Flacco Jimenez has been the King of Conjunto, Norteno and Tejano music in Texas since the mid-1960’s…..a position he still holds today as an accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez began performing at the age of seven with his father, Santiago Jiménez Sr….who was a pioneer of conjunto music….and began recording at age fifteen as a member of Los Caporales. He played in the San Antonio area for several years and then began working with Doug Sahm in the 1960s. Sahm, better known as the founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet, played with Jiménez for some time. Flaco then went on to New York City and worked with Dr. John, David Lindley, Peter Rowan, Ry Cooder and Bob Dylan. He appeared on Cooder’s world music album Chicken Skin Music and on the Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge. This led to greater awareness of his music outside America….especially after touring Europe with Ry Cooder…then he returned to tour in America with his own band….and on a joint bill with Peter Rowan. Jiménez, Peter Rowan and Wally Drogos were the original members of a band called the Free Mexican Airforce.
Jiménez has won a total of seven Grammy awards…..one in 1986 for Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio….one of his father’s songs. He was also a member of the Tejano fusion group Texas Tornadoswith Augie Meyers, Doug Sahm and Freddy Fender. The Texas Tornados won a Grammy award in 1990, and Jiménez earned one on his own in 1996, when his album Flaco Jiménez….winning the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 1999, Flacco earned another Grammy award for Best Tejano Performance for Said and Done (released by Barbed Wire Records) and one for Best Mexican-American Performance as a part of the supergroup Los Super Seven. In 2012 Jiménez received a National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment of the Arts. Just last year, In February 2015…Jiménez won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also won a Best Video award at the Tejano Music Awards and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from Billboard Latin Magazine for “Streets of Bakersfield” with Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens.
