side musicians

In rock music, fans are often on a first-name basis with band members, like John, Paul, George, and Ringo. In salsa during the boom of the 1970s, fans started demanding musician credits on every album because, as with jazz, they followed the sidemen sometimes as much as the featured front.

 

But in mariachi music, the accomplished musicians who play and record with famous bands often go unheralded. Fans frequently know superstar vocalists or band directors, such as Silvestre Vargas and Pepe Villa, whose mariachis carry their names.  But credits are often missing for even the best violinists, trumpet players, and guitarists in a mariachi, including those who play for decades with the same ensemble.

 

So when a veteran mariachi musician is singled out and recognized for his contributions, the honor is all the more noteworthy. This month, fans and colleagues paid tribute to trumpet player Rigoberto Mercado, a member of the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán for more than a quarter century. The native of Tequila, Jalisco, was honored during the 21st annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza, which took place in San Antonio, Texas, November 15-21. The mission of the event, organized by promoter Cynthia Muñoz, is to showcase artists who have made significant contributions to the mariachi genre.

 

Mercado first joined the Mariachi Vargas in 1966. He went on to make scores of individual recordings with the band, mostly uncredited, as well as hundreds more as an anonymous accompanist for some of the greatest singers in the genre. But it’s almost impossible to know which songs or which albums he actually played on, according to Jonathan Clark, a mariachi musician and historian.

 

“Probably far less than 1 percent of mariachi recordings credit the individual musicians,” says Clark, who authored the section on mariachi music for the book about the UCLA archive, The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings. “I think there have been only two albums in Mariachi Vargas’ history that do this.”

 

Some determined fans have tried to identify musicians they recognize from album covers, but that’s also unreliable.

 

“The problem is that often the musicians on the covers don’t coincide with those who actually made the recordings, or only partly coincide,” explains Clark. “Many of these LPs were assembled from different sessions, often years apart and featuring different players.”

 

Clark has helpfully put together a list of recordings on which Mercado is known to have performed. The list appears at the end of his recent blog about Mercado and his Mariachi Extravaganza tribute, posted at Muñoz’ website, MariachiMusic.com.

 

Many of those albums are included among the band’s many recordings represented in the Frontera Collection, found under variations of the name Mariachi Vargas and/or Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. 

 

A specific search in the Frontera database by the trumpeter’s name yields a list of seven tracks, all from the group’s 75th anniversary album, LXXV Aniversario (Arcano DKL1-3251), a collection of mariachi standards. This is the U.S. version of the same album originally released in 1973 by RCA Mexico (RCA Victor MKS-1977) and features a total of 11 tracks.

 

Since the tracks emphasize instrumentals, the virtuosity of individual musicians is clearly on display, such as on “Las Alazanas” or “Alma Llanera.” Here, Mercado shares trumpet credits with his longtime collaborator Federico Torres Martinez. The album frequently showcases their horn section, which was tight, bright, and memorably harmonious. Says Clark: “The combination of Federico Torres (on first) and Rigoberto Mercado (on second) was the most stable and enduring trumpet duet Mariachi Vargas has had to date.”

 

Interestingly, this album not only credits the musicians but shows their pictures on the back cover. On my private copy of the Mexican RCA release, the musicians’ portraits are arrayed along the edges and bathed in primary colors. Mercado’s pink picture shows him in a formal pose holding his trumpet, identified by his full name, Rigoberto Mercado Alvarez. His partner’s picture in blue is just below his.

 

In addition to being celebrated, at the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza Mercado delivered a presentation during the Director’s Workshop, attended by mariachi directors from throughout the region. Appropriately, the title of his lecture was “Secretos a Voces: Frequently Overlooked Details that Distinguish a Superior Mariachi.” 

 

One of those secrets, of course, is the unheralded sideman.