Local band brings Tejano sound to Great Lakes Folk Festival

This weekend’s Great Lakes Folk Fest will feature a panoply of music and media from a wide variety of cultures from across the globe, including an international roster of performers. The mid-Michigan region, however, will provide a number of acts, one of which is the Lansing-based Tejano Sound Band.

Tejano Sound Band (TSB) was founded in 1994 by brothers Johnny and Richard Vasquez, who themselves had already enjoyed a familial music career as part of Los Hermanos Vasquez (“The Brothers Vasquez”). Over the last almost two decades, TSB has developed a following both in the Midwest nationally, and reaching into Mexico.

The band focuses very much on live performance – dancing is encouraged – but the band has also released three albums to much acclaim. TSB’s current lineup consists of:

Johnny Vasquez – Accordion

Richard Vasquez – Guitar/Bajo

Bobby Gonzalez – Drums

Lupe Moreno – Lead Vocals

AJ Garcia – Bass

Rolando Revilla – Keyboards

Mark Garcia – Manager

The membership has remained rather consistent for most of the last decade, with the exception of Bobby Gonzalez having assumed percussive duties after the late Andrew Pizana’s passing in 2014.

As the name suggests, Tejano Sound Band specializes in Tejano music. In Spanish, Tejano literally translates to “Texan,” and the Tejano music label is used to describe both the popular and folk music exponents of South Texas’s Mexican-American population. Or, as TSB keyboardist Rolando Revilla explained, “Tejano music is a Tex-Mex melting pot of sound.”

Regarding mainstream culture, the single biggest Tejano exponent is likely Selena. There are subcategories of Tejano, but overall the style features a rhythm section of drums, bass, accordion, and bajo (a lower cousin of the acoustic guitar that is still rhythmic and strummed, unlike the more traditionally plucked bass guitar), with variations including brass sections (including saxophone, which TSB sometimes utilizes), keyboards, and electric guitar.

The style was born in the early twentieth century through the mixing of folk and popular musics of various ethnic and cultural groups in the South Texas region, including Germans, Anglo Americans, African Americans, and Mexicans.  The German influence is particularly apparent in the accordion and the polka-derived dance beat.

Regarding this uniquely American mix of styles, Revilla notes, “They say jazz is the only ‘true’ form of American music; it was born and raised here, it didn’t come from anywhere else. Tejano music, like jazz, was born right here in the USA...[it] is not Mexican music [but] an American music with Mexican roots.” As for TSB specifically, the band runs the gamut from more traditional Tejano stylings to more mainstream, crossover fare.

The summer is TSB’s busy season, with public (e.g., festivals, clubs) and private (e.g., weddings, quinceañeras) gigs nearly every weekend throughout the Midwest, with the performances as far away as Texas and Florida. This weekend marks the TSB’s first and second Great Lakes Folk Festival appearances, as the band will perform two hour+ sets on Saturday, August 8^th at 12:30 PM and 5:00 PM, respectively. Both sets will be at the Albert Ave. Dance Stage.

With most of TSB’s other gigs lasting four hours, the ensemble has more than enough material to cover two hour-length sets at GLFF. As for the whether TSB will stick with more traditional Tejano songs or include some of its more crossover selections, Revilla said it all depends on the audience. “[We] will play a little more based off of the crowd. If we happen to see more people that are not familiar with Tejano music we might play a variety of music to showcase as much as we can.”

For more information about the band and other upcoming performances, you can follow Tejano Sound Band on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/tejanosoundband.

The Great Lakes Folk Festival begins at 6:00PM Friday, August 7th and runs through 6:00PM Sunday, August 9th. A full schedule of performances is available here.