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Musaica Chamber Ensemble returns to Crescent Classical in advance of their 2024-2025 season, Hidden Treasures.

Leonard “Flaco” Jiménez is the most influential Texas-Mexican accordion player of his time. Flaco’s father Santiago Jiménez Sr. helped create the style called “conjunto” or “la música norteña,” from rancheras to polkas. Flaco Jiménez was born in 1939 in San Antonio and carried his father's sound forward. In addition to singing, Flaco became famous for his rhythmic drive, inventive solos and stage antics. From his 1950s teenage days playing local dances, Flaco emerged in the early ‘70s to record with Doug Sahm and Ry Cooder, and later Linda Ronstadt and Los Lobos. I talked to the squeezebox king about his sound and his name.

Singer/guitarist Charley Crockett plays what he calls "Gulf and Western” music, a combination of blues, R&B, soul, country and more found along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Louisiana. It makes sense, since that's where he grew up, living with his mother in a trailer. Charley’s lived many lives, hitchhiking with his guitar from coast to coast, playing in subways and city streets in New York City, New Orleans and Paris; working farms in California, running into trouble with the law and later his health with open heart surgery. He's recorded several highly acclaimed albums and is known for his takes on classic country tunes as well as original songs. But for Charley, the blues is where it all began.

James Chambers took the name Jimmy Cliff to reference the heights he would climb as a musician, singer, and actor. Since Cliff’s birth during a hurricane in rural Jamaica, people believed he was special. Cliff’s dissatisfaction with country life led him to Kingston where he met Chinese-Jamaican record producer Leslie Kong, who helped launch his career with a 1962 hit, “Hurricane Hattie.” Cliff helped Jamaican music go global performing in the film The Harder They Come. Jimmy Cliff told me how his voice carried him out into the world.

The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of those enslaved in the Sea Islands of Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina. Because of the remoteness of the plantations, the Gullah Geechee were able to retain some of their African traditions, including the ring shout. It’s a ritual in which participants move counterclockwise in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands, in call and response fashion. The tradition is rooted in West African culture, mixed with elements of Christianity. The Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters from Darien, Georgia have preserved this ancestral heritage through performance and education since 1980. They joined us on stage at the New Orleans Jazz Museum where they started with a song you will probably recognize, that came from the Gullah Geechee culture.

Yvette Landry wears many hats: musician, songwriter, educator, author, and record producer. Hailing from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, Yvette grew up listening to music but wasn’t interested in playing music until later in life. After her dad was diagnosed with cancer, Yvette bought a bass for Cajun jam sessions with the Lafayette Rhythm Devils. She went on to join the female-led Cajun band Bonsoir, Catin, and now fronts the Yvette Landry Band. Though she’s performed internationally, Yvette has stayed close to home, teaching American Sign Language and songwriting at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

The late Aurelio Martínez grew up in the Garifuna village of Plaplaya on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. He was a percussionist, singer and guitarist who played in noted musical groups of Honduras and maintained connections to his Garifuna roots while living in the Bronx, NY. Aurelio was a native speaker of Garifuna and Spanish and a member of the Honduran Congress. We began our conversation talking about his first instrument.

West Texas troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Southern California roots-rocker Dave Alvin were born worlds apart. Gilmore in Lubbock, where he co-founded the Flatlanders. He left music to join an ashram, and played Smokey in the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski. Dave Alvin was raised in Downey, California, and once of age took off for Los Angeles to play guitar in rock and punk bands. Over the years, Alvin and Gilmore criss-crossed paths and admired each other from afar. I spoke to them in 2018 when they first joined forces on the road and recorded their album From Downey to Lubbock.

Who was Harry Smith? The short answer about the 20th century polymath and hustler might be divined in his legendary Anthology of American Folk Music from 1952, an LP collection of mostly Southern US folk music on 78rpm records. The Anthology established a cult of listening and influenced popular and folk revival artists from John Sebastian and the New Lost City Ramblers to rockers like Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and Beck. In addition to music recording and wide ranging research into tribal and other cultures, Harry Smith was a painter on canvas and on film. He was a profound thinker and worker in the American vernacular.

After Aretha Franklin signed with Atlantic Records in 1967, producer Jerry Wexler brought her to record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Known for its local recording studios, including FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound, the Tennessee River town produced many hits and allowed the Black and white music worlds to coalesce. In 1967, Aretha recorded her first big hit, “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)” at FAME studios, but all did not go smoothly. Studio guitarist Jimmy Johnson tells the story.