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Leonardo \u201cFlaco\u201d Jim\u00e9nez<\/a>, the singer, songwriter, and master accordionist, has died. Across a career spanning over 70 years, which included collaborations with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and many others, Jim\u00e9nez helped to popularize the Mexican music birthed in his native South Texas alternatively called conjunto, norte\u00f1o, or Tejano, though Jim\u00e9nez often preferred to label it Tex-Mex. No cause of death was given in the Facebook post<\/a> from Jimen\u00e9z\u2019s family announcing his death. He was 86 years old.<\/p>\n Born in San Antonio, Texas, Jim\u00e9nez came from a lineage of accordionists, including his grandfather, Patricio, and father, Santiago Jim\u00e9nez Sr. A pioneer of conjunto who injected his sound with accordion melodies inspired by the German and Czech polkas and waltzes he heard at dance halls in South and Central Texas, Santiago did not need to teach his son how to play the instrument; instead, the younger Jim\u00e9nez learned the instrument himself at age seven simply from hearing his father play. \u201cI was self-taught,\u201d Jim\u00e9nez explained to NPR<\/a> in 2014. \u201cYou know, I used to watch my dad play at home and feeling the instrument\u2014not just playing it, but feeling it, you know.\u201d He quickly earned the nickname \u201cFlaco,\u201d or \u201cSkinny,\u201d the same moniker that his father used when he began playing music.<\/p>\n Jim\u00e9nez\u2019s unmatched exuberance and skill on the accordion made him a fast-rising star in his native Texas. He was a regular in the dirt-floor dance hall scenes of cities and towns in the 1960s across the state, and he eventually paired up with Douglas Sahm, the founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet and a key artistic collaborator; the pair would go on to found the Texas Tornados, a conjunto supergroup that recorded seven albums. In 1973, Sahm recruited Jim\u00e9nez to contribute to his Doug Sahm and Band<\/em> album, where he brushed shoulders with luminaries like Bob Dylan and Dr. John, paving the way for Jim\u00e9nez\u2019s own breakthrough. \u201cDoug told me \u2018you\u2019re not supposed to play just that simple, traditional conjunto music,\u2019\u201d he said in a 2000 interview<\/a>. \u201cThere are so many players who stayed in the same crater like my papa did. Doug showed me there were other worlds out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the following decades, Jim\u00e9nez brought his expressive accordion playing to collaborations with the Rolling Stones<\/a>, Linda Rondstadt<\/a>, Dwight Yoakam<\/a>, and Ry Cooder<\/a>, among many others. He released over 25 studio albums of his own and received six Grammy Awards<\/a> in his lifetime, including trophies for Best Country Instrumental Album, in 1996, and the inaugural Best Tejano Music Performance, for 1998\u2019s Said and Done<\/em>. \u201cI started making conjunto more progressive because of the versatility that I believe in,\u201d Jim\u00e9nez said in an interview for PBS\u2019 American Roots<\/em>. \u201cI think it\u2019s good to change it a little.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n