A Taste of Tex Mex: 40 Tejano Tidbits | Emporio | DEMPCD 028 | 1997 | "Pobre Palomita" |
The Rough Guide to Tex-Mex | World Music Network (UK) | RGNET 1037 CD | 1999 | "Quiereme, Quiereme" |
Tex Mex Favourites, Vol. 2 | Weton-Wesgram (Netherlands) | KBOX3235 | 2000 | "Con Todo Mi Ser " |
"Pobre Palomita" | ||||
Accordion Dreams | Hacienda Records | HAC-7586 | 2001 | "Pobre Palomita" |
Tejano Picante: Tex-Mex Classics | Rhino | R2 74365 | 2001 | "Dora" |
Tex Mex | ARC Music (UK) | EUCD1787 | 2003 | "El Gallito Madrugador" |
"La Ricachona" | ||||
Tex Mex Party | Weton-Wesgram (Netherlands) | EXCEL2140 | 2004 | "Pobre Palomita" |
Tejano music, also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican influences. Its evolution began in northern Mexico.
The term conjunto refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as norteño and tejano, Cuban conjuntos specialize in the son, as well as its derivations such as salsa.
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is an American singer, songwriter and accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. He is known for playing Norteño, Tex Mex and Tejano music. Jiménez has been a solo performer and session musician, as well as a member of the Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven.
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Esteban "Steve" Jordan was a jazz, rock, blues, conjunto and Tejano musician from the United States. He was also known as "El Parche", "The Jimi Hendrix of the accordion", and "the accordion wizard". An accomplished musician, he played 35 different instruments.
Santiago Almeida was a Texas musician influential in the development of the musical genres of tejano and conjunto.
Pedro Ayala, called "El Monarca del Acordeón", was a Mexican accordionist and songwriter from General Terán, Nuevo León, Mexico. Pedro Ayala was a pioneer of conjunto music with his distinctive accordion playing, receiving a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for his contribution to conjunto and folk music.
Arturo Castillo, Jr., better known as AJ Castillo, is an American singer of Mexican descent. He is a cumbia, and Tejano music recording artist, accordionist, singer, performer, and producer. His debut album, "Who I Am", was released in 2009. His second album, On My Way, was released in 2010. Castillo won Best New Artist – Male at the 2010 Tejano Music Awards.
Anselmo "El Chemiro" Martínez was a Tejano singer and songwriter. Martínez gained prominence in the mid-1960s recording orchestra music influenced by Glenn Miller and subsequently introducing the style coast to coast as he toured and recorded original compositions. He had released 13 albums and 248 original songs, performing into his 80s and writing 261 Gospel songs, and releasing 5 gospel CDs. He was the President of The Guadalupanos at St. Gabriel’s Church. Anselmo “El Chemiro” Martínez was an inductee to the TTMA Tejano Hall of Fame.
Isidro López was a Corpus Christi, Texas-based Tejano bandleader, influential in Latin American music in the United States in the 1950s. Óscar Martínez joined the Isidro Lopez Orchestra in 1954 and penned "El Tejano Enamorado," Lopez' first hit. Signed to Ideal Records in 1954, he released more than sixty singles and eight LP records in the 1950s and 1960s for that label.
Juanita García was a Tejano singer.
Ideal Records was a record label from Texas specializing in Tejano music. It became the most important record label of the genre in the 1940s and 1950s, recording tejano's most prominent artists. It declined in the early 1960s, but not before leaving an indelible mark on Tex-Mex culture.
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A Mi San Antonio is the debut album by the American musician Eva Ybarra, released in 1994. She is credited with her band, Su Conjunto. While incorporating many musical styles, the album is primarily in the Tejano conjunto idiom.
Linda Escobar is an American singer-songwriter. Referred to as the "Queen of Conjunto music", she has been called one of the most influential women of South Texas and one of the most important figures of conjunto music. Escobar rose to fame as a child in 1965 when her song "Frijolitos Pintos" sold a million copies. She embarked on touring alongside her father, Eligio Escobar, spanning the United States, Mexico, and Central America. In 1998, she started the El Veterano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio, Texas, honoring U.S. war veterans on Veterans Day. The festival culminates with the awarding of music scholarships. In 2017, U.S. Representative Filemon Vela Jr. acknowledged Escobar for her contributions to Tejano and conjunto music during Women's History Month. In 2019, she was inducted into the South Texas Music Walk of Fame and received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tejano Music Awards. With a music catalog of circa 500 songs, Escobar is widely recognized for boasting one of the longest and most prolific music careers in the Tejano market.
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) is a nonprofit arts organization located in the West Side of San Antonio. Its focus is multidisciplinary, with performances, exhibitions, and classes pertaining to music, dance, theater, literature, art, and film, with an emphasis on Chicano, Mexican, Latino, and Native American content. Its origins can be traced to 1979, when several groups of Chicanos/as came together to form the Performance Artists Nucleus, Incorporated (PAN). Its first permanent campus consisted of the Teatro Guadalupe, a large theater from 1940 that had been closed in 1970, and the former Progresso Dugstore, at the intersection of Guadalupe and South Bazos Streets. PAN adopted the name Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center before moving into the theater in 1984. Other buildings were gradually added to the GCAC campus, including Museo Guadalupe, Cesar Chavez Building, La Casita, and Guadalupanita Café.