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Six-time Grammy Awards winner, Flaco Jiménez, master of the accordion and pioneer of tejano music, has died at the age of 86.
“It is with great sadness that we share tonight the loss of our father, Flaco Jiménez,” reads a post from his family on Facebook. “He was surrounded by his loved ones and will be missed immensely. Thank you to all of his fans and friends – those who cherished his music. And a big thank you for all of the memories. His legacy will live on through his music and all of his fans.”
The cause of death remains unclear, though a family statement posted in January revealed he was “in the hospital facing a medical hurdle”.
His son, Arturo, shared that his father’s final words were “Ya estoy cansado”, meaning “I’m tired.”
Over the course of his career, Jiménez won six Grammy Awards, including accolades for country instrumental performance and tejano music performance, as well as receiving a lifetime achievement award in 2015. “This one, the lifetime achievement, is top of the line,” he said at the time. “You can’t go higher than that one.”
His unique sound played a vital role in shaping both tejano and conjunto music. As The Guardian’s Piper LeMoine observed, “the soundtrack of the American south-west would be incomplete” without these two genres.
“The way I learned to play the accordion was on the wild and happy side, much like Cajun and zydeco music,” he once said in an interview. “One of my early idols was Clifton Chenier. The way he played, it was like the accordion was yelling at you: hey, take this. I like to make my accordion yell and scream and make it happy.”
After performing in San Antonio during the 1960s, Jiménez moved to New York City, where he collaborated with a number of renowned artists, including Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana, Willie Nelson, and the Rolling Stones.
He released his debut solo album in 1972 and went on to produce more than 25 albums throughout his career.
Cesar Rosas, a member of Los Lobos who collaborated with Jiménez on the track Don’t Worry Baby, paid tribute to the legendary musician.
“Not only was Flaco my musical mentor, but he was also a dear friend to all of us Los Lobos,” Rosas said to the San Antonio Express-News. “He was such a musical influence on me that [he] made me run out and buy a bajo sexto and start using it in my band. He will forever be in my heart. What a tremendous loss.”
