Eva Ybarra

Eva Ybarra

acc, voc, g,
Latin, Folk and World
A.k.a. Eva Araiza Ybarra

Eva Ybarra, known as “La Reina de Conjunto,” has been performing for over 65 years. She is a button accordionist, multi-instrumentalist (she also plays the piano, guitar, bajo sexto, bass and guitarron), vocalist, songwriter and composer of instrumental melodies, arranger, recording artist and performer, musical stylist and music educator. She was born on March 2, 1945 in a poor barrio on the Westside of San Antonio, Texas. When she was about four years old, she would strap on her brother Pedro’s button accordion, turn on the radio, and play along to the melodies. Soon thereafter her parents bought her a two-row button accordion. She didn’t play with dolls (she is fond of saying), she played with her accordion. It was obvious from a very young age that she had musical talent. She taught herself how to play some polkas and other melodies on the accordion and she could sing. When Eva was about 14 years old, a promoter heard her performing with her older brother’s band and asked her and her father if she would record some records for him. They agreed and signed a contract for one year, which was extended to two years, and Eva Ybarra y su Conjunto recorded some 45 rpm records on the Discos Rosina label. She played the accordion and sang on various songs, including La Noche de Mi Mal,” a slow ballad, “Ausencia,” a bolero, and others. In her late 20’s and 30’s, during the 1970’s, she performed and recorded with different bands including a couple of 8-track tapes with Rudy Calderon y su Conjunto on Discos Reloj out of Del Rey, Florida; and with La Fama, for whom she played accordion and keyboards. During the early 1980’s she recorded two cassette tapes under the Discos Dina label with Jet Martinez y Los Navigators. She arranged all of the music for Jet’s original songs, aside from playing accordion and singing. Eva performed many years with Jet Martinez y Los Navigators at such places as the E-Z Club and the Royal Palace Ballroom in the San Antonio area. After she left Jet Martinez, she re-formed her own band, Eva Ybarra y su Conjunto, and performed and recorded two cassettes with Hacienda Records in Corpus Christi, Texas. She performed throughout the state of Texas and even in had some performances in Mexico and Puerto Rico. During the late 80’s, at one of her performances at the Tejano Conjunto Festival, she met an executive with Rounder Records and they ended up recording two CD’s with Eva Ybarra y su Conjunto during the early 90’s: “A mi San Antonio” and “Romance Inolvidable.” She continued to compose songs and instrumental pieces and recorded various CD’s, including “Space Needle,” which she produced herself around 2005 and three CD’s that she recorded with Puerto Rican singer, composer, and instrumentalist Lourdes Perez, of which one of the songs was included in the soundtrack for a film titled, A Donde se fue Juan. She has also been featured in the documentary film Accordion Dreams by Hector Galan, and in 2015, her life story was the subject of an original theatre/musical production titled La Reina del Acordeon. As a music educator, was the first woman to be hired as a button accordion instructor at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center during the late 1980’s. From approximately 2003-2009, she was an Adjunct Faculty member at Palo Alto College, where she taught Private Button Accordion to music students. She has taught accordion and music in residencies at the University of Washington in Seattle, and McAuliffe and J.T. Brackenridge Elementary schools. In spite of all of these accolades and accomplishments, Eva’s life and musical career have been difficult. She has had to suffer at the hands of the sexist and male-dominated Conjunto culture that has tried to diminish her role as a woman accordionist and leader of the band. Yet you wouldn’t know all of this when you see her perform. At 73 years old, she is an amazing show-woman and performer. She has never married, nor has children, but says: “my instruments and students are my children.” The great love of her life has always been music, and she continues to write songs, arrange, record and perform for the people. And she will continue to do so “until God calls her,” she says. - excerpts from a piece written by Juan Tejeda