Martinez, Oscar 2011-10-27
Oscar Martinez and Tejano music
General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Oscar Martinez
Additional Parties Recorded:
Date: October 27, 2011
Location:
Interviewer: Andy Wilkinson
Length: 02:33:33
Abstract
Tape 1, Side 1:
Background, Born January 3, 1934 in Corpus Christi, Texas, Lived in Corpus for 77 years, Becoming interested in music, Hit the pots and pans with sticks to make drums, Toy horns, Always wanted to play the trumpet, Played the tuba, Teacher wanted him to play a solo with a trumpet at the football game, Started playing in different lounges at 17, Band, Rudy Alvarado played saxophone, CuCu Alvarez played drums, Calelio Ibarrez played guitar, Beto sang, Learned from them, 1958 started forming his own band, Started recording so he could get out of Corpus, Before starting his band he played with Cero Lopez from 1954-1956, Went on the road, but did not go out of Texas, Recorded in a professional studio in Dallas, Album, Mardi Gras Tejano, Recorded with Johnny Gonzales, How Tejano came about, Beto Villa formed a band of three saxophones, two trumpets, piano, guitar, bass, drums and singers, Wanted to imitate Glen Miller, Wanted music for Mexican American, Martinez made his band pretty much the same way, Louie Guerrero was the composer of la cacahuata (the peanut), Daughter sold Martinez’s paintings, El Tejano Enamorado, Mostly the musicians like to drink, When men play music they drink, Mother in law doesn’t like a drunk, Wife accuses you of having a lot of women, Accused of being a Texas playboy, “They get a divorce once they record that song”, Did not know anything about Royalties, About 45 people recorded the song but he never got royalties, Felt nice to have someone he looked up to record his song, What music did you listen to when you were younger, A blind guy that played the saxophone, Had American songs, Had Spanish songs, Jimmy Bell made Martinez’s song number 1 in Corpus Christi, Larry “The Corpus Christi Rock”, Martinez didn’t do a lot of English songs, The accident, Were coming back from Britain, Texas, Stopped in Rosenberg to eat on the way to El Campo, Brother Victor wanted to dance, Martinez was on the passenger side, Car was coming toward them, The car hit them on the side road, Martinez broke his leg and was unconscious for a little bit, Martinez fainted, Stayed in an El Campo hospital for 11 days then moved him to Corpus, Leg became infected 3 days, Stayed in the hospital 9 months, The mustang that hit them was smashed like an accordion, They were killed, 4 months after Martinez got out he started playing music, Couldn’t drive, Had to get a handle for the clutch, Three jobs a week, always on the weekend, Corridos (story), Flaco Jimenez and Toby Torres from San Antonio made Martinez a Corrido, When a corrido is made for you, you die, They made him 2 corridos, People were buying his corridos, Has two corridos and he is still alive, People had benefit bbq to help Martinez take care of the family, Writes songs, Next song is going to be about “a honey with a lot of money”, “Kitty Kitty meow meow”, Being on the road, Hoped they would go to places with roofs in case it rained, Sometimes people wouldn’t show up so you would have to hire someone, Guitar is most important in the band, There were two players, Sometimes they had 14 members going, Martinez’s wife always accused him of having to many women, Family, Martinez was very handsome when he was younger, Always dressed well, Worked in the insurance business so he had to dress well, Worked there for 20 years, The “Mother special”, Mother dressed very well, What makes Tejano music different, Tejano is bilingual, Dance music, Goes along with the English music, When Martinez was doing music, no one wanted to record them, Made records on their own records through their own label, Impala records, No one knew too much about recording during those times, 300 records for 300 dollars, 1,000 records for 150 dollars, Learned about the business the hard way, Working in the studio, Followed how the big bands recorded, There was only one mic, There was no sterio, Horns would do the background, Practiced before they got into the studio, Learning to write arrangements, Very hard, Played tuba in school which does not play melodies, Martinez started to write, Johnny Herrera, Teacher who would correct what Martinez wrote, Martinez took his first arrangement to Herrera for approval, Freddy Fender, Henry Cuesta, Born in Corpus, Used to visit Martinez when they played in cantinas, Played the clarinet, Went into the army, Played with big time musicians, Played with Lawrence Welks
Tape 1, Side 2:
Tape Two, Louie was inducted into the Austin Latino hall of fame, Also showed Oscar with paintings, Son wanted Martinez to do a painting of his father, Martinez did “Soul Man” in Spanish, Dressed the part, Loves to dress up, Every Wednesday they played music at the house, Free dance at Wednesday night, The neighbors would come outside bbq and listen to the music, Renee, Came to listen every Wednesday, Lived a couple of streets down, Became a writer for the Collier Times, Wrote an article for Martinez’s 75 birthday, Martinez wants to make another hit song, Latest song is the Corpus Rose, Two professors from Massachusetts came to his house, Visiting, Asked Martinez about accordion music and Conjuntos, Conjunto lovers are born in ranches live in barrios don’t attend school and don’t know much about music, they follow the accordions, People who go to school go for the orchestras, People who go to high school have a better ear for music, In the barrios they don’t know much about music, Martinez loves music with horns because he played in a band, Conjunto plays basic beats, People dress up for Tejano dances, People don’t dress up for conjunto music, They are not formal, Blue jeans, Encyclopedia Britannica, Daughter Iris googled Martinez’s name, Article started with Beto Villa, Ladies went crazy over Beto Villa, Good music for couples, Dinner after the dance, Ladies would wear corsages, Ladies got all dressed up, Went with the Tejano music, Martinez was always complimented on the way he dressed, You have to show your promoters that you can dress, Baldo Gonzales?, Celio Lopez?, Oscar Martinez, Selena, Oscar says he never talked to anyone from the Britannica, Assumes the professors from Massachusetts contributed to the article, Most of the artists mentioned were from Corpus Christi, How Martinez hired men, First Martinez would find out what they played, The main thing he looked for in a player was if they could play by ear, Looked for people who could read music, Some can’t play without sheet music, The band, 3 members of the band became music teachers, 3 guys made it to Bailey Rectors?, Record label Impala, Recorded with a few others, Recorded with Serape, Johnny Gonzales, Wanted to have their own label, Gaston Ponce, Biggest night of Martinez’s life, Pan American Club had a big billboard, The billboard read: Oscar Martinez and his orchestra from Mexico La Senora Santanera, Age 55, There is a bunch of Glen Miller type bands, Differences in Tejano music, Organs and no horns because no one could write music for them, Organs, drums, and vocals, More simple, A lot of bands have horns but they just stand there, Leo Sines- Latin Express, From Fort Worth, Horn section, Martinez sent him two song, Chiquita Bonita- written for the little pretty dog, Sines was going to record it, Kiss me again tonight, Filled out IRS forms wrong, Book keeper sent in the wrong forms in, Got into trouble with the IRS, Learned a lot about the IRS, Salesman for the band, Recorded for a small studio, Black and white cover, Sold for 5 dollars, Unusual for people to go house to house selling records, Would order 1000 records, Favorite album recorded, El Tejano, First album they made, Gallo pocaton, Proud rooster, Rudy Brown show, Got married, He was a shy guy, The girls would get up and dance with him
Tape 2, Side 1:
Tape 3, Radio, Had a two hour show on KCCT for 20 years, Tejano program, 7-8am and 6-7, Magic Q104.9 for about 10 years, No live shows just recordings, The book, Telling the story of what he went through, How he started with music, Maestro used to give singing lessons, Lessons of Solfeo (singing the notes with your mouth), No music, Musicians, Ralph Calvan band, Glen Miller style band, Beto Villa, Johnny Herrera, Little Joe, Freddy Martinez, Oscar Martinez, Manuel Danly, Ruvel Ramos, Larry Lane, Tony Guerrero, Martin Martinez, Joe Bravos, The Sun Glows, Tejano hall of fame induction on 1999, San Antonio, 2003 inducted to the Alice Tejano Roots award, Why the book was written, Had the time, Took two years, Old type writer, Friend had a printing shop, Artwork, Public domain, Medium, Acrylic, Started with water colors, marker and whatever he could find, Start with a pencil drawing, Easel, Paints at night, Doesn’t sleep much, George Vega, Bank Robbery, Lubbock, Half the town is wet, Half the town was dry, Guy who robbed the bank had a beer bar, Chicano soul review, Sang 4 songs with Larry, Martinez prefers to sing songs in Spanish than in English, Advice to a young musician, Don’t buy an instrument, They can look around and buy a used instrument, That’s how you tell if they are serious musicians, Martinez would babysit his grandkids and they would practice music and make jingles, Small scholarship, El Tejano Enamorado, For a music student going on to college to study music, W.T Grant, Wanted 10 boxes of records for each store, Martinez didn’t have that many records, Missed the opportunity, Rudy Brown, Rio Grande, Age 72
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Transcript: Transcript available in reading room
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