Jimmy Gonzalez performing at TMA

admin

8 years ago

Jimmy Gonzalez performing at TMA

Joe Lopez gives emotional interview on passing of Jimmy Gonzalez

Jimmy Gonzalez was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. Like most Mexican-Americans in the State of Texas, he grew up listening to Trios, Mariachi, Conjuntos, and even Big Bands. It was in the late seventies, early eighties that the electronic keyboard became the main instrument in Tejano music. The band that gave keyboards the respect it lacked was MAZZ de Jimmy Gonzalez. When any group has enough influence to change the way people listen to music, the band has to be classified as an “impact band.” MAZZ was such a band.

The ironic thing about the group and its beginnings was that most recording producers wanted the bands to change their style of music. Many felt that the keyboard sound that MAZZ produced was a “fad” and wouldn’t last very long. Today, 30 years later, the “MAZZ sound” is still around and more popular than ever.

Today, Jimmy is considered one of the best musical arrangers in Tejano music and he has a natural feel for what people want to hear in his music. Every song has a unique introduction–“the MAZZ sound.” When the audience goes to a MAZZ dance or concert, the music they heard on the recordings is the same sound they hear LIVE!

Jimmy Gonzalez has recorded nearly 50 albums and CD’s in his career up to 1999, and has 12 more on his new label with Freddie Records from Corpus Christi, Texas. The latest CD, “Eternamente,” hit the streets this past September and has remained one of the top Tejano CD’s is Texas.

It’s rare enough for a solo artist to have had hits in the seventies, eighties, nineties, and 2000’s, but for a group to pull it off? Virtually unheard of, except for artists that have that rare combination of adaptability, open-mindedness and enthusiasm found in JIMMY GONZALEZ Y GRUPO MAZZ.

Jimmy Gonzalez is the most respected member of the Tejano music industry. For over 30 years he has been producing and recording hit albums and CD’s. Every single, album or CD has gone gold or platinum. No other man has managed to stay on top for as long as Jimmy Gonzalez has. No other man or band has managed to win 5 consecutive Latin GRAMMY Awards and one American GRAMMY for his last 7 CD’s under his new label Freddie Records out of Corpus Christi, Texas. And now with his most recent GRAMMY win for, “The Legend Continues…La Continuación,” Jimmy has earned his label 7 GRAMMY Awards. And coming May 1st, 2010, Freddie Records will release Jimmy’s 11th CD, “Mi Vida Sin Tu Amor,” which is sure to be another hit! There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that he is a living legend and a musical genius in the music industry. And he is one of the coolest guys that you will ever meet! This man demands the attention of all, and why not? He has earned it. Jimmy Gonzalez has managed to travel the world and become a role model to the younger generation of Tejano music lovers. He is one of a kind, a great person and an inspiration.