Grammy-Winning ‘Texas Tornado’ Flaco Jiménez Passes

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Flaco Jiménez. Photo: Andrew W. Long, courtesy of Robert K. Oermann archive

Roots-music superstar Flaco Jiménez has died at age 86 in San Antonio.

The Tex-Mex, conjunto musician immortalized his distinctive button-accordion style on the top country hits “The Streets of Bakersfield” by Dwight Yoakam & Buck Owens in 1988 and “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down” by The Mavericks in 1986. During his six-decade career, Jiménez earned five Grammy Awards and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Alongside Freddy Fender, Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers, Flaco Jiménez was a member of the “super group” The Texas Tornados in 1990-2010. He also collaborated on disc with Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, The Bellamy Brothers, Tanya Tucker, Junior Brown, John Hiatt, Emmylou Harris, Lee Roy Parnell, Chet Atkins & Suzy Bogguss, Los Lobos, Santana, Ray Benson, Radney Foster and The Rolling Stones, among many others. He recorded 27 solo albums between 1972 and 2014.

He was born Leonardo Jiménez in 1939, which is around the time his accordion-playing father was first recording and popularizing conjunto music in the San Antonio area. Forged in central Texas during the late 1800s, conjunto combined country waltzes, German polkas and Mexican-American folk music. The button accordion is the lively style’s central instrument. Flaco’s younger brother, Santiago Jiménez Jr., also became a conjunto accordion master.

Nicknamed “Flaco” Jiménez, the future star began playing in his father’s band at age 7 and began recording at age 15. He rose to prominence on the San Antonio music scene, starring on local television and regularly filling dancehalls. In the 1960s, he started working with Doug Sahm of The Sir Douglas Quintet.

He and Sahm temporarily relocated from San Antonio to Manhattan, where Jiménez worked with Dr. John, David Lindley, Peter Rowan, Ry Cooder and Dylan. He toured and recorded with Rowan for some time, which was when he first became familiar to Eastern Anglo audiences. The two formed a band called The Free Mexican Airforce.

Cooder then took him on the road internationally and featured him on the landmark 1976 LP Chicken Skin Music. Jiménez and Cooder also collaborated on the 1981 soundtrack of the Jack Nicholson film The Border. The following year, Carlos Santana enlisted Jimenez for his band’s Havana Moon album.

Following a string of solo albums on local labels, Jiménez recorded for the revered national folk labels Arhoolie Records (1977-88) and Rounder Records (1989-91). He won his first Grammy Award in 1986.

As a member of The Texas Tornados, he began recording for Warner Records in 1990. The group’s debut LP was issued in both Spanish and English-language versions. One of its tunes earned him his second Grammy. Country artists such as Raul Malo, Jesse Dayton and Dwight Yoakam began using him on recording sessions in the late 1980s.

Jiménez played the prestigious Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1990. Warner/Reprise signed him as a solo act in 1992 for the album Partners. Recorded in both Nashville and L.A., the collection included collaborations with Stephen Stills, Holly Dunn, Los Lobos, Ronstadt, Cooder, Hiatt, Yoakam and Emmylou Harris. Ronstadt had previously recorded with him on her 1990 album Mas Canciones.

Nashville’s Arista Records formed a Texas division and signed Jiménez. He delivered albums for the label in 1994 and 1996, the latter of which won him another Grammy. The Stones recruited him for their 1994 collection Voodoo Lounge. He and Lee Roy Parnell were nominated for a Country Instrumental Grammy in 1996.

Flaco Jiménez won two Grammy Awards in 1999. One was for his solo album for Virgin Records, Said and Done. The other was for his album with Los Super Seven, a multi-artist collaboration including Joe Ely, Rick Treviño, Tejano star Ruben Ramos, Sahm, Fender and members of Los Lobos. Later albums by this conglomeration included Malo, Hiatt, Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, Delbert McCllinton and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown as well.

Subsequent solo albums were issued by Compadre, Fiesta, Smithsonian Folkways, Joey, Back Porch and Sony. In 2012, Flaco Jiménez was given a National Heritage Fellowship Award by the National Endowment for the Arts. Two years later, he was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame. In 2022, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts.

Flaco Jiménez died in San Antonio on Thursday, July 31. Survivors include his wife, Adela; sons Arturo and Gilbert; daughters Cynthia Jiménez and Raquel Fernandez; and his brother, Santiago Jr. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Robert K Oermann
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