lit a candle 10 Sept 2026My dad played Chicken Skin Music constantly when I was a kid. Didn't know who Flaco was then, just loved the accordion sound. RIP to a legend I wish I'd seen live.
Their story
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez was born in San Antonio, Texas, on March 11, 1939, into a family that helped invent the sound of Texas-Mexican conjunto. His grandfather Patricio Jiménez and his father Santiago Jiménez Sr. were accordionists. Flaco (a nickname meaning "skinny," shared with his father) started performing with his father…
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez was born in San Antonio, Texas, on March 11, 1939, into a family that helped invent the sound of Texas-Mexican conjunto. His grandfather Patricio Jiménez and his father Santiago Jiménez Sr. were accordionists. Flaco (a nickname meaning "skinny," shared with his father) started performing with his father at age seven and was recording by fifteen with Los Caporales. He first learned the bajo sexto before turning fully to the button accordion, shaped by his father and by zydeco master Clifton Chenier.
For years he worked San Antonio dance halls, then connected with Doug Sahm of the Sir Douglas Quintet in the 1960s. That friendship opened doors beyond South Texas. In the 1970s Jiménez worked in New York and elsewhere with Dr. John, David Lindley, Peter Rowan, Ry Cooder, and Bob Dylan. He played on Cooder's landmark world-music album Chicken Skin Music, appeared with Cooder on Saturday Night Live in November 1976, and later contributed accordion to the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge. Touring Europe with Cooder and co-founding the Free Mexican Airforce with Rowan and Wally Drogos made him a global ambassador for conjunto without ever abandoning San Antonio as home.
In 1988 his accordion drove Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens' number-one country hit "Streets of Bakersfield." Around the same period he helped form the Texas Tornados with Sahm, Augie Meyers, and Freddy Fender; their recording of his father's "Soy de San Luis" won a Grammy. He later joined the Latin-roots supergroup Los Super Seven. Solo albums for Arhoolie, Rounder, Warner Bros., Arista, Virgin, and Smithsonian Folkways kept traditional polkas and corridos in conversation with country, rock, and blues. Hohner issued a Flaco Jiménez Signature accordion line. His music appeared in films including Chulas Fronteras, Y Tu Mamá También, Tin Cup, and Striptease.
Honors stacked across decades: six Grammy Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award (2015); Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award (1999); National Heritage Fellowship (2012); Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist (2014); Austin City Limits Hall of Fame (2015); Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery portrait (2017); National Recording Registry induction for Partners (2020 class); and the National Medal of Arts (2022), accepted by his son Arthur when Flaco could not attend because of illness. Texas Public Radio and San Antonio peers compared his local stature to Louis Armstrong's in New Orleans. He kept returning to the Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio into his final years.
Jiménez died on July 31, 2025, at age 86, after a long illness, at a son's home in San Antonio, surrounded by family. His last words, according to son Arturo, were "Ya estoy cansado" ("I'm tired"). A public "Final Curtain Call" memorial was held August 7, 2025, at the Carver Community Cultural Center, with music by Los Texmaniacs and remarks from family and friends.
This memorial is for Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez (1939-2025), the San Antonio accordionist of the Texas Tornados. It is not for his father Santiago Jiménez Sr. (d. 1984) or his brother Santiago Jiménez Jr., both accordionists in the same family line.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia; NPR/Burnett; SA Express-News; AP; Billboard; Guardian; Variety; NBC; TPR; NEA; ACL; LOC NRR.
In their own words
“This one, the lifetime achievement, is top of the line. You can't go higher than that one.”
On the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2015); Guardian and contemporary award coverage.
“Ya estoy cansado.”
Last words, per son Arturo (The Guardian, 2025-08-01). English: I'm tired.
“Flaco Jimenez was to San Antonio what Louis Armstrong was to New Orleans.”
Hector Saldaña, Wittliff Collections curator, after Jiménez's death.
“Play one note and feel it, rather than a thousand empty licks.”
Advice recalled by mentee Max Baca (KENS 5 / Tejano Nation reporting after his death).
“Final Curtain Call”
Family framing of the August 7, 2025 public gathering, not a final goodbye (KSAT / family statements).
Photos
3Flaco Jiménez on stage at Farnham, U.K., 1985
Jan 1985 · by People Forever
Flaco Jiménez at Old Settlers Music Festival
by People Forever
Flaco Jiménez and Max Baca at Flamingo Cantina, Austin
by People Forever
Same energy. His hands moved like he wasn't even thinking about it.