Local music pioneer to be inducted into Tejano Hall of Fame

Joe Quintanilla It has been a long road for local drummer Joe Quintanilla but his name will forever be remembered once he is enshrined as a member of the 2009 class of the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame at a ceremony which will take place in Alice in late January (29-30). The journey began over half a century ago.

“I used to bang out beats with forks and spoons when I was seven to nine years old out in the King Ranch where we used to live,” Quintanilla said. “My parents, back in the fifties, made sacrifices and took the bus down to Corpus Christi to Alamo Jewelry where they sold musical instruments and bought me a little base drum, a snare and a cymbal.”

With little entertainment available back then, Quintanilla began honing his skills by jamming with the radio.

“We did not have any television back then so I would play along with the radio and there was only one Spanish station,” Quintanilla said. “The station we listened to played only one hour of Spanish music and I would try to keep the beat. Afterwards I would listen to Glenn Miller so I also enjoyed learning to keep the tempo with the big band groups.”

Not yet a full grown man, a young Quintanilla got his first break into the professional arena with Isidoro ‘Lefty’ Lopez back in 1955.

“I later met this guy named Ramiro Aguilar who was from Falfurrias and who worked at the King Ranch and he asked me to go along with him,” Quintanilla said. “He was playing guitar with Lefty Lopez and I kept tagging along with him and one day their drummer did not show up and we were playing in Encino Texas so I played that night.”

A professional musician long before he even held a driver’s license, Quintanilla had a run in with the law one night on his way to a gig when a state trooper pulled him over and did not believe that the boyish faced driver was a musico.

“The highway patrolman asked me ’what do you think you’re doing’,” Quintanilla reminisced. “I told him ‘I am playing tonight’ and he said ‘I am going to let you go but if I catch you on the way back, I am going to put you in jail’.”

Another real-life lesson Quintanilla - who is of light complexion – learned during his early touring days was that of racism in certain Texas towns.

“Back in those days there was a lot of discrimination,” Quintanilla said. “One night after we played at a Pan- American Hall in Houston the guys woke me up in some town and said ‘you need to go get some coffee’. I said ‘why me’ and they said ‘because they don’t sell to Mexican people here’ so I have been through a lot, nothing serious, but the experience you get on the road is unique.”

Now retired after working for the Kroger Company for 26 years, Quintanilla knows what it is like to be a celebrity one day and an Average Joe the next.

“One night I would be playing for a packed audience, they would shine the spotlight on me and I had the entire crowd’s attention,” Quintanilla said. “The next day I’m bagging groceries at Kroeger’s and I hear ‘Joe Quintanilla, we need a mop up front’. In this industry you can be on top for a while and then no one would hire you for two to three weeks, but I loved the music.”

Quintanilla’s resume also includes performing with Pablo Garza (1957-59), leading his own group (1959- 61), Oscar Martinez (1962), Johnny Canales (1962), returning with Lopez (1964- 67), Conjunto Bernal (1968), Artista’s Bego (1969), Los Exitos de Alaniz (1970’s and 80’s) and Beto Leal (1960’s, 70’s, 80’s and now),

Wanting to make a good impression through wardrobe, Quintanilla’s musical talents have always been adaptable whether he was playing rock, country western or conjunto.

“We always dressed properly for gigs while finding musical material from Mexico and intergrading it with material from Glenn Miller,” Quintanilla said. “We were able to play in the barrios where people danced on wooden or dirt floors and later ended up jamming at fraternities; so I kind of played it all.”

His upcoming enshrinement makes Quintanilla proud in knowing that one day his grandchildren will be able to look his name up in the hall of fame.

“This means a lot to me, not just to get the recognition especially, but because one day when I am gone my grandkids will be able to say grandpa was a good drummer and paid his dues,” Quintanilla said.

Though the tejano industry has declined in popularity since the 1990’s, Quintanilla says there are still plenty of aficionados who want to hear good old tunes from reputable singers.

“I give a lot of credit to performers like Little Joe, Ruben Ramos and Beto Leal because there is a demand for Tejano and it is amazing the response we still get,” Quintanilla said. “It is just that for some reason, it may be political or some of the recording companies who put money only in what they want you to listen to, we do not have the backing but the market is still there for conjunto and tejano.”

Quintanilla’s gift and love of music is something he has shared with his two sons; Saxophone Virtuoso Jonas and Drummer Quincy.

“My son, Jonas, won a Tejano Music Award about seven years ago for his play on saxophone and it is just a big thrill when all three of us play together,” Quintanilla said. “One time we were playing at a country club and these three ladies kept pointing at us. They later asked us if we were all related and I told them that we were all brothers and that I was the oldest.”

With his tribe as top priority, Quintanilla is touched that his boys ‘get it’ when it comes to music.

“My family comes first, then it is music and old cars,” Quintanilla said. “It is a great feeling when you play with your kids and they understand the music and I am very proud that they are so versatile.”

Quintanilla’s career has seen him perform at a couple’s wedding, then again at that couple’s daughter’s wedding and later at the quincenera of the same family’s great granddaughter. But no matter what the occasion, Quintanilla loves the music to which he first learned to drum.

“Tejano is my roots, it was my foundation and I relished knowing how much people enjoyed listening to it back in the old days,” Quintanilla said. “There are some sophisticated hard working people who never got the opportunity to enjoy the music live because they did not have the money back then. To see them enjoy themselves now brings tears to my eyes, to see everyone having a good time like back in the old days, that is what keeps me going especially because this is beautiful music.”

Tejano music, Quintanilla said, is alive and well. All it needs is a new generation of musicians to inject it with good material.

“If you get something right - that is good and has flavor - people will buy it, follow it and know your name,” Quintanilla said. “There is still a market for Tejano out there it is just that we do not get played enough.”