Dave Alvin
I was fortunate to have had the honor of playing music live few times with the late accordion virtuoso Flaco Jimenez. The most nicely surreal occasion was several years ago at a benefit show for Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy. The gig was held inside a large mansion in San Francisco's extremely ritzy Pacific Heights neighborhood but the music (featuring Flaco, the soulful guitar genius David Hidalgo, keyboard king Pete Sears and the rock solid Max Baca with amazing Los Cenzontles band) sounded more like a Saturday night SF's old Mission District.
Afterwards, Flaco, David and I sat on one of the mansion's many balconies overlooking the San Francisco Bay, drinking prohibition era hootch that the mansion's owner collected and generously shared with us (it didn't taste great but it definitely warmed up one's blood stream on that chilly night). Flaco bummed smokes off of me as he regaled me with stories of his father (the influential accordionist Santiago Jimenez Sr), his rough early years in 1950/60s San Antonio, of playing with Doug Sahm and Ry Cooder in the 70s and countless more wild adventures across the American Music landscape as we stared down at the lights of San Francisco, the East Bay, Marin and beyond. After a a few more hits of the ancient rotgut and a few more Flaco stories, we all decided to go downstairs and play some blues Flaco-style. So we did.
Thank you for the evening of intimate stories, Flaco Jimenez, but more importantly, thank you for your decades of magnificent, inspirational music. You were a true American Master.
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