Remembering local musician and Tejano legend Fritz Morquecho

For more than seven decades, Alfredo “Fritz” Morquecho has been a staple of West Texas Tejano music. Morquecho, a resident of Kerrville, died Monday, Jan. 20. He was 89.

In 2016, Morquecho was inducted into the Tejano ROOTS Hall of Fame Museum in Alice.

Tejano music is derived from Norteño, a mix of traditional Mexican and Spanish music, as well as European waltzes and polkas.

“That honor gave me such great pleasure,” Morquecho said in an interview with The Kerrville Daily Times on July 21, 2023.

Joining the Tejano ROOTS Hall of Fame put him among other musical giants, including Selena, Freddy Fender, Ventura Alonzo and Flaco Jimenez.

Morquecho was born in rural Gregory, 15 miles north of Corpus Christi. He grew up in a musical family and developed an interest in guitar after watching his older brother take lessons.

“All I did was watch my brother play and knew I could make music, too,” he said.

By the age of 7, Morquecho was playing for audiences at a beer joint in Comfort owned by his uncle, Ramon.

However, it was a visit from an uncle hailing from Lubbock looking to recruit migrant workers that sparked Morquecho’s interest in the instrument that would eventually win him the biggest accolades.

“Uncle Mauricio always traveled with his accordion, so I asked if I could practice,” Morquecho said in a previous Times interview. “After three hours, I was able to master the song ‘La Margarita’ by ear without using any sheet music.”

Morquecho joined his uncle to pick cotton in the fields of Lubbock with the intention of working long enough to purchase his own accordion. When the work was finished, Morquecho traveled to San Antonio and bought one of his own.

In the 1950s, Morquecho formed his first band in Kerrville, Cielito. The trio included Morquecho, Junior Pruneda and Earnest Garcia. They played conjunto, a style of music that originated in South and Central Texas that is a blend of Mexican, European and American musical traditions that was developed when the accordion was introduced to the region by German, Polish and Czech immigrants. The band lasted for a year, until Pruneda moved out of town.

Morquecho quickly put another band together, The Three Aces, with Rudy Ayala and Saul Canto. This trio played together until the late ’50s, when Morquecho moved to Abilene for four years. Upon his return to the Hill Country, another band was formed, Fritz and the Aces, which lasted for a decade.

By the late 1960s, Morquecho was being featured on the half-hour-long “Fiesta Mexicana” TV show that was owned by country-western musician Phil Trimble.

From the 1970s into the ’90s, he headlined the Morquecho Family Band that combined the talents of his daughter, Brenda, on tambourine and sons Bobby and Eddie on bass and drums.

He also hosted a weekly jam session at the Dietert Center from 2016-18 and played at Notre Dame Catholic Church until 2021 with choir members Daniel Arriaga, Sam Rios, Jose Luis Perez, L. Pruneda and Danny Flores.

Morquecho went on to form Mariachi de Kerrville until his health issues led the group to disband in 2022. However, he kept playing at private events or evening jam sessions organized by fellow musician June Smalley.

“Music makes you feel like you don’t want to quit,” he said in a previous Times interview. “We play so everyone can enjoy it.”

While music was his main focus, Morquecho was a barber by trade for 60 years. He attended barber school during his time in Abilene, spent 30 years at the Kerrville State Hospital and 30 years running his own shop on Quinlan Street.

“Fritz was a very humble man and great musician,” said longtime friend and local musician Ray Guttierez. “He was never greedy with his musical knowledge. He was such an asset to the community when it came to music and hispanic heritage. I know I’m a better musician because of him. ”

In 2023, Morquecho was honored at the Doyle Community Center to celebrate the center’s rich hispanic and musical heritage.

“He made his legacy here as a barber, musician and friend to anyone he ever met,” said Clifton Fifer Jr., Doyle’s community outreach coordinator. “He always called me up on stage to play the washtub bass when I was learning. It was often the only time I was able to play in front of an audience.”

This article was originally published in the Jan. 25, 2025 edition of The Kerrville Daily Times.