conjunto tejano
San Antonio, Texas
Emerging from San Antonio’s vibrant music scene, Los Texmaniacs are among the most exciting exponents of conjunto tejano. Melding classic conjunto sounds with rock, blues, and R&B, Los Texmaniacs perform “hip music that everybody in the world can relate to, with the traditional conjunto elements, not ever losing your cultura,” explains bandleader Max Baca.
Born in the Rio Grande Valley, conjunto (“group” in Spanish) emerged in the late 19th century when German, Czech, and Polish immigrants introduced the button accordion into the lively dance music of Mexican working-class communities in southern Texas. By the early 1930s, the modern conjunto style emerged as a distinctive Tex-Mex fusion centered on the accordion and the bajo sexto, a 12-stringed guitar-like instrument contributing a bass line and backbeat, playing a mixture of rancheras, polkas, waltzes, boleros, cumbias, huapangos, and schottisches. Conjunto was a major element in the soundtrack of the Chicano civil rights movement, and remains central to Tejano cultural identity.
Los Texmaniacs founder Max Baca is one of the most dynamic bajo sexto players in the world. He started playing music at age five, and was performing with his father’s band at seven. The bajo sexto typically provides rhythm, but in Baca’s hands, it becomes a powerful lead instrument as well. Max is capable of jaw-dropping lead runs as well as the rock-steady rhythmic punch that is the signature “bajo” sound. Baca remains the longtime right-hand man of legendary accordionist Flaco Jiménez, with whom he played in the genre-bending Texas Tornados. He founded Los Texmaniacs in 1997. The quartet, who won a Grammy for Best Tejano Album in 2010, also includes Max’s nephew, Josh Baca, a 28-year-old accordion wizard who has toured regularly with Los Lobos; the talented Noel Hernandez on bass; and veteran Texmaniac Lorenzo Martinez—who studied mariachi with the legendary Nati Cano, as well as playing for years with the Texas Tornados—on drums and guittarón. Their 2019 album, Cruzando Borders, garnered yet another Grammy nomination for the group. After nearly a quarter century together, Texmaniacs continue to be celebrated globally as ambassadors of Tex-Mex conjunto music and culture.
For this special Los Texmaniacs performance, it is an intimate family affair, as Max will be joined by Josh Baca on accordion.