Ruben Naranjo

They used to call him "El Si Señor" because he had a habit of shouting "Si señor!" between numbers by his spirited band of drums, accordion, bass, and the simultaneously chiming and thumping bajo sexto. His good looks and charming smile also won him the moniker of the Clark Gable of conjunto. And in general, this accordion player, whose fingers never seemed to stop moving when he was taking a solo, lived a charmed, if a bit too short, life. In a music that seems sustained by traditions being passed on from generation to generation within a family, it should be no surprise tha...