|
Flaco Jiménez was born Leonardo Jiménez, on 11th March 1939, in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up in a neighborhood steeped in the sounds of conjunto and Tejano music. His father, Santiago Jiménez Sr., was a pioneering accordionist and recording artist whose own father had also played accordion, making Flaco the third generation in a musical lineage. Santiago Sr. worked in local clubs and recorded early conjunto hits, while Flaco’s mother, María, kept the household running and supported the family’s music-centered life.
From an early age, Flaco absorbed his father's music and learned the accordion by ear, mastering the traditional polkas, rancheras, and waltzes that defined the regional style. He left school early - formal education never held the same appeal for him as the sound of the accordion - and began performing professionally while still in his teens.
He started out playing with his father, but by the late 1950s had formed his own group, Los Caporales, and began cutting records for local labels. His early singles, such as “El Pescador” and “Borracho No. 1,” established his style - an energetic blend of traditional conjunto with a modern flair. Through the 1960s and 1970s, he remained a popular regional artist in Texas and northern Mexico, recording prolifically and touring widely, but he gradually began incorporating influences from rock, country, and blues.
This stylistic openness led to collaborations with a wide range of artists, including Ry Cooder, with whom he recorded the 1976 album Chicken Skin Music, and later Bob Dylan, Dwight Yoakam, and The Rolling Stones.
Flaco’s songwriting contributions often came in the form of spirited instrumentals and adaptations of traditional forms, but he also wrote or co-wrote several of his own conjunto staples. One such song, “Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio,” co-written with his father, became a signature piece and won him a Grammy Award in 1986 for Best Mexican-American Performance. His solo albums, including Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio y Más! and Partners, featured both original material and reworkings of classic Mexican folk songs, always infused with his distinctive accordion playing.
In the 1990s, he was a founding member of the Tex-Mex supergroup the Texas Tornados, alongside Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers, and Doug Sahm. The group’s songs, such as “(Hey Baby) Que Pasó?” and “Una Mas Cerveza,” combined English and Spanish lyrics with rock rhythms and conjunto roots, earning them widespread acclaim and further Grammy recognition.
Over the course of a career that spanned seven decades, Flaco Jiménez became one of the most respected accordionists in the world, known not just for his mastery of the instrument but for his ability to cross musical boundaries without losing the essence of his cultural roots.
He received a National Heritage Fellowship in 1999 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, both honors acknowledging his profound influence on American roots music. He also received the Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, and in 2019, the Top of Texas Award from the Country Music Association of Texas.
Though he slowed down in his later years, particularly after a series of falls sustained in 2015, he continued to perform in San Antonio and to inspire new generations of accordion players who saw in him both a tradition-bearer and a musical trailblazer.
Flaco Jiménez died at the age of 86, on the 31st July 2025, at his son's home outside San Antonio, Texas, USA, of undisclosed causes.
The above is just one of the many profiles of leading songwriters, singers, musicians and music industry personnel, published by the International Songwriters Association and "Songwriter Magazine". Please click HERE for more.
© Jim Liddane
Copyright Songwriter Magazine, International Songwriters Association & Jim Liddane: All Rights Reserved
The Main Menu
ISA • International Songwriters Association (1967)
internationalsongwriters@gmail.com
The Small Print
This International Songwriters Association 1967 site is a non-profit non-commercial re-creation of portions of the full site originally published by the International Songwriters Association Limited, and will introduce you to the world of songwriting. It will explain music business terms and help you understand the business concepts that you should be familiar with, thus enabling you to ask more pertinent questions when you meet with your accountant/CPA or solicitor/lawyer.
However, although this website includes general information about legal issues and legal developments as well as accounting issues and accounting developments, it is not meant to be a replacement for professional advice. Such materials are for informational purposes only and may not reflect the most current legal/accounting developments.
Every effort has been made to make this site as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an "as is" basis and the author(s) and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained on this site. No steps should be taken without first seeking competent legal and/or accounting advice
Some pictures on this site are library images supplied by (amongst others) the ISA International Songwriters Association (1967), International Songwriters Association Limited, Dreamstime Library Inc, BMI (Broadcast Music Inc), ASCAP (American Society Of Songwriters, Authors and Publishers), PRS (Performing Rights Society), PPS (Professional Photographic Services), RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) TV3, and various Public Relations organisations. Other pictures have been supplied by the songwriters, performers, or music business executives interviewed or mentioned throughout this website, while certain pictures are commercial stock footage of businesses and office environments generally, rather than specific images of the ISA, its personnel, facilities or members.
In any event, all images are and remain the property of the individual owners unless indicated to the contrary.
Home •
Interviews •
Writing A Song
|
