NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Los Texmaniacs keep tradition alive

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

Shortly after Los Texmaniacs did what they do best at the Tiny Desk, I pulled them into a studio to chat with them about the traditions they represent with their music. It turned into a master class on the accordion-fueled style known as conjunto, a mix of European folk music and Spanish-language storytelling. Plus, the group shared some love for one of the iconic artists who taught the world how to love conjunto, Flaco Jimenez, and how their personal connection to him also inspired them to move the music forward.  - FelixDon't miss NPR Music's full coverage of Latin Music Month, with Tiny Desk Concerts featuring Mon Laferte, Los Tigres del Norte, Tim Bernardes, Los Texmaniacs and more starting September 15 at NPR.org.This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. Suraya Mohamed is the executive producer of NPR Music.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.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

From NPR music, this is all Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisemet begin. And Felix, we do have some real chisemet this week. It is September, which means, you know what it means. Yes, I do. It means it's time for our annual takeover of the Tiny Desk Latin Music Month or El Taini.

This is our sixth year doing it, Felix. And I think it's fair to say, this is my favorite lineup we've ever had. Ooh, wow. On the record. In case you haven't seen it, we announced who we'll be playing, which includes this year. Drum roll, please, Felix. We have the Chilean Mexican adopted Mon Laferte from Peru, the legendary Los Milos, with their cumbia Amazonica, the young Dominican vocalist Yendri, and also from the Dominican Republic, Alex Ferreira. We also have some jazz this year, Anna, with Melissa Aldana.

Of course. And the great Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Mexican scone. is represented by the veterans Pantele Rococo and Los Tex-Maniacs offer up some music from Texas. Of course, I had to sneak in some Brazil in there, Felix.

One of my absolute favorites, Tim Bernardis, brought just a guitar to enchant us. We also have one of your all-time favorites, Draco Rosa, and, of course, Los Hefes de los Gees, this year,

Los Tigres del Norte. So this year we're doing something a little different. We pulled aside a couple artists after their tiny dust to talk about some of their favorite music, some of their most inspiring music, their own music, and tell us a bit more, give us some more context,

social, cultural, historical, personal around some of this music and how it's impacted them. So you kicked us off, Felix, with Los Tex-Maniacs. So if you don't know about them, Los Tex-Maniacs are a Grammy-winning man from Texas that played that accordion-driven music

that originated along the border called Conjunto. But they also include a health the amount of blues, R&B, and a dash of country. Max Baca formed the band in 1997, and the fact that he is from Albuquerque, and he has mastered the acoustic guitar known as the Bajo Sexto shows how influential Conjunto is to all of the Southwest. Marina, Marina, Marina, I love my heart for you dearest never hard. The tiny desk from Los Texmaniat's will be out soon, but in the meantime, here's my

conversation with the band right after they played their show. No, our chat wasn't just about their music. They also shared their deep knowledge of the history of Spanish language music from Texas. First, let's meet the members of the band. Hi, I'm Max Baca from Los Texaniacs, the Bajo Sexto player. Hi, I'm Josh Baca of Los Texmaniacs, accordion player. Hi, I'm Noel Hernandez. I play bass with Texmaniacs.

Hi, I'm Chris River. I play drums with Texmaniac. It's always struck me how dedicated you guys are to tradition. and this is music that's Conjunto, Corrido, everything is so old as such part of the Mexican, a Mexican-American identity, Tejano identity. But you guys are like, you keep it fresh,

you keep it vital, you keep it young, you keep it dynamic. So what we want to do today is talk to you about what are some of the songs that inspired you to play the instruments that you play, that turned you on to the music, or made you decide that this is the path that you wanted to take? Let's start with you, Max. Like, what is you playing the Bajo Sexto,

which is unique to Conjunto? Yes, it's vital to Conjuto music. You know, and the first time I heard of Bajo sexto, my dad was practicing in his living room, you know, with his band, Max Bacaixenuto, Norte. I was, you know, seven years old. And the Bajo player, you know, was playing the Bajo. The bass.

Yeah, well, it's a Bajo Sexto. He had a Bajo sexto. And so I heard it, and I got attracted to that instrument. man. It has this attraction. But what really sold me was when my dad took me to see Flaco Jimenez, me and my brother, and I heard this Bajo Sexo player, his name was Oscar Thais.

And he was a, man, once I heard him play, I was like, oh my God, you know, and he would just turn your head, man, you know, these pisadas that he would do and stuff like that. And that's what I said, that's what I want to do. Right there, I want to play Bajo, like that guy. And Flaco Jimenez was probably the most famous and well-known accordion player

out of Texas. And so you saw that early on. You saw them play together when you were a kid. And then eventually you end up playing with him, man. Yes, it was a dream come true, you know, to hear Flaco Jimenez playing. And, you know, Flacco Jimenez is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world,

Cording player, you know. And then what made it more special was he became part of the family. you know he would he'd if he was on tour he would stop at my mom and dad's house and my mom would cook him some enchiladas you know the chili chicken enchilas from New Mexico and flaco loved him

and then from there we would practice you know and then he'd have to go do his gig me and my brother would go with him that kind of thing and so he became family he became like a father to me and he actually taught me how to play the Bajo sexto the right way because I was just going with

what everybody was doing They take off the low strings. They wouldn't even use them. They would just take them off and just use the high strings, you know, and just kind of do the chanks, you know. Yeah. And Flacco says, no, those strings are there for a reason. So I had to put them back on.

And so I started listening to the old, you know, Narciso Martinez records and stuff like that, you know. Oh, that 30s, 1930s. Santiago Meda, because back then they didn't have drums and all. I was just the Bajo the accordion. So I was listening to Santiago Mada, and I was like, whoa, man, this guy's phenomenal too, you know. That's really good.

intrigued me, man, and sold me on that's what I want to do in my life, you know, play the Bajo Sexto. Do you have you know, I'm going to put you on a spot, do you have a recording, do you want people to hear that gives an example of what that

golden sound sounded like? I would have to say Daciso Martinez, Santiago Olmeida, on Bajo Sexto, and it's called Bucachos Alegres. That Bajo sexto player, man, he's just, he's on fire, man, and it's just like no other, you know, and that was back in the, what, in the 30s, man, you know.

Narciso Martinez, just so for people to know, it's like one of the original, if not the original pioneer. Pioneer of the accordion using that from the European influences and turning it into to come into Hunto south. He was from, they'd call him El Huracan del Valle. The Hurricane of the Valley. Yes, and he was one of the first. that heard the Yompa sound of the Germans, along with Flaco's daddy,

Santiago Jimenez, Sr., they were the first two to hear that sound and pick up an accordion and add the Bajo sexton. Okay, Josh, today when you came into the tiny dance to do the performance, he said one of your, you brought two accordions and one of them has a connection to Flaco Jimenez. Can you talk to us about that? Growing up, Flaco Jimenez did all the repair and tuning on all my accordions since I started playing the accordion. And before me, with my father's accordions and probably some of my grandfathers, yeah, I brought an orange, a crimsicle Corona 2 classic that was one of Flaco Jimenez's favorite accordions,

the color, that is, and it was a Corona 2. He tuned that accordion as one of the last tunings that he ever did in his existence, and he added the thumb strap for me because it was a newer model and they didn't come with thumb straps. I use a thumb strap when I play the coronas. And he put some piece of leather from somewhere and it was the brown one. I don't know why on the cremcicle accordions, he always put that brown leather strap. So I told you do however you would do it, Flaco, make it exactly like yours. Lower the buttons exactly where they're supposed to be.

And tune it with that Flacco him in his signature sound. which now became my, is becoming my signature sound. That's the only accordion. I enjoy playing that gives me an attitude that I can really relate to his style and where he comes from. And let's talk about, I sort of jokingly asked you earlier, what part of Mexico is the accordion from?

Talk a little bit about that, man. Well, the accordion is not from, well, it's from Germany. It's a German instrument. And Europeans settled in South Texas. Us migrant fine workers were working the fields, and we all kind of got together, became friends, crossbred, and we learned to play the music as well. But what the Mexicans did or the Conjunctos did was incorporate an instrument called the Bajo Sextal, which derives from Spain into Michoacan. But it was designed to take the place of the accompaniment party of the accordion, which is the bass side. And with those two together, that's the Conjunto TextMex sound.

And the Mahalo Sexto is basically, it's like a 12-string guitar. It's the brother. It's the brother of the accordion. But it is the guitar. It's a 12-string guitar with bass strings and guitar strings. And Noel, I think people would see the bass and say, oh, I could do that, right? Right. But it's very complicated music, man.

It's deceptively simple. That's a good way to say it. That's a great way. It is. Yeah. Yeah, there's so many flavors. It's, that's the way I see it, because I just think about food with parallels to music. But yeah, like, it's amazing how if you play how long the note is,

even though we might be playing two notes for like four bars, the sustain of it can make a change in groove. I play around with that when we're playing live, you know, and dynamically too, you know, whether we kick it up volume-wise or bring it down. and it's a lot of fun even though it's so I consider myself a minimalist you know

the bass is perfect for me so and you know the influence for me was hearing my dad play the accordion my dad already passed

but he played kind of like the style of Narciso and when he would play the Bahos that hearing that bass on the Bahos that really attracted me

and from there on the accordion and from there on you know listening to a guitar when I would listen to a, my parents go to a wedding or something, there's a mariache, and the guitaron just blew my mind, or even a tuba during high school games, you know, even a tuba.

So the low-in I was attracted to, you know, including thunder. So let's talk a little bit about the popularity, and we've covered this on the show, the new popularity of Mexican regional music, which is like a catch-all term, but specifically these younger musicians playing the 12-string guitars and they're playing a very specific type of bass.

Oh, yeah. So talk to us about that. What is it called? That's the Tololoche, which is like an upright bass, but it's tune different. And the lowest note is A. So it goes from A-D to G and C.

And that's the Tololoche. And they use these, well, like nylon strings. They're not metal strings, like in classical or an upright. And so they're able to create a lot of rhythmic patterns, almost like plucking the string. And it creates this backbeat or also all these rhythmic patterns, you know, microbeats or whatever.

And it's amazing. It almost like it's a whole percussion section there. Because these younger bands are not using a drum set. Exactly. So the bass, Tololoche, has to play some melody and some rhythms and some syncopation. Exactly. It's amazing. It's amazing.

They take it to another level. Have you heard something recently that you admired or an example of a bass player that you admire within this music? I always refer back to the older school, you know, like what I was influenced by by my dad's albums. But as far as newer stuff, it would be more on Tejano music, you know, when I was like in high school.

I started with Conjunto listening to my dad's albums and then I evolved into learning more progressive Conjunto and Tejano, so I would say like somebody like David Ligarsa and Lus Musicales from San Antonio, which is... You have a specific song? Yeah, What Mala Sanger Tiener. That was a bit of the song That was a bit of the song,

Gamelasangretienes, by the artist David Lee Garza. We'll be back with more of the interview with Los Tex-Maniacs after this break. Okay, we're in the studio talking with the members of those Tex-Maniacs. They just finished playing a tiny daskeri. Okay, Chris, we're not going to let you get away

without talking, man. You're the quietest member of the band, but you played the loudest instrument that's drum back there. Pretty good. Pretty good. Again, just like with the big, bass because the Mahosax still in the accordion, they're just so, they're such a prominent part of the music.

But the rhythm section is just, you know, the rhythm section is just part of the, it's part of the secret, you know. What is it, how do you describe what you do in terms of, like, keeping it simple, but making it drive? As simple as possible, because it's the old saying, less is more. Josh is a lead player. He's doing what he needs to do. Max is doing what he needs to do. So my job just to keep it straight, keep it going straight.

You know who I heard say that before? It's Charlie Watts from the Rolling Stones. That's a great example, too. That's what he did there, just holding everything together there. And I've noticed that some drummers, with the snare hand, they're almost like little ghost nose, like a shuffle. Some guys do a shuffle.

It's almost like a blues shuffle. So, like, these music are, you know, the African-American blues in a Mexican cohonto are sometimes, like, almost... There's some that have it, and there's just different swing. It's a different swing in Cojonto as opposed to Tejano and, like, say, orchestra music. Because honestly, like, I'm probably the only one here that didn't grow up with Cojonto music. I grew up listening to Orchesta music, which is the big band stuff. And that was pretty much my, that's how I pattern my playing as. So I have a lot of respect for all the instruments,

but in particular the drums, because I, you know, I play percussion. I play a little bit of drum set. But when I was in high school... You play the wheedle too, right? I played the weedle. Yeah, yeah. When I was in high school, one of my dad's brothers,

my Tio had a Conjunto. He played electric guitar instead of a... Bahu Sexto, and he had an accordion player. And I was in high school, I was learning how to play drums. And he asked my dad, hey, can he come play some gigs with us? Man, I can do that, you know? You can do that. You know, from fat, too, da, et, et, et.

And, man, I'll never forget it. I was, like, 18 years old. And we're like, one, two, three, four. I was so lost, man. I was because these guys, they were local musicians in Sacramento, California. But they were, they'd been playing, like 20, 30 years, man. man, you know, and the groove, I didn't have any idea about the groove,

the swing, the feel. It's more of a feel thing, than it is. And they all turned around and looked at me like, who was this kid? Nicolas, why did you bring your nephew here, man? This kid can't play. Yeah. But I played for a summer, and, you know,

that's what I really began to have a respect for the skill of all the musicians involved. The accordion players, my uncle played with, man, they were like Charlie Parker, like just runs and, notes and, you know, stretching the measures and all that stuff. Yeah. It was cool.

And it's always good. Like I said, I didn't grow up listening to Cojonto, but when I got with these guys, you do your homework and you realize that even in the Cojonto, different regions have different sounds. And you don't want to play everything the same way. You want, you know, so you have to sit there and actually learn the field of all these different regions of where you're you know what you're playing you know it's a lot but if you're feeling it it's you just go with what you feel there sometimes too okay chris you just mentioned like three different

types of music so let's talk about the difference between conjunto tejano and orchestra well okay so and let's give musical examples like who do when who comes to mind when you think about we've talked a lot about conjunto so i think we know what that sounds like like what is the difference between Conjunto in Tejano. Well, your Tejano is more progressive, I'm guessing, and more keyboard-based, sometimes saxophone. Okay, for an example of that, we're going to have to go with the Queen of Tejano,

Selena, and her hit, Amor Prohibido. And your orchestra music is going to have horns like a big band. So you have trumpet, sax, trombone, kind of like a little joe. A little joy, La Familia, Las Nubes. Yes. Which is like the Chicano National Anthemps. Right. And actually suffering

I'd like to I'm going in the world and actually in in reality, You know.

Now you're confusing everybody, man. It's all, I mean, yeah. No, it's true. Yeah, I mean, Dejano is Texas. Yeah, it's true. Everything. Yeah. Yeah.

It's Dehano music. Yeah, Stevie Rayvon plays Tehono music. Guys, thank you so much for coming in and talk to us today. We're very, very excited about your tiny desk performance. It was an honor to finally get you guys in and make this happen. I know you've been in Alt Latino before. We've had a lot of conversations, and hopefully this won't be the last time you come and visit us.

We'll find something else to talk about in the future. So thank you for coming by, man. Thank you, Felix. Thank you, the part of the Encervedon, Max Baca, the part of the Texmaniacs. Thank you so much. God bless, man. Let's go out on the single from an album that had come out next year.

I can't wait to hear it based on what I've heard so far. What's the name of the single? It's called The Dehalo, Let It Go. The daily news They try to sell you A case of the blues Human condition makes you so sad

The politicians make you so damn mad I want to thank Max Baca, Josh Baca Noel Hernandez, and Chris Rivera for spending their time with us Their Tainideast concert will be out soon, so keep an eye I mean an ear out

You can hear that as part of our annual Latin Music Month celebration that we call El Taini. Los Tex-Maniacs are one of ten amazing performances that we have coming between September 15 and October 15, the National Observance of Latino Heritage Month, here in the U.S. You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell.

Executive producer of NPR Music is Seraa Mohamed and executive director Sonali Menta. On behalf of Hanna Maria Seyer, I'm Felix Contreras. Thank you for listening.