Accordionist Pedro Ayala was one of the respected performers of norteño and conjunto music, playing music from the time he was a young child. Although he originally preferred the guitar, he decided to concentrate on the accordion after his accordionist brother Francisco was murdered in 1928. He turned full-time professional in his mid-twenties, playing throughout the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. In the late '40s, he made his first records and recorded often in subsequent years for a variety of labels. Some of his work from the late '60s and early '70s, as well as a few sides from the late '40s, are on the Arhoolie CD compilation El Monarca Del Acordeon. ~ Richie Unterberger