TRANSITIONS
By RAMIRO BURR
Last week, the Latin music world lost a few
memorable figures.
In San Antonio, longtime Chicano bluesman Randy
Garibay, 62 succumbed Jan. 23 after a long battle with cancer. He was the
leader of the band Cats Don't Sleep, and also an integral part of the Las
Vegas-based, San Antonio-bred Dell-Kings/Los Blues bands.
On May 26, Oscar Florentino Tellez, 56, one of
Tex-Mex's best bajo sexto players, was killed Sunday in a one-vehicle rollover
outside Cotulla. In a notable career, Tellez played with Flaco Jimenez, the
Texas Tornados, Mingo Saldivar and others.
Longtime Tejano DJ Gilbert G. Quintanilla, 39, died of
pneumonia May 22. GQ, as he was widely known, enjoyed stints at radio stations
in Houston, El Paso and Brownsville but it was his key post at San Antonio's
KXTN in the early '90s that he will be remembered for. At the peak of Tejano's
'90s renaissance, KXTN became the music's flagship station when it not only switched from AM to FM, but also reached the city's No. 1 position in 1994.
In related news, Houston has lost longtime Tejano station
KQQK-FM. Last month, Liberman Broadcasting Inc. purchased KQQK from El Dorado
Communication for $30 million.
At midnight on May 19, station officials made a small switch,
changing the format from Tejano to regional Mexican. In the larger sense though,
it was a fundamental change in Tejano's music fortunes. For more than a decade,
KQQK had been a key player in Tejano's early '90s fantastic rise. But in recent
years, Tejano's bright flame has dimmed considerably, as audiences, especially
younger fans, have flocked to rock, pop, and hip-hop music.
(Ramiro Burr covers the Latin music scene each week. Burr is
also the author of "The Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican
Music," on Billboard Books. For questions or comments call Burr at (800)
555-1551, ext. 3429, or e-mail to Musicreporter@gmail.com.)
For complete obituaries:
GARIBAY:
Blues legend
Late
KXTN DJ
Tellez
known for fingerwork