Norteño y conjunto: search and destroy.

some of my reasons:
1) polka is kinda ick.
2) the slower stuff is just so damn slow & sappy. i don't think i've ever heard a song that didn't have "corazon" in the lyrics

a bunch of the mexican resaurants in town have guys who come in w/guitars and sing, and it's actually really interesting. the guitar players are damn good and the vocal harmonies are really pretty.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Accordion_legend_Esteban_Jordan_dies_100675064.html

Esteban “Steve” Jordan, the mercurial conjunto accordion legend and pioneer,
died Friday night at a friend’s home.
Jordan, 71, died of complications from liver cancer.

He slipped into a coma Thursday. He was unresponsive all day Friday,
according to hospice caregivers.

Azeneth Dominguez, Jordan’s former girlfriend and owner of Saluté
International Bar, was with him at the end.

“It was his time,” Dominguez said. “He looked so peaceful at the end. He
died old-school style.”

Funeral arrangements are pending, but will be handled by Castillo Funeral
Homes at 520 N. General McMullen Drive.

On Wednesday, Jordan took a turn for the worse, according to Dominguez.

“He was not afraid,” she said of the man known as the Jimi Hendrix of the
accordion. “He was one of a kind. He was really all about heart, and all
about the music.”

Here's a related thread:

OK, I'LL start it: Rolling Banda/Duranguense/Narcocorrido/Flashy Matching Suits Regional Mexican Thread 2009

I used to play Jordan's records on my college radio station. I think I missed his DC area gig way back when at the Tornado Alley. He might have been to the Smithsonian Folklife Fest also, but I'm not sure.

bump

Here's another obit with a youtube video

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/08/esteban-steve-jordan-virtuoso.html

Any Esteban Jordan fans here today?

I guess not.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/young-accordionists-carry-on-conjunto-legacy/

Had this been a non-pandemic year, Christopher Ramirez and Ashly Nicole Molina would have been in Austin on a recent Saturday afternoon. As two of the four finalists for the sixteen-and-under conjunto category in the Big Squeeze—the annual competition of Texas’s best young accordion players—they would’ve played live at the Lone Star Plaza in front of the Bullock Texas State History Museum

Middle school & high school kids respectively

https://guadalupeculturalarts.org/tejano-conjunto-festival/

40th anniversary conjunto fest in San Antonio May 16 to 22

So many bands. For my money most of these bands are all about the lyrics - which aren’t mindblowing. For non-spanish speakers and limiting to “the classics” I’d say Intocable are the most musically interesting. Tigres are pretty much the setting stone of the genre. And Tucanes de Tijuana the most fun.

Tucanazo, Chona, Me gusta vivir de noche are party classics.

They also have some classic corridos like Aguila Blanca or El Centenario, but corridos are definitely musically boring if you don’t understand the language.

I know some old folks who like to couples swing dance sorta to some of this

Intocable is definitely apt for slow dancing

Oh misread slow as swing. Now I’m curious.

Slow dancing and swing jazz dancing both . Like you also see done to Norteno, zydeco and Cajun and salsa. Admittedly all different but some similar moves