José Alfredo Jiménez was born on January 19, 1926 in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico and died on November 23, 1973 in Mexico City, Mexico.
He was Mexico’s most beloved composer of la cancion ranchera. He wrote and sang hundreds and hundreds of songs, appeared in many movies and recorded albums and singles for both Columbia Records and the RCA label.
I will be adding more information about his music and life in the coming weeks. I have scores of albums and cds as well as books, sheet music and other materials that I’ll share on this post as soon as I can get everything organized and uploaded. For now, here is what I’d like to share with you:
In 2020, in celebration of his birthday, I produced a radio show featuring his music. All the songs are composed by him, and are sung by both him and other artists. You can find the link to the show by clicking part one or part two. Each part is an hour long. Part one begins at the 3:15 minute mark, right after the closing of the Petey Mesquitey show. The set list follows below.
Jose Alfredo visited Tucson at least three times in the Sixties and Seventies. These are from the local newspapers.
Websites that include information about Jose Alfredo Jimenez and his work
Second Hand Songs entry for Jose Alfredo Jimenez (SecondHandSongs is building the most comprehensive source of cover song information, by means of a database of originals, cover songs, sampled songs and sampling songs). This advanced database stores the data in a reusable and maintainable way, and which is interconnected to many other online databases.
Here is a live version of the song, Gracias, from a 1973 television program. Jose Alfredo died the following year.
Here is Lucha Villa singing the song “Que Se Me Acabe La Vida” with Jose Alfredo. They never recorded together, but performed several duets live. Both also starred in the movie, Me Canse’ De Rogarle, a great comedy filled with Jose Alfredo’s music.