Flaco Jiménez: San Antonio’s Accordion King
March 11, 2027
Today is the birthday of Flaco Jiménez. He is 88 today.
Leonardo Jiménez Jr. was born in San Antonio, Texas on March 11, 1939. His father, Don Santiago Jiménez Sr., was one of the founding figures of conjunto music. The accordion was already in the family kitchen. Flaco started playing it as a boy and never stopped. San Antonio’s West Side barrio was the center of a musical world most of America hadn’t discovered yet — and Flaco was being raised right in the middle of it.
The Accordion That Crossed Every Border
Flaco mastered the bajo sexto and the accordion together, pushing conjunto music forward without abandoning what made it essential. His 1979 collaborations with Doug Sahm put his sound in front of a rock and roll audience. Then Ry Cooder brought him into the studio for Chicken Skin Music in 1976. He recorded with the Texas Tornados alongside Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers, and Sahm himself — that group won a Grammy in 1991. Flaco won five Grammys of his own across his career. He took the accordion from the barrio to the world stage and back again, and the music was richer for every mile. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.