April 3, 2019 | UHCL Staff
Max Baca and Los Texmaniacs is a Grammy Award-winning Tejano band that loves to perform at colleges and universities. The group will be playing its unique blend of music, with elements of jazz, rock and roll, German-influenced waltzes and polka at University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Bayou Theater on April 26 at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ve never been to UH-Clear Lake, and we’re really excited because we are all about participating in the cultural life of universities and colleges around the world,” said Max Baca, the group’s founder, lead vocalist and bajo sexto player. “We do a lot of workshops and residencies in colleges, and different outreaches in communities. We love it.”
Baca said that during one of their performances, they always set aside time to talk to the audience about the origin of Tejano-conjunto music.
“The word ‘conjunto’ just means ‘group’ in Spanish,” he explained. “The integral elements of conjunto are the button accordion and the bajo sexto, a 12-stringed guitar that provides the rhythmic accompaniment. This music is strongly influenced by German immigrants who settled in Texas at the turn of the last century, and that’s where the polka and waltz music comes from, along with the ‘oom-pah’ sound from the accordion.”
And when you add drums and singing, Baca said, “that’s a four-piece conjunto.”
Baca said he founded the Texmaniacs in 1997 and to his surprise, the group was nominated and then won the Grammy Award in the Tejano category in 2010 for their album, “Borders y Bailes.”
“It was amazing when they called our name,” he said. “I was at the Staples Center in Los Angeles sitting behind people like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift and Beyonce. The whole way up to the stage, I had flashbacks to all the gigs I did when I was a kid, playing with my dad’s band. When I was a kid, that’s all we did was music.”
The band has been nominated for a second Grammy for Best Album in the regional Mexican music category for their 2018 album, “Cruzando Borders.”
Baca said he and his group had participated in 12 other Grammy-nominated projects. “I was once asked to play bajo sexto on a track the Rolling Stones were recording,” he said. “I went to the studio in Los Angeles and there was Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. I was star struck!”
Richards, with his trademark cigarette dangling from his lip, asked Baca if he could look at the bajo sexto. “He kept turning it over in his hands and admiring it,” he said. “Pretty soon, the ash from his cigarette fell on it. It burned a little hole in my instrument.” Richards was very apologetic, Baca remembered, and immediately offered to buy it. “He kept saying, ‘Name your price!’ But I told him the instrument was from my dad and I couldn’t sell it.”
Later, after Baca told his dad about the incident, he said, “You’re a dummy! You should have sold it! We could have been rich!”
At the concert, Baca said, the audience could look forward to “real conjunto.”
“We want to let the audience experience the real culture of this music, which is accordion and bajo sexto,” he said. “We are purists. We have been honored to have traveled the world and receive many awards. It’s been a blessing to be ambassadors of this music.”
