On Tejano Music 1: The Start and the Greats

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/08/17

A seasoned Musician (Vocals, Guitar and Piano), Filmmaker, and Actor, J.D. Mata has composed 100 songs and performed 100 shows and venues throughout. He has been a regular at the legendary “Whisky a Go Go,” where he has wooed audiences with his original shamanistic musical performances. He has written and directed numerous feature films, web series, and music videos. J.D. has also appeared in various national T.V. commercials and shows. Memorable appearances are TRUE BLOOD (HBO) as Tio Luca, THE UPS Store National television commercial, and the lead in the Lil Wayne music video, HOW TO LOVE, with over 129 million views. As a MOHAWK MEDICINE MAN, J.D. also led the spiritual-based film KATERI, which won the prestigious “Capex Dei” award at the Vatican in Rome. J.D. co-starred, performed and wrote the music for the original world premiere play, AN ENEMY of the PUEBLO — by one of today’s preeminent Chicana writers, Josefina Lopez! This is J.D.’s third Fringe; last year, he wrote, directed and starred in the Fringe Encore Performance award-winning “A Night at the Chicano Rock Opera.” He is in season 2 of his NEW YouTube series, ROCK god! J.D. is a native of McAllen, Texas and resides in North Hollywood, California. 

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I should start with the structure and history, including your personal history. You were part of the foundation of Tejano music, which evolved with you and others who came later. We discussed this in the more extensive interview. What were some of the elements of Tejano that were emerging in Texas or along the border that allowed Tejano to become a formal hybrid music genre?

J.D. Mata: Tejano music probably originated from 1979 to 1981. Before that, it wasn’t recognized as a distinct style in terms of instrumentation. What distinguishes Tejano music is its instrumentation. Before Tejano music, the genre was called Chicano music, which included Conjunto. Chicano music featured horns, trumpets, saxophones, trombones, the Rhodes keyboard, drums, bass, and guitar.

Jacobsen: Can you explain the transition from Chicano music to Tejano?

Mata: Chicano music, moving backward from Tejano, originated from Orquesta music. Orquesta music featured horns, typically including two trumpet players, a trombone player, a saxophone player, a guitarist, a bass player, a drummer, and a keyboard player using a Rhodes keyboard, resembling an organ. Orquesta and Chicano music were synonymous. Conversely, Conjunto featured the accordion, bajo sexto (a type of guitar), bass, drums, and vocals.

Jacobsen: What was the common factor among these music styles?

Mata: The common denominator between Conjunto and Orquesta (Chicano music) was the polka rhythm: mm-chuh, mm-chuh, mm-chuh. They also played various styles like cumbias, huapangos, and waltzes, but the main dancing force was the polka.

Jacobsen: How did the polka become integrated into Tejano music?

Mata: The polka originated from a significant influx of Germans into Northern Mexico and South Texas. They brought the German polka to Mexico, where Mexican nationals learned to play the accordion and added Spanish lyrics. This evolution crossed the South Texas border, influencing the Rio Grande Valley and all of Texas, marking the evolution of the polka. We didn’t invent it; the Germans did. We added Spanish lyrics to it.

Now, let me give you some names of Conjunto: Ramon Ayala, Los Tigres del Norte, and several others. You’ve got the Latin Breed and Little Joe, La Familia in Chicano music. Orquesta music would include Noe Pro in the band. He was an incredible singer and bass player who started out playing rock and roll, but then he went into Orquesta, where he had all the brass and the saxes. He would sing and play the polkas and the cumbias. So, there was Noe Pro in the band, and you had Eddie Perez and his Orquesta. You had Roberto Pulido, who is his son. We’ll talk about him later.

Jacobsen: He became famous in the Tejano industry after it evolved. But I know the etiology; I have this insight because I was there. How was Tejano music beginning, and how did it become so that, in brief, we can go into more detail about what led to Tejano?

Mata: Tejano became huge because of Selena, right? Selena introduced the world to Tejano, and of course, she was murdered, right? But even before that, artists, even before Tejano music, were Tejano music.

You had the conjuntos, you had the orquestas, you had the Chicano music. They were touring all over the U.S. They would go because you would have migrant workers. Are you familiar with the concept of migrant workers? People from Texas would travel north to California to Oregon to pick strawberries and grapes. It was good money for them.

Jacobsen: People would come to Vancouver to work in Canada at different rates because it’s farther. I know this because when I was 15 or 16, a bunch of gentlemen would come by in a van, pick me up, and I’d be the token white boy. I worked with them in construction. Interestingly, the guy’s name was Jose. He has since retired. He was working so his kid could go to college.

Mata: Hey, he’s Jose, I’m Hose B. That’s right. My dad was a fireman.

Jacobsen: I thought you were Hose D!

Mata: But as a matter of fact, you probably don’t remember. Did you hear any Tejano bands? My point is that the reason orquestas and conjuntos would tour all over the U.S. was to go where all the migrant workers were. Where the Chicano population was able to go and play, so that was gigs for them, right? So, in a way, Selena did bring Tejano music to the world, but it was already spread out throughout the U.S. because of all the band’s tours. They’d go on heavy-duty tours on tour buses, which was very brutal. But they would go to all these different places where there were influxes of Mexican-American populations because of the farm workers and the migrants.

Jacobsen: So where did the term “Tejano” music come from? If we had Chicano music, we had Orquesta. I’ve outlined how we had Conjunto, Orquesta, and Chicano music. So, where did Tejano come from?

Mata: This is factual and groundbreaking. There’s one guy who solely, without a doubt, was the inventor of Tejano music. Is there any question about this among any of us? There’s no question. There are no dissenting voices on this. Because nobody’s said it. I’m waiting for somebody to give me the answers to where Tejano music came from. This guy invented the wheel, right? His name is Oscar Soliz. This is the godfather.

I was watching a show, and they touched base on it. They had him on the show, and the band he played with was called Romance. He belonged to a band called Los Unicos. That’s when he started experimenting with the synthesizers that had just come out. So what should I say first? Should I talk about the chicken, or should I talk about the egg first?

Jacobsen: It’s more complicated with this one because, when it came to Lance’s, in some contexts, the chicken, the egg, and the hen went as a confluence simultaneously together. They all came together. This is trickier.

Mata: The chicken, the hen, and the egg all came together in this one. They came together. Well, let me put it this way. What separates conjunto from orquesta is that conjunto is exclusively accordion music. Orquesta is trumpets, saxophones, and trombones. They could have an accordion, but what makes orquesta music is the horns, the horn section of the band. Chicano music, same difference. The linchpin of Tejano music is the advent of the synthesizer.

What Oscar Soliz did was he started experimenting with the synthesizer. When he joined the band Romance, I would say the first song, when they first started calling Tejano music Tejano music, was “Enamorado de Ti.” That had a huge impact. There was still a saxophone in the band, but it was the first time in Mexican-American music that there was a synthesizer sound to play the melodies.

Oscar Soliz is the godfather of Tejano music. He’s a genius on the keyboard. He’s the one who started experimenting with the synthesizer. It used the synthesizer — the Cars used it back then, and all these rock bands, such as Van Halen, were using it. He brought the synthesizer to Tejano music to the point where Oscar Soliz was replicating all the horns on the synthesizer. So not only was it a whole different sound, it revolutionized Mexican-American music. It became the sound he created, blowing the socks off people.

Because the whole thing about Tejano music is that you dance to it, there’s something about the synthesizer sound and all the different sounds you can replicate. It’s hundreds of other sounds to the polka beat with all these chords, slick jazz inverted chords, and these slick bass players, drummers, and incredible singers. It was lightning in a bottle. So Oscar Soliz was the first one to do it, and it took off from there. That’s when they started calling it Tejano music. Tejano music is a band, sometimes with horns, mostly not, but it was mainly synthesizers. You would have two synthesizers and two keyboard players. Selena was — that’s what they were. They would use an accordion occasionally, but it was two synthesizers and two keyboard players. That, my friend, is the beginning, the roots of Tejano music.

Jacobsen: My question: Waltzes, along with the polkas, were a big part of Western European culture; in some contexts, were waltzes ever at the early stages, or was the music associated with waltzes simply not part of that formation?

Mata: Oh no, waltzes were always a part of it, returning to the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. My grandfather would play waltzes. But when you hear Tejano music, it’s a blanket statement for polka, which is ranchera–which is also ranchera. Polka and ranchera are synonymous. The um-pa, um-pa, um-pa. Cumbia, um-pa-pa, um-pa-pa, um-pa-pa. I would say Waltz, um-pa, but there aren’t many waltzes in Tejano music per se. It’s because Tejano music is a very power-driven, melodic-driven polka. So, the Waltz is not associated with Tejano music. Yes, it is associated with conjunto, and I’ve already defined conjunto. Yes, it’s associated with Chicano music, Orquesta.

Mata: And lately, there’s been Banda coming out in Tejano. Banda existed even before Tejano. That’s where you have, instead of a bass, an electric bass player, you have a tuba player, and you have clarinets and trumpets. It’s like 12 dudes, which has been very popular. But going back to Tejano, I can’t stress enough before I forget. We need to give Oscar Soliz his flowers as being the founder of Tejano music. I’m going to say it. Yes, I said it. Definitively, he is the founder of Tejano music. He’s the Godfather. He needs to get his flowers for discovering Tejano music and starting an industry with his innovative and genius synthesizer techniques and melodies.

He’s a gifted artist. Look up Romance, which would be the first band. After Romance, you had Grupo Mas, you had La Mafia, and you had us. I was part of that. When I was in high school, we were playing Tejano music. The beauty of Tejano music is this. Again, I’m expanding on what was asked earlier, but we were the pioneers of Tejano music in that sense. We wrote our songs. Like there was no — you can’t be a cover band. You can’t be a cover band Tejano artist. To some degree, you can play some of the older songs or some of the older Mexican songs, but the genuine bona fide Tejano music was all original. It was you who wrote the lyrics and the melodies. That’s what it was.

The Beatles started playing Little Richard. The famous guitarist B.B. King, too. They were big on Elvis. They were doing all those songs, then evolved to writing their music. But as Tejano artists, we didn’t have that luxury. Because we were a brand new genre, we, along with Oscar Soliz and the polka beat, evolved into something more than just a polka. It’s like a polka with different time signatures. It gets complex. It’s not just a polka any more. It is the basic beat, but then there are a lot of drum fills and complex chord changes, such as jazz chord changes. The drum gets intricate; the bass gets intricate. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful artistry on its own. It should be, and it is taught at some schools, like in South Texas. But anyway, Oscar Soliz needs to get his flowers for being the founder of Tejano music. I digressed from the waltz question; sorry about that.

Jacobsen: It’s a good point. People who found things deserve their props. I am mainly drawn to Latin dance clubs when I want to have fun. As a non-expert, I notice many of the same base beats in many of the popular songs, the most popular ones. So, even though I don’t necessarily understand the lyrics, I enjoy the beat. I want the music. While working at the horse farm, cleaning stalls, filling buckets, feeding hay, and driving the tractor, I’d be playing this music sometimes, along with various other genres. However, in my spare time, I’d dance at a dance club in Vancouver or something like that to blow off steam. So, are these base beats also being replicated in popular Latin songs now, like the top 100 charts?

Mata: No, no, I don’t think so. You have Selena’s brother, A.B. Quintanilla, who does a lot. He’s got the Kumbia Kings, not the Columbia Kings. His bass riffs are becoming, and he’s quite an innovator, but I don’t think that Tejano bass riffs are being replicated in terms of mainstream music, not yet. If I understand your question correctly, maybe you have sampled something like “Every Breath You Take,” and somebody is rapping it, right? Sampling to it. That has yet to happen with Tejano music, but somebody should sample base riffs or Tejano riffs. I should do it. Like these kinds of artists, I was reading up some of my list on that. There’s no attachment to Tejano. They’re more, it’s more of a reggaeton. That’s another style that.

Jacobsen: Yes, that’s more something more Sean Paul-esque. Yes, it’s more Colombian, Central American, and Puerto Rican. The Mexican American identity in terms of music is Tejano. Yes, so you got the Salinas, you got Grupo Mas, you got La Mafia, you have Solido right now. Yes, you have all these. I’m not an expert on mainstream Tejano music right now because I’ve been living here in Los Angeles, but I do know the start and general synthesis of Tejano music and what it entails.

Jacobsen: Now, you were a choir conductor for about a quarter century, and you consider yourself one of the best 100 in the world at this. So, are any of the themes or styles of music that you would see in a Catholic experience of music replicated in Tejano music?

Mata: That’s a great question. Right, because you are looking, that’s why I’m here. You’re talking to the guy who’s done it. Because I was a choir director for the Spanish. I am one of the top 100 choir directors in Spanish. Spanish, well, maybe in general, because I understand the role of the choir director at church. But the fact is, it’s like they say… I’m from South Texas. You can take the guy out of South Texas to California. Yes, you come to L.A. but can’t take the South Texas out of me, right? So when I was a choir director, you can go from being a choir director, but you can’t take the Tejano out of me. So, when I conduct and sing our songs, I put a Tejano vibe into it, without a doubt.

So yes, and I would venture to say there are probably others — I’m not the only one. I don’t know who they are, but I’m sure many musicians also moonlight. What would you call it? Church light, church bell? Even though I grew up as a choir director, the reality was that it was also a steady income for me. Although I’m going off the reservation a bit, it’s related. For many, many years, I never got paid as a choir director. They never paid us.

Jacobsen: Did you consider this an act of service to your faith?

Mata: Yes, it was the recompense. The recompense will be my sanctification because it was like God doesn’t pick the best people to do his work. So, I did so many years of service for free. Now I get paid, but I did so many, many, many years of free gigs, if you will, every Sunday. There’s got to be some payoff on the back end. But yes, to answer your question, is there a Tejano influence in the choir? Yes, you’re looking at it for sure. Yes, it’s inevitable if that answers your question.

Jacobsen: It did. How would you explain the technicalities of those conjunto elements of Tejano? How do they weave and interrelate to form a rhythmic base through which you can then build your lyricism, styling, inflection, and so on?

Mata: Yes, that’s a great question. I’ll speak from my reference. Like when I was writing Tejano music. Let’s talk about the lyrics for many of my songs first. The lyrics were in Spanish. Tejano, oh! That’s another significant fact. It’s Spanish. Tejano music is in Spanish. Even though we’re in America, it’s Tejano, Texan, Mexicano. Texan and Mexican, right? “Te-,” Tejano, “-Mexicano.” Those are two words merged into one, right? But the music is in Spanish, and the words and the literature are in Spanish. For me, it gets a little elitist that sometimes I would be criticized because some of the words I used or how I pronounced them were not pronounced in appropriate Spanish.

But hello! We’re Mexican Americans. It’s Tex-Mex. We have our way of saying things. For example, what’s a good word? I can’t think of it right now, but certain words are appropriately pronounced in Spanish in Mexico. And then, in Texas, we have our slang way of saying it. Some of the disc jockeys wouldn’t want to avoid playing the music because we said it in a slang way. This is not proper Spanish, but I would think to myself, wait a minute. This is Tejano music. This isn’t Mexican music, like Mexican music. This is Tejano. I’m a Tejano artist. This is the way I speak. This is the way I talk my words. This is authentic Tejano music. So, for example, you would say brakes manias. The Tejano way of saying brakes is manillas. In Mexican Spanish, it’s friends, right? It’s a slang. So if you use manillas in a song, put the brakes,pon las manillas, you’ll get dinged for it. “Oh, it’s not appropriate Spanish.” It’s like, “Hey if I’m writing the song and this is the lyric I’m choosing that I find the most appropriate to describe my emotion or the action if it’s gonna be genuine and Tejano, it’s gonna be authentic.” That’s an authentic Tejano. Anyway, in terms of lyrics, I always wrote about my experiences and romantic pitfalls. I mentioned in the last interview that I’m a hopeless romantic. So it’s great. It’s great for songwriting, but I would never use it; I would never talk about a situation verbatim. You always want to use that situation but change the story slightly to protect the guilty, right? Mainly me. So now, in terms of music…

Jacobsen: If I may, there’s one small point. Is it primarily Spanish snobbery against Texan styles of Spanish?

Mata: Yes, Texan Spanish. Yes, there are two camps. There are two camps, without a doubt. What? Nobody’s right, nobody’s wrong.

Jacobsen: The way I saw it, it’s such a minor aesthetic that would matter for people who can speak the language fluently. For the most part, there are no people who are originally fluent.

Mata: Correct.

Jacobsen: Is there a similar rub between Portuguese and Spanish?

Mata: No.

Jacobsen: In terms of speakers?

Mata: No. So this is… Yes, it’s due to the similarity. Portuguese, Mexican, and Spanish are mainly because Brazil is so far from Mexico. It’s two different things. They don’t clash. But Texas and Mexico are next to each other. So there’s that clash.

Jacobsen: They do not necessarily have to be next-door neighbours regarding geography. A group of Quebec humanists, Quebecois humanists, pointed out that there was a language fight between Parisian French and Quebecois French. They are written the same but spoken very differently. Some think Parisian French is better. Others think Quebecois French is better. This is common among people who come from the same language, close or proximal history, but a different way of using the language, inflection, tone, emphases, a different matrix of how they associate the vocabulary, and things like that. This may be happening there, too.

Mata: Interesting. There’s more like Argentinian Spanish, and Argentinians, the way they speak their Spanish and Puerto Ricans, the way they speak. Those are more similar to Mexico, Mexico, Tejano, Mexico, the way they speak, Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans, and El Salvadorians, right?

Jacobsen: So, do you want me to continue with the instruments?

Mata: Any chord structure would work in terms of instrumentation if you’re framing it with the Tejano beat. So anything, a 1–4–5 is prevalent, but you could also do a round, the C, A minor, F, and G, the circular round, the C, F, which would also be G, E minor, C, and D, right? Those are the main structures in terms of music, the 1–4–5, and then you have the rounds, right? Like the C, A minor, F, G, G, E minor, C, D, F, F sharp minor, B flat, C, right? In the key of F or G, the key of D would be D, B minor, A, and B, right? A minor, yes. So then you’re crafting lyrics telling a story. However, you tell your story melodically according to whatever theoretical process you choose, whether the 1–4–5, the rounds, the four chords, or the chord structure. Then, off of that, you have your instrumentalists playing counterpoint to the melody of the songs. That’s what made Oscar Soliz a genius.

It is counterpoint to, for example, you have a melody, and then you have a different melody to the song. That’s what the counterpoint is. They play off of each other. This is where you get fugue elements involved. Then there are fundamental changes. Then you change keys. You’re still playing the melody with the counterpoint to the counterpoint. It’s like a fugue. Tejano music does that. It’s so intricate. That’s what makes it so attractive. The trick is also to build your song to start with the melody of the vocals, the bass, the drums, and you’ve got your beat going where it can be a cumbia or a ranchera. Then, you’re building the song. Then, you add strings. Then, you’re adding harmonies with your vocals. There are no harmonies in the first verse or the first chorus.

In the second verse and second chorus, you add harmonies, too. You start adding salt, pepper, and all these delicious things you add. I love garlic; I add a little garlic here or there. There’s all those elements in Tejano music. The guys that play it are. I’ve always said that you have these artists, and you should. I suggest everybody Google Tejano music recording players or Tejano artists. Go and listen to some of these guys and look at the way they play and how intricate it is. If some of these kids had been born in England, where the predominant style of music was classical, you would have probably had a couple of Beethovens in South Texas. The talent is that rich in Tejano music. For example, Oscar Soliz is the Tejano Beethoven. It’s high praise, but if you study the guy, if you hear him, if you…

So I’ve given a basic structure of songs and Tejano music, and then in terms of base riffs, within the scale of the base, within a 1–4–5, like in an F, you would have your F, your G, your A, and a B flat and a C, and then so many different ways, because the base riff is boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom. I’m not a bass player.

But I sometimes play bass on my keyboard for the songs I write. That’s another art form. Some of these guys are incredible. Again, if these guys had been born with pianos and classical music from a young age, because they grew up at a very young age like I did, playing these instruments, they would have become virtuosos at the accordion. At the keyboard. they become Tejano virtuosos. Had they been exclusively dedicated to classical music, they would be virtuosos in classical music. That’s how talented these Tejano artists are. Throughout history, something about the Mexican-American culture in terms of its music is that my grandfather was a musician. He was super talented.

He was a saxophone player and a singer. These are some guys you got, Noe Pro. Folks reading this have to look up Rene Sandoval. You have to look up Noe Pro. You have to look up Eddie Perez and Paulino Bernal. These are guys that, before the Tejano industry, were the roadmap to the final destination. So, along with Tejano came some famous groups like Grupo Mas. Oh, Laura Canales. Laura Canales was Oscar Soliz’s neighbour and would hang out with Oscar. She was younger than him, and Oscar got her into the end. She’s known as the queen of Chicano music. She was known as the queen, but then when Tejano, but Laura Canales, it wasn’t Tejano music yet. It was known as Chicano music and Orquesta. She was the queen of that genre.

In comparison, she passed the torch to Selena. Selena became the queen of Tejano music. So, going back to instrumentation, we covered that as best as we could for now.

Jacobsen: Who else would you like to name-drop in terms of the foundation?

Mata: Before Tejano music, you have, in terms of conjunto, I mentioned Ramon Ayala, Esteban Jordan, who was an accordion player.

Jacobsen: Who are the others?

Mata: So, let me give you some names regarding the Tejano industry. That never quite got huge. There’s a band called Grupo Arroyo. There’s a famous D.J. in South Texas. He was part white and part Mexican. Ricky, something in a movie that only spoke Tex-Mex.

Jacobsen: He was Tex-Mex.

Mata: Yes, he was 100%. La Movida. Ricky Smith, La Movida de Ricky Smith. You had Los Chamacos. They were more conjunto but also considered Tejano music. The first Tejano band per se is Romance. I mentioned them earlier, but Romance, without a doubt, is the Tejano band. They’re on Facebook. I’ll send you the link. There was Shelly Lares, a female singer. My band, Grupo Trinidad, we were up and coming. That’s another story. It was a bad breakup. We were so close. We were so close.

Jacobsen: So close together socially or so close to fame?

Mata: To fame, to fame. Yes, we could have made it, but what? Everything works out because I wouldn’t have come to Los Angeles. But that broke my heart. That crushed me.

Jacobsen: You left when you broke up with everyone.

Mata: Well, it’s a long story. We broke up. Let’s say the band broke up. But we were on the verge of making it. We were perfect. We were very, very good. But there are hundreds and thousands of sad stories where the ego is probably on my part and other parts of the musicians’, and you don’t get the right chemistry. Bands are about chemistry. And if the chemistry is not there, then if there’s a cancer in the group, it’s like physiology. The group will die.

Jacobsen: So you’re considering this a form of social physiology as an analogy?

Mata: Yes, for sure, as a metaphor.

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