One of the goals of ELFRICARDO MUSIC (a.k.a. Richard A. Hernández) and DON CENOBIO MUSIC (a.k.a. Cenobio X. Hernandez) is to publish our grandfather's music.

A giant step was made when one of his songs entitled Recuerdos, which was recorded by Brave Combo (the Denton, TX. band that Cenobio X. plays in), was used in U.S. figure skaters Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow's performance at the 1994 Olympics, in Lillehammer, Norway. Their performance was aired on CBS and seen throughout the world. The song was also used in the Acadamy Award winning short, The Personals and Bakersfield P.D.

The recording of the CD, Recuerdos Música, was a necessary labor of love and an obvious next step in the promotion of his music. The music was recorded exactly as it was written, note for note, with the feel as close as possible to the style of the times. The twelve songs were picked at random. The style of the music was captured with the help of an uncle who shared his feelings on how the music should be played. Friends and relatives who knew my grandfather also shared their experiences with me and through their playing inspired my approach to the music. I have begun going through the music to pick the next twelve or thirteen songs for the next CD.

Part of our plan is to follow this up with a recording of these songs with different instruments. We would like to try different rhythms, interpretations and arrangements to show it's versatility and to introduce the music of yesterday to the audience of today.

In talking about the music, we have found that the music lends itself, instrumentally, to everything from piano solo, Conjunto, Mariachi, Salsa, Banda, and full orchestra, all the way to the extremes of rock guitar and synthesized sound and music. A wonderful quality of the music is its movie soundtrack appeal. The most important thing, though, at all cost, is to keep the INTEGRITY of the music.

I have just performed the music in a concert recital at The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, TX. It was the official World Premier and it was very gratifying to see it appreciated by all who attended. I am planning another concert with my brother, Bubba (Cenobio X.) which would include other performers and dancers too. I am looking forward to performing the music at other cultural venues and museums across the states as well.

At this moment we are searching for a national distributor for the sheet music.

The music as it was written, has immense cultural value. It is part of our heritage. The music that came from the composers of that era, evolved into the music that we have today. Why not give a young Hispanic piano student, a waltz or polka written by a Hispanic composer. It, along with the classical composers he probably is studying already, would give him a sense of pride, a sense of connection, of having something to give and be a part of and at the same time, giving him his own personal sense of culture and identity.

So, even though the music was written in the forties, there is an important place in the world for it today.
What better goal than to share our grandfather's music with the world!!!