This year’s Accordion Kings
& Queens concert, our 18th, features a third-generation
zydeco player, a National Heritage Fellow and two-time Grammy nominee conjunto
legend, and a rising star in the accordion world, plus young players we hope
will become future Accordion Kings & Queens. Once again, the concert
spotlights the diversity of the Lone Star State’s accordion traditions (and
National Accordion Awareness Month), and this year, we’re working to assure
those traditions stay alive by offering awards and recognition to some of the
state’s brightest young talents – and featuring them in a documentary by
renowned director Hector Galán.
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Photo courtesy of Texas Folklife Resources
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Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp
Band
Louisiana native Chubby Carrier is the
grandson of Warren Carrier and son of Roy Carrier, with whom Chubby
started performing professionally as a drummer at age 12. He picked
up the accordion at 15, and by age 17, he was touring the world with
Terrance Simien. He formed his own Bayou Swamp Band in 1989. Chubby
is featured in the new MacGillivray-Freeman IMAX film, Hurricane on the Bayou, now showing around
the country (including the Bob Bullock Texas State History
Museum).
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Mingo Saldivar Y Sus Tremendos Cuatro
Espadas
Born in Marion,
Texas, northeast of San Antonio, Mingo Saldivar has been performing
conjunto music for more than four decades. His status as a pioneer
and master of his genre was recognized by the National Endowment for
the Arts in 2002, when he was named a National Heritage Fellow. He
started his musical career at age 11, when his father began teaching
him how to play guitar. Eventually, he found his way to the button
accordion. During his time as an Army paratrooper, he became
familiar with country and rhythm & blues, and began weaving
those sounds into his style. In 1964, he opened a restaurant in
Anchorage, Alaska, and started the only conjunto band for, it’s safe
to say, hundreds and hundreds of miles. He returned to San Antonio
in 1971. Saldivar has performed at a presidential inaugural, the
Olympics, Carnegie Hall and in Africa and the Middle East.
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Photo courtesy of Texas Folklife Resources
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Photo courtesy of Texas Folklife Resources
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Ginny Mac & the Road to Texas
Band
When we asked around about a potential
Accordion Queen for the 2007 concert bill, one name kept coming up:
Ginny Mac. She’s still young, but this accordionist/vocalist has
been racking up accolades for years. Currently in her senior year at
Texas Christian University, she’s working on her third album, this
one with her guitarist brother Glenn. Her style emphasizes Western
swing, but she embraces jazz, big-band and a variety of other
influences.
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Hector
Galán
Internationally
lauded independent filmmaker Hector Galán has contributed more than
40 hours of programming to PBS, including 11 Frontline episodes, two
segments of The American Experience and the four-part series,
Chicano! His
toryof the
Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. He is also one of the top
chroniclers of Texas music; his credits include Accordion Dreams and
films on Mingo Saldivar and Los Lonely Boys. Galán will follow the
The Big Squeeze semi-finalists as they prepare to perform in Houston
and learn whether they’ve been selected to appear in the finals,
which will precede our Accordion Kings concert.
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Photo courtesy of
galaninc.com
| | “I love the music that emanates from the Texas squeezebox,” says Galán.
“This will be a unique opportunity to capture and document the newest generation
of accordion trailblazers who are adding their own signature to a music
tradition that is over 100 years old. These young and up-and-coming accordion
players are keeping this music and its culture alive.”
Galán has been covering the Texas squeezebox tradition for two decades.
His previous PBS films, Accordion Dreams,
Songs of the Homeland and I Love My
Freedom I Love my Texas, featuring accordion pioneer Mingo Saldivar, are a
testament to his love of this adopted instrument of Texas. His films have been
nationally broadcast on PBS and seen by millions of Americans, many of whom were
introduced to this rich and unique genre of music native to Texas for the first
time. The Big Squeeze will be
his newest foray into documenting today’s emerging Texas accordion masters as
they vie for a chance to become future accordion kings and queens.
The documentary will not only capture the music and
excitement onstage and the drama backstage, it will also dig deeper to explore
the background and cultural history of some of the semi-finalists, visiting
their hometowns, families, friends and the early influences that shaped their
desire to learn the accordion, considered by many to be one of the most
difficult instruments to master.
The Big
Squeeze also will examine how this much-maligned instrument, which is
virtually ignored by the mainstream music industry, has continued to thrive and
be embraced by a new generation. By using on-location filmed interviews,
archives and specific geographic establishing shots, we will bring the accordion
journey of the contestants to life. We will capture the excitement and
anticipation of each contestant as we move toward the final squeezebox showdown.
The program will be character-driven, with specific departure points as we
explore the significance and his
toryof the
accordion in Texas. We will keep a keen eye out for spontaneity and “real
moments,” giving the film an element of cinema verité. Our goal is to make the
film a journey that is entertaining as well as educational.
For more information about Galán Inc. and Hector Galán,
visit http://www.galaninc.com/site/ |
