Vykki Mende Gray — Profile

Vykki teaches dances at Peña Adobe Fandango

Vykki teaches dances at the Peña Adobe Fandango in Vacaville.
Photo by Jerry Bowen

Los Californios^® — Historic Secular Music of Mexican-Era California

Photo by Ellen Wallace

Vykki is the artistic director of Los californios^®, a project of San Diego Friends of Old-Time Music (a California non-profit corporation). This musical ensemble interprets the secular songs and dance music of nineteenth century (and occasionally eighteenth century) Spanish and Mexican California. Vykki researches, transcribes, and arranges pieces from original material for this group’s repertoire. These efforts have resulted in renewed interest in the genre, on both sides of the border.

Sheet Music Transcriptions of Traditional Music

Vykki has a knack, developed over many years, for being able to listen to folk music and capture it on paper. She has utilized this talent in a number of projects, capturing music that has previously been available only to the lucky few.

Music of Early California — Songs and Dance Tunes

Comprehensive Supplements — Volumes 1 through 10

Original transcriptions and arrangements of songs and dance tunes from the 18th and 19th century Spanish-speaking Californians, many from them from the Edison wax cylinders recordings made by Charles Fletcher Lummis starting in 1903. Most of these pieces have not been readily available to a general audience for over a hundred years. Click on title above for more details.

Songs from Rancho Camulos

Just released, this publication focuses on the repertoire of the del Valle family of Rancho Camulos, located near Magic Mountain, north of Los Angeles. This is the first segment of the tunes in the larger work, above, to be broken out by the area where they were collected. Click on cover illustration to the left for more details.

El ciego Melquíades — Sheet Music Transcriptions

The Fiddle Tunes of Melquíades Rodríguez:
a tejano fiddler of yesterday

This Texas-Mexican fiddler recorded in San Antonio, Texas from 1935 until about 1950. His popular and lively style fiddle-based dance music was about to succumb to the post World War II trend for louder and flashier sounds. As the fiddle was replaced by the accordion in Tex-Mex music, these fiddle tunes faded from the popular scene. Click on cover illustration to the right for more details.

Kenny Hall’s Music Book

Old-Time Music for Fiddle and Mandolin

Once again available is one of Vykki’s previous projects in documenting traditional music in California: the classic Kenny Hall’s Music Book, published by Mel Bay Publications — a collection of California old-time music and reminiscences from Kenny Hall, acclaimed fiddler, mandolin player, and California living treasure.

For folk musicians who don’t read music, Kenny’s stories are as compelling as his music. And a journey through this book takes the reader not only into the often forgotten world of old-time music in California, but also into Kenny’s experiences growing up and coming of age in the institutional blind community from the late 1920s through the 1950s — when music was considered vocational training for blind children. Click on cover illustration to the left for more details.

For more information about Kenny Hall, go to:
http://kennyhallband.com/

Mariachi Sherman

Vykki was instrumental in creating the music program at Sherman Heights Community Center in San Diego. She teaches Mariachi violin classes for students ranging in age from five years old to adult. Starting January 2009, these classes are hosted at Our Lady’s School in the neighborhood of Sherman Heights.

Los californios^® is a registered trademark belonging to San Diego Friends of Old-Time Music, Inc.,
a California non-profit corporation.

Contact Los californios^® at info@loscalifornios.com.