Keeping the Music Alive
In Good Hands
by Phaedra Greenwood
Jenny Vincent photoby Phaedra Greenwood
People were gathering in Arroyo Hondo for the summer solstice celebration at New Buffalo, a one-time commune back in the 60s. A white-haired lady carefully made her way up the path, leaning on her walker. She was casually dressed in blue slacks and a striped blue shirt, wearing a straw hat with her hair tied in two ponytails. Friendly hands helped her into a waiting chair and opened the case at her feet.
Out came her beautiful old Honer 32-base accordion. She slipped her arms through its straps, her gnarled hands holding the instrument with the familiarity of decades of music. Jenny Vincent was ready to play.
As Vincent deftly fingered the keys, a lively Spanish folk tune brought dancers to their feet. The other two members of the Jenny Vincent Trio, Rick Klein on guitar and Audrey Davis on violin, joined the tune on queue. The dancers followed each other in a spiraling line, through an arch of arms, laughing as they went.
“It was a primitive place: the stream, the mountains behind us, the extensive views, the smell of pine trees after the rain, the air, the blue sky. I loved everything about it.”
This extraordinary woman, who lives 15 miles north of Taos in the quiet village of San Cristobal, has been keeping folk music alive in New Mexico for over 50 years. From grade school programs to performances at the state capitol, her name is synonymous with traditional New Mexican music.
She was born Deborah Jeannette Hill in Northfield, Minnesota almost a century ago. Her mother’s family was from Rhode Island. Her father was a minister and a professor of Biblical literature at Carleton College in her hometown. In school Vincent throve on singing games, folk songs and dances, and at an early age learned to play piano by ear.
She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in piano and composition, but her primary interest was always in popular and folk music. In 1936 she came to New Mexico with her first husband, Dan Wells. The trip was an unexpected twist to an earlier visit to Europe.
“We were the first couple who did what’s now called ‘the Lawrence Trek,’ bicycling around England and Germany, visiting places where D.H. Lawrence had been,” Vincent says as she recounts the old tale.
In Heidelberg they met Elsa Von Richthofen, Lawrence’s sister, who must have written to Frieda Lawrence, his widow, about the Wells couple. “Out of the blue we got a letter inviting us to come and visit Frieda in New Mexico,” Vincent recalls. “I had never been to the Southwest. Frieda was very interesting, a really dynamic person. We got to know her quite well. We spent ten days in the ‘buffalo cabin’ where the Lawrences had lived when they first came to San Cristobal.”
In Heidelberg they met Elsa Von Richthofen, Lawrence’s sister, who must have written to Frieda Lawrence, his widow, about the Wells couple.
Vincent fell in love with the land. “It was a primitive place: the stream, the mountains behind us, the extensive views, the smell of pine trees after the rain, the air, the blue sky. I loved everything about it.”
They bought an old ranch, fixed it up and decided to share it with children back East. “Work camps were a popular idea at the time,” Vincent says. Wells, a Harvard man who had taught at a private school, had the contacts. They set up a work camp for boys and girls who came out for the summer to learn how to make adobe bricks, work on the road, and participate in cultural field trips.
In the summer of 1940 they approached the community of San Cristobal about starting a high school. The Taos County school administration asked if they would also take grades five through eight. The San Cristobal Valley School opened in the fall. Locals paid with piñon nuts or a sack of potatoes. Boarding students, who came from as far away as Chicago and Boston, paid tuition.
In 1941 they had a son they named Lawrence after the famous author. “Frieda was his godmother,” Vincent says. Little Larry was content to play by himself and sleep in his playpen while they were busy with the school, Vincent says. Then came World War II; the school closed and Dan Wells volunteered for the army.
While her husband was in the service, Vincent traveled to the East Coast and lived in New York City for two years where she had “some marvelous music experiences.” As part of the American Theater Wing, she sang in every military, naval and veterans’ hospital in the area, including a hospital for amputees in Atlantic City and even a suicide ward, she recalls.
One of the highlights of her long performing career came when she played with Pete Seeger at a hootenanny in New York City. She also appeared in Boston with Woody Guthrie and Tom Glazer. In the fall of 1948 she found herself on stage again with Seeger in a concert at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. But her most cherished memory is when she was “tapped” at a performance in Boulder, Colorado, to accompany on piano her childhood idol Paul Robeson. He handed her the music and announced to the audience they hadn’t had time to rehearse, “but we’ll do the best we can.” “Afterward he thanked me for giving him such a strong backup,” she says with a smile.
Paul Robeson handed her the music and announced to the audience they hadn’t had time to rehearse, “but we’ll do the best we can.”
Vincent and Wells divorced after the war and she met Craig Vincent, a handsome left-wing radical and director of the Rocky Mountain Council for Social Action. A year later she and Vincent were married. In 1949 they opened the ranch in San Cristobal as a guest ranch and then a summer camp. “Every Saturday we had community night with singing and folk dancing,” she says.
In 1967 they adopted two orphaned brothers, her former husband’s nephews. Today Vincent has four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Through it all, this upbeat lady never stopped singing and playing or collecting folk songs. “Alex Cruz, who was a teacher at the Arroyo Hondo Elementary School, gave me one of my first bilingual Latin-American folk song books,” she says. “That little book introduced me to cultural folk dances and songs I’d never heard before.” Today she has ten notebooks filled with folk songs from around the world.
From 1956 to 1958 she made her first bilingual recordings on Cantemos Records. She produced two 78s and two 10-inch LPs. “My records were used for many years to teach Spanish in the schools in Los Alamos, Taos County and all over the country. They still sell,” she says.
In partnership with Joan Reno, Vincent owned a music store in Taos for eight years called Taos Music Center. In 1961 they started Taos Recording and Publishing, which produced eight small records of Taos folk music and two LPs. Vincent and Ollie Mae Ray, a folk dance specialist, published a book called Bailes y Musica para una Fiesta and the Trio de Taos produced a record called Musica para una Fiesta, which is now on CD.
Over the years Vincent has received some of the recognition she deserves. “In 1977 the Trio de Taos won a blue ribbon at the state fair for the best interpretation of traditional New Mexican folk dance music,” she says. In January, 2005, she played at UNM’s Zimmerman Library and received an award for her lifelong commitment to cultural activism in New Mexico. UNM’s University Libraries Chicano/Hispano/Latina Research Program joined with the school’s Institute of Research Program Studies, Latin and Iberian Institute and the Arts of the Americas Institute to honor her work in music and dance. Vincent will also be included in the New Mexico Scenic Roadway Marker Program to honor outstanding women of New Mexico.
Vincent’s energy and enthusiasm continue to amaze everyone around her. At the opening of the D.H. Lawrence Festival in Taos this fall, Vincent entertained the audience by singing a capella, in a clear and vigorous voice, one of Lawrence’s favorite folk songs. An inspiration to younger generations, Jenny Vincent is still keeping folk music alive.
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