If English had been the first language of his community, his artistic nickname could have been “Skinny Alex.” But Salinas-born, Marina-based musician Alejandro Gomez – known as Flaco El Jandro – doesn’t sing in Spanish or English, exactly. He speaks and sings in Spanglish, the Chicano language of California, distinct and different even from the Texas dialect of Spanglish.
“I wish,” Gomez laughs when asked if his second, newly released album Nada Te Pido represents a larger music wave coming. Described as a regional Mexican subgenre of sierreño (a regional style from Sinaloa), it draws inspiration from Mexican singers, such as Miguel y Miguel or El Tigrillo Palma, adding elements of indie, reggae, rock and cumbia.
“My mom has been singing around the house all her life,” Gomez says. “Latino oldies. And my older sister had been giving me CDs.” (Think California punk rock, such as Green Day and Rancid.) From the mix of those influences, Flaco El Jandro was born – a nickname he chose for himself when he realized he wanted to pursue music full-time.
“Nicknames are usually about your insecurities,” he says. “So people would always call me skinny, which in Spanish is “flaco” and Jandro – that’s my name.”
In a way, Flaco El Jandro is a 21st-century spin on the tradition of troubadours, who sing outlandish boleros to the ladies of their hearts. (A bolero, not to be confused with the Spanish dance of the same name, is a 19th-century singing tradition from Cuba that spread to the Dominican Republic, reaching Puerto Rico and Mexico in the early 20th century).
Bolero kings, Los Panchos, ruled throughout the Spanish-speaking world in the 1940s. Then the ’60s and ’70s brought modernization – drums and electric guitars.
The new album contains his own compositions and some covers. “The album represents the lifespan of a romance,” Gomez says. “It starts with this happy stage, butterflies to the middle stage with all the arguments, and then it falls apart.”
Fortunately, while saying all this, Gomez has a big smile on his face.
“Yes, it’s sad,” he says when asked why he chose a tragic love instead of a happy one. “But it’s also pretty lighthearted. And I try not to hit too hard on the passion side.”
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