Mariachi maestro and more, Fritz Morquecho has played Texas and Tejano music since the age of 5. Photo by Phil Houseal

Details:
Fritz Morquecho and Marichi de Kerrville are available for weddings, dances, quinceaneras, and other functions. Morquecho plays at Gunther's Creekside Grill in Comfort on Thursday evenings. His CD "Fritz & Friends" is available at Hastings in Kerrville. For bookings, call 830-257-7694.

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Mariachi, Morquecho-style

by Phil Houseal
May 24, 2006

The guitar hung tantalizingly out of reach.

Five-year-old Fritz Morquecho would sit across the bed each week while his brother had his guitar lesson, then watch wistfully as the older boy carefully returned the shiny new instrument to its perch high on the wall.

The temptation was finally too much for little Fritz. He figured out how to push a chair against the wall and climb up to get that guitar. Recalling what the teacher had shown his brother, Morquecho began practicing in secret.

"Learning music has never been difficult for me," Morquecho said. "I could hear a chord and then play it."

He played it so much he began leaving scratches on the surface.

"My brother finally said I had scratched it so bad, he just gave it to me," Morquecho recalled, laughing.

That was the start of a lifelong musical career that's taken him through the worlds of Texas and Tejano music.

By the time he started school, he was entertaining his classmates with music. At age 7, Morquecho and a friend were good enough to play little jobs for Josefina "Chata" Torres, who owned the popular Tortilla Factory that stood behind the HEB grocery store in Kerrville.

"We would dress up in mariachi outfits and play and sing," he recalled. In the late 1940s Fritz even performed with Tejano music pioneer Rosita Fernandez - la Rosa de San Antonio - who died recently.

At 14, Morquecho wrapped his arms around his first true love - the accordion.

"I had an uncle who played the button accordion," he said. "He came to visit one time, and stayed up until 4 a.m., talking and showing me how it worked."

By 7 a.m. Fritz could play his first song - "La Margarita."

"The bug caught me then," he said. For the next six weeks, young Morquecho took off to pick cotton, just to earn enough money to buy his first real accordion.

Morquecho performed throughout the 1950s as The Three Aces, playing dance halls and community centers. In the 1960s, Morquecho's children were old enough to join him and they became the Morquecho Family band.

By the late 1970s, Morquecho formed Mariachi de Kerrville, the group he continues to front. It includes his cousin Joe on guitar, Manuel Sanchez on guitar, Sam Rios on acoustic bass, and Gilbert Morales on vihuela.

These days, Morquecho is still entertaining his friends. He plays regularly at school suppers and family nights. He is a popular performer in clubs and concerts. He takes his accordion onstage with bluegrass, blues, and jazz groups. When a zydeco band performed at one of the Roots concerts, Morquecho was backstage getting them to show him how to coax that deep swamp sound out of his 3-row button accordion. I have even heard the mariachi maestro playing a Russian folk song.

Morquecho's wide interests are evident in his CD "Fritz & Friends." Selections include Tejano ballads, German polkas, and cowboy cumbias.

"I put a little bit of everything on my CD," he explained. "When you grow up in Texas, you hear all kinds of songs. When someone from the audience would come up and ask for a country song, if we didn't know it, by the next gig it was ready. I haven't done just mariachi all my life!"

Morquecho, who is a retired barber, has no plans to slow down. He still gives accordion lessons and stays "fairly busy," he said. "I'm going to keep on playing as long as I can drive to the gigs."

In fact, a few years ago, he began to learn the violin. And he didn't have to climb the wall to get at it.

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