Esteban “Steve” Jordan also known as "El Parche," "the Jimi Hendrix of
the accordion," "the accordion wizard," and other monikers. But when he
is called "the best accordionist ever by other accordionist, it is the
highest of accolades. Born to a migrant farm worker family and partially
blinded as an infant, Esteban couldn't join the rest of the family in
the fields, so was left with the older migrants who could no longer
work. At a very young age he was introduced to conjunto music,
especially the accordion playing of Valerio Longoria. At the time ,
Longoria would follow the community of of migrant farm workers and play
for them in the labor camps. These circumstances brought the two
together and the young Esteban mastered the instrument quickly. He then
took up other instruments, most notably the guitar, and now, by his own
account, he can play 35 different instruments. While he has remained
close to his traditional conjunto roots, he has never limited himself
musically. More than any other accordionist, Jordan pushes the diatonic
accordion to its limits, both musically and physically, playing
traditional conjunto, rock, jazz, salsa, zydeco and more.
Click
here to watch Steve in action.
