SOUNDTRACK: FLACO JIMENEZ-Tiny Desk Concert #250 (November 12, 2012).
Flaco Jimenez has been playing button accordion for almost six decades. He’s played with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Los Lobos, Willie Nelson and Ry Cooder. His grandfather started playing an accordion in cantinas and family parties along the Texas/Mexican border around the late 1800s. Then Flaco’s dad, Santiago Jimenez Sr., carried on the family tradition when he released his first record in 1936.
The accordion that Flaco uses is so tiny and yet he is all over the place with it–fingers flying everywhere. The NPR site describes his longevity as lying in the short bursts of improvisation in between verses. He will actually not playing anything for a measure and then fly when it’s his turn. He is accompanied by bajo sexto player Max Baca, who keeps a great rhythm and accompaniment.
They play three songs.
- “Margarita” was written by Flaco’s dad in “nineteen hundred and throw it away.”
- “La Paloma” is a fun instrumental.
- “Cada Vez Que Cae La Tarde” sounds German (many of these original melodies were but they had changed the lyrics to Spanish).
Before this final song he asks if they want a honky tonk (he plays a little riff), but he changes his mind and says lets polka.
[READ: December 9, 2015] Gryphons Aren’t So Great
I hadn’t kept up on my plan to read all of the First Second books, so as the year draws to an end, I decided to grab a few of the kids books, which I figured would be quick and would allow me to check off a few on the list (since they keep publishing more, I have to keep up).
I found two books by the creators of Adventures in Cartooning, a series of book which I haven’t read but which look like a lot of fun.
These two books are tiny graphic stories for very little kids–the art and story are very simple. And they are both really fun.
Gryphons Aren’t So Great continues the story of the knight (actually the two stories are completely separate and can be read in either order). As this story opens, the knight is riding Edward super fast down a hill. When they get to the end…they jump! (more…)
I Just Read About That... 