Thursday, February 6, 2025

NRR Project: 'La Chicharronera' (1936)

 

NRR Project: ‘La Chicharronera’

Narciso Martinez and Santiago Almeida

Recorded Oct. 21, 1936

2:40

I could not do better than Hector Saldana’s excellent essay on this piece, which you can read here.

This music, called conjunto, was a hybridization of European instruments and musical forms, and Mexican rhythm and content. These lively songs were popular with the working poor. In south Texas, artists sprung up and crafted this music in all kinds of social situations, developing a repertoire that would looked on later as a golden age of musical creativity.

Narcisco Martinez, known as the Hurricane of the Valley, was a master of the button accordion. His accompanist, Santiago Almeida, wielded a guitar-like instrument called a bajo sexto. Together they created a propulsive, tuneful sound that would expand and develop rapidly in the decades to come.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Nest time: Wabash Cannonball.

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