From 'Ugly Monkey' to mariachi maestro

Jeff Nevin

DANIEL BUCKLEY
Tucson Citizen
April 24, 2003

New book probes the groundswell of mariachi music

Listen to music from Jeff Nevin's group: Mariachi ChampañaNevín

Watch Jeff Nevin talk about the mariachi movement: Broadband or Dial-up

A major milestone in the history of the mariachi has transpired - the publication of the first major book in English on the subject, "Virtuoso Mariachi" (University Press of America - see sidebar). And not surprisingly, given Tucson's place as the cradle of the mariachi movement in America, it is authored by former Tucsonan Jeff Nevin.
Nevin, 34, who also composed the first concerto for mariachi and symphony orchestra - "Pasión Mexicana" - and recorded it with Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez and the La Jolla Symphony, holds the post of Professor of Music and Director of Mariachi Activities at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, Ca. He is also principal trumpet with the La Jolla Symphony, a frequent substitute with the San Diego Symphony, and founder/leader of Mariachi Champaña Nevín, which specializes in mariachi and symphony orchestra encounters.
When he was 15, Nevin joined Tucson's Philharmonia Youth Orchestra. He was in his sophomore year at Salpointe High School when a student there noticed him carrying a trumpet case and told him they needed trumpets for Mariachi Los Changuitos Feos (The Ugly Little Monkeys) - the first youth mariachi in America, now still in operation. According to Nevin, he couldn't even spell mariachi. But he decided to give it a shot.
The Changos has had its ups and downs over the years, and the day Nevin joined was one of the down cycles. It was down to just four members.
"I remember the first mother's day that we played was just with the four of us so we had vihuela and three trumpets and we went around and serenaded everybody's mom," Nevin says during a trip back to Tucson in December of 2002. "We knew three songs - 'De Colores,' 'El Rey' and 'La Bikina.' That was it!
"What drew me in was just that it was fun and they were some nice guys. I made some new friends. But then when the girls came, we suddenly had guitarrón and a couple of violins and voices. And girls. It was great. We just started playing more."
Two years later, in 1986, Los Changuitos Feos was good enough to take first prize in the Tucson International Mariachi Conference's battle of the bands, competing against professional and student groups. And the piece that had the crowd going was one of Nevin's arrangements.
"I remember there was a stage with 10,000 people or more. Just completely packed. No seats. There's Mariachi Vargas sitting right there up front. We played a version I did of "La Virgen de la Macarena" - the Rafael Mendez thing. I wrote it for three trumpets and we stood up front. I was in the middle with the two guys on the other side. We sort of passed the stuff back and forth but I had the main solo part. It just felt great. I really felt like I was genuinely good at what I was doing and a lot of people who had no reason to were applauding like crazy.
"What was so good about (the mariachi experience) for me is that it really was what caused me to transition from thinking, 'Playing trumpet is nice but I'll do something else for a living,' into thinking, 'I really like this and I'm really good at it.'
Nevin had plans to go to a small liberal arts school in Colorado. But again the mariachi interceded. He was playing with the Changos at Macayo's on Oracle and Ina when a member of the music faculty from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign dropped in and heard the group. He sent a letter to then-Changuitos-director Joe Mendoza complimenting the group and wanting to know the name of its first trumpet player (Nevin). With relatives in the Chicago area, that faculty recommendation and his scholarship from the Changos (Los Changuitos Feos has always given college scholarships to its members), Nevin enrolled and earned a bachelor's degree in composition. He followed that by a masters at Arizona State University and a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego, all in composition.
But throughout his studies, Nevin continued working with mariachis. In Phoenix he played with Mariachi Aguila de Marcelino Cervantes, where he was second trumpet to Armando Chacon - an older player whose technique Nevin initially questioned but later learned to respect and admire.
"I joined this group and there's a little guy, playing trumpet," Nevin recalls. "Missing a lot of notes. He had a little sound. It sounded nice but he wasn't like a great trumpet player. But when I joined this group everybody said, 'You listen to that guy because he's a good trumpet player.' I said, 'OK, whatever.'

Los Changuitos Feos. Nevin is second from left.

"I could hardly speak to this guy because my Spanish wasn't that good. I spent probably a year and a half just playing second trumpet to him. We hardly spoke a word - literally - to one another but we became really close musically. I think I pushed him too to have a little fuller sound and to play a little bigger, but I know that he pushed me to learn with him. I started to get the sound that he had."
At the going away party held for him when he left for California, people came up to him and said, "Tu eres muy mariachi." He had the style.
The experience had a profound effect on him. He began to notice, for example, that when he worked with young trumpeters, they weren't always hitting the notes perfectly but they were playing with passion and style. According to Nevin this is almost the opposite of classical learning in that with classical players, getting the notes is first and foremost, while style comes later.
In studying, composing, performing and reflecting, he began to see other comparisons between the classical and mariachi worlds. In the classical world, composers work against the background of history and tradition to create new artforms from the old. Nevin began intensely studying old and new mariachi recordings and recognized that similar levels of artistry to the classical field were being achieved, and new aesthetics created. He coined the term "virtuoso mariachi" to describe the likes of Mariachi Vargas, Cobre, Sol de Mexico, Los Camperos de Nati Cano and other topflight groups.
"The mariachi you see today (headlining) at these conferences are the virtuoso mariachis," Nevin explains. "That's the professional art music that artists created based on the tradition - based on where they came from. But most of these songs are still under copyright, literally.
"When people stand up and say, 'Traditional mariachi must be preserved. Jose can't play the Glen Miller medley. He's destroying the tradition of mariachi,' I say 'That is exactly the same thing that happened when Pedro Infante's producer said, 'I want you to sing a bolero with the mariachi.' Boleros at that point were Cuban music in the 1940s. Miguel Martinez (the trumpeter for Mariachi Vargas largely credited with creating the mariachi trumpet sound) tells me that the mariachi unions literally had meetings and fought over whether or not it was correct for mariachis to play music that wasn't from Mexico. Some said yes, some said no. Eventually some group of guys actually did it and the public said, 'Wow, that's amazing.' So you can't have mariachi music today without Pedro Infante and Xavier Solís. Without singing 'Spanish Eyes.' "
Those observations and others became the foundations of his book, "Virtuoso Mariachi" (see sidebar). But the book is just the beginning. Seeing the emergence of mariachi programs around the United States, frequently led by people without mariachi experience, Nevin is at work on a method book that will give both instructors and students insights into mariachi history, traditions and style. He's created an accredited program at Southwestern College to give band and orchestra teachers background and experience in the mariachi.
"It's not a substitute for experience but it's the best I can do."
On the performance front, Nevin is blazing new trails in the mariachi world, writing mariachi arrangements of classical fare and merging the two worlds. He has several recordings out, including "La Forza Del Destino" with Mariachi Champaña Nevín and "Romances Mundiales" with singer Florencia and Mariachi Champaña Nevín. You can purchase his recordings, the book, and learn more at his Web site, virtuosomariachi.com.
Nevin holds his mariachi experience as the thing that completely changed his life.
"At every point where I had to make some sort of decision, mariachi was the pivotal thing that caused me to go this way instead of that."