Description
One DAT tape. The recording session took place at the home of Emilo Hernandez (a Chicano band leader), and was set up by Tomas Granado. The first band, Los Fronterizos (The Bordermen), played conjunto music and were comprised of Felix Cortez (bajo sexto), Felix Cortez, Jr. (accordion), Eduardo Cortinas (drums), Eleazar Cortez (drums), and Jesus Cortez Jr. (bass). They were a popular local band. Jesus, Sr., the band leader and accoridonist, worked as a bartender. The other band was Grupo Sensacion, a five-member Tejano/pop band led by Jose Luis Velasquez (singer/keyboard player). His daughter, Julissa Lissette also sang for the band. The Mexican American Music Survey was created to document the musical traditions of Florida's various Mexican-American communities: Apopka, South Dade County, Immokalee, the St. Johns River Basin, and Central Florida. Funded by a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Community Folklife Program, the survey was conducted between 1994 and 1996 by folklorist Robert Stone. Among the musical traditions were serenatas, conjunto, quinceanara ritual music, ranchera Michoacana, mariachi, norteno, Tejano, and pop music. At the end of the project, a sampler music tape was created by the Florida Folklife Program for distribution to various libraries.