First Queen of Tejano Music

AMG Review of First Queen of Tejano Music

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

In the early '50s, after taking some years off to raise her family, Lydia Mendoza returned to recording. First Queen of Tejano Music has 26 songs that she recorded for the Ideal label between 1950 and 1964. In contrast to her sparse, guitar-accompanied sides from the '30s, these have a fuller band sound, with backup by several different orquestas. Although much of this is in the conjunto mainstream of jaunty, emotionally delivered tunes with guitar-accordion arrangements, there's some variety as well that finds her occasionally in more of a pop, jazz, or orch song mold, along with some straight mariachi settings, oleros, and angos. For the money, it still works best when the melodies are sad and the arrangements tend toward the more simple, putting the focus firmly on Mendoza's assured vocals. It's still quality material, however, reflecting the increasing sophistication of conjunto music instrumentation as the century passed the halfway mark.