By Suzanne Gamboa, NBC News | Flaco Jimenez, a six-time Grammy winner who took his conjunto accordion musicianship to the national and worldwide stages with countless superstar musicians and bands, has died, his family announced. He was 86.
The San Antonio music gem, whose first name is Leonardo but who was better known by his nickname, Flaco (which means Skinny), continued the music tradition handed down by his father and shared with his siblings. He built a legacy that honored the Texas-Mexican music tradition centered on the trills of his three-row accordion and gave it modern twists.
“It is with great sadness that we share tonight the loss of our father, Flaco Jimenez,” his family said in a social media post Thursday. “He was surrounded by his loved ones and will be missed immensely.”
Jimenez, a San Antonio native, was perhaps most popularly known as a member of the Texas Tornados, which gained fame with its hit song “Hey Baby, Que Pasó?” The band also included Doug Sahm, Freddie Fender and Auggie Meyers, also Texas musicians.
But well before that success and after, he was making hits, breaking barriers and widening the interest in the sound of conjunto music beyond South Texas. . . .
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Read more about Mr. Jimenez and his accomplishments here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/flaco-jimenez-conjunto-music-master-and-six-time-grammy-winner-dies/
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/flaco-jimenez-dead-conjunto-tex-mex-tejano-music-rcna222469