Flaco Jiménez and Tomás Ortiz
Together
Arhoolie 543

www.arhoolie.com
 

Very few performers of Tejano and conjunto music have garnered the level of critical kudos that ace accordionist Flaco Jimenez has enjoyed over the course of a career that has spanned six decades. Without compromising his musical vision, Jimenez has introduced conventional pop and country listeners to the traditional, working class, dance-oriented conjunto sound through lively collaborations with the Texas Tornados, the Sir Douglas Quintet, Bob Dylan, Los Super Seven, Dwight Yoakam and the Mavericks as well as inoculating the more intrepid rock fans with his work with Ry Cooder, the Rolling Stones and Carlos Santana. Earnest vocalist and songwriter Tomas Ortiz of Los Alegres de Teran, on the other hand, was one of the first superstars of the Mexican rural music known as Musica Nortena – along with his former partner Eugenio Abrego, they were the founding fathers of an engaging sound that combined an accordion-driven verve with the rustic vocal tradition of dueto. This reissue of an out-of-print 2005 collaboration of the pair (along with bajo sexto ace Max Baca, percussionist Arturo Jimenez, bassist Oscar Garcia, saxophonist Panchito Villarreal, trumpeter David Villarreal and vihuela-ist Henry Gomez) features ten entertainingly buoyant, vocally powerful covers of material from the likes of compadres like Eloy Saldivar, Rosalio Luerra, Felipe Valdez Leal along with Ortizes classic “Tu Nuevo Carinita.” Ortiz passed away much too early in 2007 but Jimenez is still going strong.

— Gary von Tersch