AUSTIN, Texas — It was called “big band” music back in the day: The smooth sounds of a large orchestra playing popular tunes designed to be danced to.
In the 1940s, “big band” tunes were the dominant form of popular music entertainment. And although the times and tastes have drastically changed since, there’s a dance band in Austin that still honors the big bands of the past – and even throws in a modern-day Latino music beat from time to time.
Meet the Nash Hernandez Orchestra, making music since 1949 and still going strong.
Although musicians have come and gone over the years, the orchestra is still in demand for weddings, parties and regular monthly gigs at Donn’s Depot in Austin.
It all goes back to Nash Hernandez, an Austinite who followed his dream to make music in the style of the popular bands he heard as a young man. He would become one of the city’s best known musicians.
Hernandez died in 1994. Today, his son, Ruben Hernandez, helps keep the program going.
Ruben Hernandez said it’s a legacy that he’s proud to carry on. And while the band of today plays for a diverse audience, he said it was rough going in the years right after his dad formed the orchestra.
“There was a lot of discrimination back then,” Ruben Hernandez said. “Dad told me he tried to join the musicians' union but wasn’t let in because he was Hispanic.”
Other times, Nash Hernandez had to hide the orchestra’s Hispanic name in newspaper ads promoting performances.
“They would go by names like ‘The Jim Nash Band’ because he was Hispanic,” Ruben Hernandez said.
Today, he said everyone seems to enjoy their music and discrimination is no longer the problem the orchestra once faced.
The musicians get together regularly in a South Austin home to practice and to get ready for their next public event. Their biggest event will come next year when they celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of an orchestra that never missed a beat and that still offers the kind of music that people want to dance to.