Joel Guzmán ← THE MATRIX of FABULOUS DISCOVERIES

Worldlines from Joel Guzmán: I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶

Worldlines to Joel Guzmán:

The matrix is dedicated to the proposition that fame, success, and intrinsic artistic worth are not necessarily correlated.

A small-world network, it positions all matrixed artists within close, navigable, sign-posted steps of each other, irrespective of nation, degree of fame, and social status.

This by the same seemingly magical mathematics which dictates that each of over 7 billion human beings on planet earth are separated from all others by 6 or fewer steps.

A happy corollary: Matrixed artists are by this m.o. rendered discoverable and accessible by everybody everywhere on the planet.

Recommend Joel Guzmán by setting a worldline (I'LL TAKE YOU THERE!) to here!

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Outgoing curation by: The Matrix

Who I Am & Where I Live

Name: Joel Guzmán
City: Austin, Texas
Country: United States

My Life & Work

Bio: Joel Guzmán grew up playing conjunto in his father’s band in Washington state, to where his family had relocated in the 1950s. Over the years he played with the greats, including Santiago Almeida and Flaco Jiménez.

Guzmán returned to Texas in the 1980s and spent the next three decades—along with singer-songwriter and longtime collaborator Sarah Fox — pushing the boundaries of Tex-Mex music. The bilingual Austin duo still play conjunto, but they also blend it with jazz, blues, and country, plus the tropical sounds of cumbia and salsa. They often record and perform with other top artists, ranging from Joe Ely and Rickie Lee Jones to Buddy Miller and Lee Ann Womack.

Guzmán won Grammys for 1998’s Los Super Seven and 2004’s Polkas, Gritos y Acordeones albums, plus another for the 2010 soundtrack of Crazy Heart, a film in which he also acted.

At 56 Joel Guzmán plays and promotes the accordion with passion. He teaches accordion workshops around the country and hosts the annual Squeezebox Mania, an Austin celebration of all things accordion. He also directs the University of Texas at Austin’s Tex-Mex Conjunto Ensemble.

“My musical roots reach back to the beginnings of conjunto,” Guzmán says. “It’s my duty to act as a bridge between past and future.”