As successful as he’s been, Juanito has never even seen any of his fans. He’s been blind since birth.
SAN ANTONIO — He’s an accomplished accordionist, and has mastered multiple musical instruments, playing professionally before he was 10 years old.
Some see Juanito Castillo as a prodigy, others a virtuoso. But he sees himself as one-of-a-kind, who won’t let anything obscure his creative vision. Danny Hermosillo introduces us to San Antonio’s own musical marvel.
Sunday night at Jaime’s Place, the Tejano faithful gather to hear a local favorite, the Westside Experiment, featuring Juanito Castillo.
While he’s best know for his accordion playing, this night Juanito changes the tempo, playing mostly jazz fusion on his keyboard.
“So I took my keyboard and I did I did me, I did me, me. You know what I, what I do best,” said Castillo.
Juanito has played to his own beat all of his life, doing things others say he couldn’t or shouldn’t do.
“Let me just go against the establishment and let me be me and weird the people out. And I hope that’s what I did,” said Castillo.
As successful as he’s been, Juanito has never even seen any of his fans. He’s been blind since birth.
Like many who are visually impaired, he was drawn to music at a young age.
“So when I was three years old, my dad was just dabbling on the guitar. He’s doing simple strumming there. Something sort of like this, I got behind the guitar there and sat on his lap and started doing the same right-hand strumming while he was doing the doing the chord structure,” said Castillo.
“Every little instrument that he got? He learned, he played,” said Juanito’s mother, Guilermina Castillo. “His toys were musical instruments. He would sit down and play the little keyboard, he would try to get music out of it.
He eventually mastered 14 instruments, then expanded to studio equipment so he could have a hand in the entire recording process.
“A lot of the times what’ll happen is I’ll just get a melody or some kind of phrase in my head, and so I’ll hear the back beat to it. And so I’ll walk into the studio and I’ll lay down the drums lay down the bass, lay down the guitars, whatever else is going to go on top of it,” said Castillo. “And then around that I’ll usually do my lyrics.”
Recently Juanito Castillo was inducted into the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame, enshrining him along such legendary artists as La Mafia, Little Joe and his mentor and friend, accordionist Steve Jordan.
“It definitely started as a mentorship, grew into a beautiful friendship and he definitely taught me a lot of the higher end of the music scene,” said Castillo. “And as far as how to keep up with the big boys, because at the time I was still 14, 15. I was still finding myself.”
Juanito played drums for Jordan and filled in for him on accordion when Steve was battling liver cancer. he passed away in 2010.
“It was a great experience. One, I would definitely not trade for the world,” said Castillo.
Meanwhile back at Jaime’s Place, Juanito doesn’t disappoint, jamming on the squeezebox for an encore
While he makes it look effortless, Juanito says he stumbled plenty of times before mastering his craft. his advice to other would-be musicians?
“Number one, don’t give up if you don’t get the first, or second, or 10th time around, don’t give up. But don’t stress yourself. There’s a mid ground in there, and if you can find that mid ground, you’ll be just fine,” said Castillo.
Juanito Castillo just celebrated his 36th birthday. If you want to catch him live, he will be performing at Jaime’s Place on West Commerce on Wednesday, April 30th.