NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Accordions!

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

The influence of Eastern Europe immigration in Latin America can be heard in the way the accordion was adapted and adopted in countries like Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and beyond.This week we take a deep dive into those traditions with our guide, Eduardo Díaz, former director of Latino cultural information for the Smithsonian Institution.Featured artists and songs:• Narciso Martínez, "Nix"• Carlos Vives, "Hijo de Vallenato"• Los Corraleros de Majagual, "La Pollera Colorada" • Luis Gonzaga, "Asa Branca"• Grupo Alma Serrana, "Puerto Tirol"• Francisco Ulloa, "El Farolito"• Tatico Henriquez, "La Invasión de Deiziseis"CreditsAudio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Simon Rentner. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, Anna, did I ever tell you about the time when I was in high school, when I played in an accordion band? Many, many, many times. He didn't think I was going to say that, did you? Sorry, let me run that back. I don't know, Felix. That doesn't even ring a bell. Tell me more. From NPR music, this is all Latino. This is all Latino.

I'm Felix Contreras. Okay. So then, if you've already heard it, I will show you. share it with the listeners. So when I was in high school, this is in Sacramento, California, my uncle, my dad's brother, and for a long time he had this Conjunto, a Mexican accordion band. And I was playing drums in this little band in high school, and he asked my dad if I could fill in a couple of his dates.

I was exposed to these accordion players, these great musicians who were, at the time, I just sort of discounted because they were my parents' music. right? Like, oh, that's kind of rinky dink, old stuff. But the thing I remember from that first night was watching that accordion player, and he was like Charlie Parker. He was riffing the whole night. That's my first experience with just how intense and how rich a tradition the accordion is in Mexican music. Now, Felix, I love an accordion. I think what a lot of people might not realize about what is exciting and popular and happening today, accordion is still a backbone.

It's still a key to that sound, to the mysticism of that music. That's what draws people in. Accordians are back, baby. We're talking all about accordions. Because they are all over Latin America. They're all over the Spanish-speaking world. We needed to call in somebody who has

had quite a bit more information about it than I do. So I ask my good friend Eduardo Líez to come in to talk to us. He is the former director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and the former acting deputy director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino. Don't forget, Felix. He's also the co-founder of the International Accordian Festival in San Antonio. Why have we not gone? And what are the welcome, no?

Thank you very much. Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate it. As the accordion aficionado that you are, what is the magic of this instrument? What is special physically about it to you? Well, it's, you know, it's not like you can strap a piano on your back, right? I mean, so the accordion is very portable, right? It's a loud instrument.

It has tremendous range. It just lent itself to folks coming from Europe to the Americas, and it paved the way for a new sort of version of European music to have a new home in the Americas. We're going to start with a guy named Narciso Martinez, and let's hear a little bit of the music before we start talking about the man himself. Sure. Narciso Martinez, his nickname was the Udakan del Valle, the hurricane of the valley.

You're talking about the Rio Grande Valley, right? This is this area of South Texas that's below San Antonio along the border, the tip of where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico. He was from the area of Brownsville, San Benito area, and he was actually a zookeeper. It was his real job, right? His day job. He pioneered a sound that was very traditional,

this cut, there's only two instruments, and so this is a very traditional Polish-style upbeat waltz that he's playing. And he just sort of paved the way. Later, in Conjonto music, you add in the regular bass and a drum set. You know, that's the formation of the typical now. So the Texmaniacs or any of the other modern sort of the Conjonto, there are four members. I mean, it makes sense to me that the accordion would be so pervasive across Latin America because it strikes me as such a community music. There's such a requirement of paying attention to the instrumentation around you

and the artistry around you. And that's not going to a conservatory with certain instruments and you learn to play isolated or individually. And accordion is so collaborative. It sounds to me in a way to be an expression of identity in some ways. That's true.

I mean, it is a community experience. You know, we're going to talk about Vianato. later, but in the case of Aenato Unconjunto Music, it's not just about the music. It's about the culture. It's about the myths. It's about the stories that people tell. It's about the food. It's the way they live their lives. It's much more than just the music. It's, as you said on it, it's more of a cultural experience and a community-based cultural experience. I want to point out that the recording we played, I picked it up from YouTube, the YouTube channel for the Frontera Collection. It's music from the,

the Frontetta Collection Archives from the Arhuli Foundation, which is the largest collection of commercially produced Mexican and Mexican recordings. Like I said, there's also a YouTube channel. And we've featured that archive on the show before, but I just want to point that out because that archive is very, very important. Yeah, it's not the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife. Okay, we're going to select a few countries, briefly explain how the accordion got there, some of the music.

Like I said, can't be exhaustive. We're just going to do some final points here. Let's start in Colombia. And you just mentioned Vayanato. Let's talk about that a little bit. Somebody handed an accordion to a Colombian in the area of Bayadupar in the Department of Cesar is sort of an interior, sort of northeastern part of Colombia. You already had cumbia genres. And the accordion just kind of moves other instruments to the side.

Again, it's more accessible, it's louder, it's a little easier to play. Maybe it just has, it's new. right, the introduction of this mysterious new instrument that came in the hands of a German trader probably. And the bayonato just goes in this other direction. And then it becomes this whole thing. I listened to Bayo DuPar once, which is the home of a big bayonato festival every year in April. It's just more than the music. It's just the whole way of life.

Some of those mitos, the stories people tell. You turn on the radio station, you don't even. hear salsa. You know what I mean? And the salsa is a big thing in Colombia, in Kalia, of course. It's just, it's Bayonato 24 7. It's just so embedded. And then, of course, then it becomes

more popular as, because Carlos Vivas discovers it and brings it to a larger audience, and which is a good thing. Still maintains its roots, but just kind of takes it to another level of popularity that takes it out of its regionalization, if you were. I always thought of, like,

what Carlos Vivas did for Bayanato, sort of similar to what happened with the Buena Vista Social Club in a way. So it brought a lot more attention to what had been essentially a folk tradition. What strikes me is that there is a strong African influence and just about all of this music coming through, and especially when you're talking about music from Colombia,

that's evident when you can hear this, even in a contemporary setting. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, the Bayanato is this remarkable miscegenation of indigenous music because some of the tamboures are indigenous, although some of them are African. The accordion is European. So you have this meeting of three different routes converging, and Vianato is an excellent example. In 2015, Vayanato was added to the United Nations list

of intangible cultural heritage in need of safeguarding. Yeah? Yeah. It's world right. You go to Bayo de Par, there's no need to safeguard nothing. You know what I mean? It's alive and well. I do want to go back to that moment, though, mid-19th century, the accordion arrives for the first time.

I mean, as we're talking about how kind of adaptable and integratable this instrument is, I mean, there obviously was an extremely different musical scene ready to receive it in Colombia than what it had come from in Germany. I mean, what was happening musically in Colombia at the time? Like, what was the style of music looking like? How did it integrate in that moment? Well, there's a close relationship between the cumbia traditional. Cumbia and Vayanato, obviously. Then they diverge, right? But you have the same basic instrumentation,

except the Gaeta's gone, right? The pan flutes, the Gaeta macho, the Gaeta Embra are gone, but you still have the Tambora Legre, right? Which is like a West African jimbe. Yeah, you still have the Wacharaca, which is the scraper, that's an indigenous instrument. You still have the Maraca, right?

You may still have sort of the tambora, sort of the bass drum, the Segido or another drum. so you still have the percussive elements are still there. It's just that the rhythms are a little bit different. You know, it's just that the accordion just changed the dynamics of the music. I think the instrumentation is very similar, but the accordion just allows for the music to expand in these other sub-genres. And we're going to play a song called La Poyera Colora,

and it's by a group called Los Corraleros de Mahagual. Song called La Poyera Colora, group called Los Corrales. You are listening to Alt Latino. We're talking about accordions. We'll be right back. And we're back talking about accordions on Alt Latino. Okay, now we're going to move along. We're going to move in the next country.

Again, reminding folks, this is not comprehensive. We're just touching the tip of the iceberg. I don't know what people are writing in and say, you forget this, you forget that. Because you could do even more cultures and traditions in Colombia. We're going to move to Brazil. And we're going to talk about. Fohho, tell us a little bit about that.

F-O-H-O-O-F-O-R-R-R-O accent on the O. It's a Brazilian music from the countryside, mostly from the northeast, I would say. I don't know exactly the origin of the foho, obviously, the Portuguese were the colonial, obviously, power in Brazil. And the fo'ho just develops as a rural music. The accordion is introduced, and, again, the rest is history. Now, I mean, my sister, who's a big salsa DJ in L.A., she goes to Fouhoho dances every weekend now. And they're hugely popular in L.A.

And New York, of course, as well. Anyway where they're Brazilians, you'll find Fouhoho. And it's just become this whole thing now. It's another example of drop a pin anywhere in Latin America, a combination of indigenous, African, European. It's just, it's all the same mixture. Yeah. And it's usually in the rural areas, right?

It's where, you know, people are just making music. They don't have, quote, unquote, the sophisticated means, right? It's not Posanova Nova. It's not Jean-Giote or, you know what I mean, Kaitaunovillos or any of those. I mean, it's just rural folks making this incredible music that becomes theirs, and it penetrates into the urban areas eventually. Right.

I'm looking up Fajol right now because I had literally never heard of this, and I love to dance. And this is blowing my mind. It's like a salsa step. It's like a salsa step with a different bounce to it. It's bouncier. It's very bouncy.

Let's hear a little bit of it. Upup accordion. This is a track called Asabranca by a guy named Luis Gonzaga, who very quickly, he was popular in the 50s and 60s. He brought Foujo out of the country into the city in Sao Paulo, Rio.

He had a resurgence in the 70s, 80s. People were discovering his music. His music is probably some of the stuff your sisters playing. This is Asabranca from Luis Gonzaga. Check it out. One of the things in doing this research about this music is the presence of the triangle in Brazilian music.

So distinctive. It's in samba. You don't hear it anywhere else, really. It's in Brazil where you hear the triangles. You heard there in Asa branca, Asa means handle or wing. Branca means white. The triangle is very distinctive in the Brazilian music. It's like their version of the cowbell like you would hear in south side.

There you go. There you go. To metal. Right? It's metal. It does all the 16th notes. Tiki, Sikki-Ti, Siketit, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, T'Ikini. Let's move to Sartanegro. It's not similar to Foujo.

Sometimes, Sertanejo will hear, even in the southern part of Brazil. Foujo's normally identified with the northeastern part of Brazil. But if you go to the border, Séwe or Paraguay, in Higuanje, du Su, for example, where Puerto Aligre is the capital. You'll hear this music. And again, it's very immigrant. It's Eastern European immigrants.

Remember that we had immigrants coming from Eastern Europe that arrived. Like, we're going to get to talk about the Chamameh, for example, later on. You know, and you're dealing with the Ukrainian immigrants who come with a chromatic accordion. Those big honking, you know, you hear to see the Russians playing, you know, the big old accordions. And so this style of music was also part, again, rural. Or sometimes they refer to the music of gausha, the gaucho, right? The cowboy, the Brazilian cowboy.

And, of course, Argentina's called the gaucho. And Brazil is called Gaucho, same word, just pronounced differently in Portuguese. So it's, again, cowboy music, you know, rural music, right, that develops, and then it always seems to happen in the urban areas as well. But the origins are definitely rural. What we're going to play right now is to hear an example of the music is this young woman, she is from Brazil.

Her name is Bia Sokik. She's sitting in front of a camera, and she's playing all these various styles and songs of Sartanegro. And if she's 35, maybe. So it just reflects to me how the youth is rediscovering this stuff. This is just a little sample from her YouTube channel. Bia Sokik playing Certanejo. What also strikes me, too, is that a lot of these rural traditions,

they have something in common, like it's slow and it's stately. When I heard this, I imagined the traditional Dansson from Cuba because it's slow and it's stately. it has its own history, but just the meter of it, it's just, that's what it reminds me of. I feel like all of these styles, Felix, that we talk about, that are reaching to tradition, they all have a bit of that stately air to them.

They all come from kind of these waltzy or sounds, or in this case, this has obviously a much more reduced tempo. But, like, they all have a little bit of that, like, really, I don't know, special kind of, like, fancy, mystical energy that then, I think that's the staying power, a lot of times. Okay, we're going to wrap this up by going to Argentina. And

the most obvious reference to accordion-style instruments in Argentina's tango. Yeah. With Bandonion instrument. Yeah. A cousin of the accordion. So, but we wanted to do, and you had a brilliant idea,

it's like we're going to put, we're going to focus on another another genre, another tradition that comes from there that is not widely known. The Chamame. The Chamame is, again, another rural, you know, has rural roots in the northeastern part of Argentina and the provinces of Corrientes and Missiones, I believe. And again, here you have the arrival of immigrants, in this case, mostly from Eastern Europe.

And the style of music derives. They usually play with a large chromatic piano accordion. And it's country music. It's nothing like the sophisticated, you know, quote, quote, sophisticated sounds of the tango that you would hear in Buenos Aires, for example. It's the other music of Argentina. I found something online from a compilation somebody who put together, again, on YouTube, which is where all the music excerpts seem to be hanging out and offering their stuff.

This is from a collection called 100% Chamame, or 100% Chamomé. This is something called Puerto Tirol. Check this out. Now we're going to wrap this up by going to the Dominican Republic. Oh, boy. All right. Let's hear the music first. This is El Farolito by Francisco Ulloa.

These musicians were not living in some kind of bubble with the music. They were paying attention to what was going on in the world, with politics and social movements, feminism and so forth. And like I was cracking up because there's a whole merengue called Pambiche, right? Which came later. which was invented at the time that the U.S. invaded the Dominican Republic the first time in 1960. I just stabilized the country. And, of course, the United States by then was an imperial power in the hemisphere.

After the U.S.-Mexico War, the war of 1898, and Pombice refers to Palm Beach, because that's where the Marines were dispatched from to come and settle and invade the Dominican Republic. And they were having a hard time getting into Meringe. You know, they couldn't quite dance very well. And I'm thinking, like, the merengue is not that hard to dance, you know what I'm saying? But they couldn't get it. And so in response, the merengeros, the DR, came up with a slower version of the merengue, which they call Pambiche or a Pambichau.

And that's... And, you know, there's like this very classic song called La Invasion del Dioz by Tatik. Enrique's, which comments on the struggle of the resistance to the invasion of 1916. But it's just, you know, I just wanted to underscore that the musicians weren't just like party animals. I mean, they were paying attention what was going on, and the music, in this case, forms part of the resistance to the U.S. invasion in 1960. And you know, I have Steve Jordan making his corridos about the Texas farm workers on 1966, who marched from the Valley of Texas to Austin demanding better working conditions for the

Texas Warburgers. They were rooted with the people, right? And the people were demanding justice. They were fighting against imperialism. And so, you know, but the music's still there. The music was Aligre, but had a point. Eduardo Diaz, thank you so much for joining us today. My pleasure. It's fun. Lilliers is the former director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and the former acting deputy director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino. He knows a lot about music, man.

Thank you so much for the invitation. And that about does it, I think, Felix, for this week's show. A huge thank you, as always, to Grace Chung, who keeps us on track. Simon Retner for editing our audio. Executive producer is Soraya Mohamed. And Keith Jenkins is the Hefhancichie. of NPR music. I'm Felix Contreras.

And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thank you so much for listening.