Tejano History:
Tejano, popular music style fusing Mexican, European, and U.S. influences. Its
evolution began in northern Mexico (a variation known as norteño) and Texas in
the mid-19th century with the introduction of the accordion by German, Polish, and Czech
immigrants.
Distinguished
primarily by instrumentation and orchestration, three forms of Tejano (Spanish:
“Texan”) music developed. The original form, conjunto, which was seen as
more déclassé than mariachi music,
featured the accordion as the melodic lead instrument backed rhythmically by
the bajo sexto (a
12-string guitar) and an acoustic bass guitar. Its
initial repertoire included waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, andrancheros. In modern conjunto, a drum kit
was added and the acoustic bass replaced by an electric one.Conjunto’s best-known performers in the 1920s and
’30s, accordionists Pedro Ayala and Narciso Martínez, were succeeded by Tony de
la Rose and Leonardo (“Flaco”) Jiménez in conjunto’s
“golden age” in the late 1940s and early ’50s.
In the 1930s Tejano’s second major form,banda , or orquesta, emerged. Tejano big bands, most notably La
Orquesta de Beto Villa, building upon the big band lineup popularized by swing
bands, quickly incorporated Mexican folk music and conjunto traditions.
By the mid-1950s bandleader and vocalistIsidro López had made crooning a staple
of banda; however, his addition of the bajo sexto and
the accordion to the orchestral lineup was reversed by Oscar Martínez, whose band featured a
brass-oriented instrumentation that would remain the template for banda (two
trumpets, alto and tenor saxophones, guitar, bass, and drums), which peaked in
the 1970s.
Rejecting
horns, saxophones, and the accordion even as it embraced a largely conjunto repertoire,
Tejano’s third musical form, grupo, originated in the 1960s
with keyboard instruments and synthesizers as its foundation. Grupo’s most famous performer, Selena, became an international celebrity
before being killed in 1995. A reflection of the
growing Mexican American cultural pride in the last half of the 20th century,
all three forms of Tejano have continued their popularity into the 21st century.