conjunto

The tradition & historical record

The term conjunto (Spanish pronunciation: [koŋˈxunto], literally 'group', 'ensemble') 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. ¹

Mexican conjunto music, also known as conjunto tejano, was born in south Texas at the end of the 19th century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The bajo sexto has come to accompany the button accordion and is integral to the conjunto sound. Many conjuntos are concentrated in the Southwestern portion of the United States, primarily in Texas and California. In Mexico, the term conjunto is associated with norteño and tejano music. Since tejano was bred out of norteño music originally, this association is not entirely false. However, due to various cultural and socioeconomic developments in the 1900s, norteño musicians began trailblazing the tejano genre as a tangent to conjunto. In the United States and Mexico, a conjunto band is composed of four main instruments: the button accordion, the bajo sexto, an electric bass, and a drum set. The place of the electric bass was first filled by the tololoche, or contrabass, until it was replaced in the 1950s. They are popular in northern Mexico and southern Texas. German and East European settlers brought their accordions, waltzes and polkas to the region, which were adapted by the local population. Texas accordion player Flaco Jiménez is probably the best-known conjunto musician in the United States, with a career spanning sixty years and earning him six Grammy awards. ¹

During the 1920s, American recording companies made efforts to enter the Chicano market, which brought the budding genre of conjunto music to a greater public eye, with some of the most prominent musicians from this time period being Narciso Martinez and Santiago Jimenez. There was a decline in the production of conjunto recordings during World War II. Beginning in 1946, there was a shift to records being made by local Chicano-owned companies rather than Anglo-American record companies. Other changes occurred during this period, including the addition of vocal singing to conjuntos. Other forms of Chicano music, such as female duets, had included lyrics already, but Valerio Longoria was the first to add them to conjuntos, but it came at the added cost of excluding women from the industry, since conjunto was already a male-dominated genre. In the 1950s, the ranchera and bolero started to be included in the genres that conjunto groups would play, and rancheras grew to become one of the central features of conjunto music, along with polkas. Conjunto groups also started to play more in cantinas and dance halls as they gained popularity. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, conjunto music began to decline in popularity among tejanos because there were not as many young groups being formed and producing new recordings, but norteño groups did not have the same issue. After one of the most popular tejano groups of the 1960s, Conjunto Bernal, disbanded, norteño groups like Los Bravos del Norte, headed by Ramón Ayala, gained traction. ¹

The Texas-Mexican Conjunto is a genre of música norteño. Since the turn of the century, this form of music has been ever evolving as an important musical form that is developed by working-class Texas-Mexican musicians. Narciso Martínez who is known as "the father" of the Texas-Mexican conjunto for bringing in a surge of innovation and creativity as an accordionist. Martínez promoted the use of the accordion, but looked to stamp his own personal style. He abandoned the old, Germanic technique by avoiding the bass chord buttons on his two-row accordion. Narciso Martínez's new style became the starting point for the surge of the modern conjunto. At the end of the nineteenth century, one row accordions became inexpensive and readily available to musicians. Tejano musicians took up the accordion as a solo instrument and use it at rural social events such as fandango. One of these musicians to come from the surge of the modern conjunto were Carmen y Laura. Carmen Hernández Marroquín married Armando Marroquín, who established Ideal Records along with Paco Betancourt. Carmen y Laura went on to record hundreds of songs for the company, and some of their first recordings had accompaniment by Narciso Martínez. As time went on, the Texas-Mexican conjunto has grown in prominence among Hispanics throughout the state of Texas, particularly in San Antonio, Austin, Alice, Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley, and Corpus Christi. Throughout the 70's, 80's, and 90's, some of the most popular conjunto groups included Ruben Naranjo y Los Gamblers, Steve Jordan (accordionist) y su Rio Jordan, Los Dos Gilbertos, and Tony De La Rosa y su Conjunto. Into the more modern day of Conjunto with groups like Ricky Naranjo y Los Gamblers, Los Garcia Brothers, and The Delta Boyz. ¹

The Tejano-Conjunto Festival in San Antonio began in 1982 and is presented by the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, a San Antonio-based nonprofit organization. It is held each May in Rosedale Park in San Antonio. The Rancho Alegre Conjunto Music Festival in Austin began in 2012 and is presented by Austin-based Rancho Alegre, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Conjunto music. The Narciso Martinez Conjunto Festival in the Rio Grande Valley began in 1993 and is presented every fall by the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center, a San-Benito-based nonprofit organization. The Ruben Naranjo Memorial Music Festival in Alice began in 1999 following the death of conjunto legend Ruben Naranjo, who was from Alice. It had an annual status until 2005 when they held the last event. ¹

A conjunto jarocho is a type of Mexican folk ensemble. Often it consists of requinto, arpa jarocha, jarana and leona, but can also have violin, pandero octagonal, quijada, marimbol or güiro. Its repertory covers sones jarochos in 34, 68 and 44. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Conjunto”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

conjunto is mix of traditional Mexican music and European polkas, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 9 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²