Pianist Francisco Téllez, aged 81, will receive the 2026 Bellas Artes Medal in Music this Wednesday, August 12, at the Sala Manuel M. Ponce in the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL) honors a musician who has devoted more than five decades to professionalizing jazz in Mexico.
Téllez is more than a performer. Following the 1968 movement, he founded the first Jazz Workshop at INBAL's Escuela Superior de Música, the seed of what became the country's first undergraduate jazz degree, as he recounted in interviews with La Razón de México and La Crónica de Hoy. His surname carries musical history: he is the grandson of José López Alavez, author of the "Canción Mixteca," and grew up watching his grandfather and father improvise scores for silent films. That heritage, combined with the creative freedom he found in popular music, led him to develop a curriculum now replicated in schools in Chiapas, Ciudad Juárez, and Monterrey.
The musician, who will perform next Friday at the Nola Jazz Club in Coyoacán with the quartet formed by Marie Anne Greenham, Edy Vega, and Salvador Patiño Lara, dedicates the award to "those who have fought" for jazz. He expressed surprise at the recognition: "The whole Bellas Artes world will always prize classical musicians." He is also preparing a tribute to John Coltrane for the 100th anniversary of Coltrane's birth, and maintains that today's scene, fed by young talent, will ensure that "in the future, jazz will be Mexican." In 1967, he played "Take Five" in the film Fando y Lis, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, and five decades later the music that shaped him now carries INBAL's institutional backing.
The ceremony is set for 12:00 at the Sala Manuel M. Ponce. The Friday concert in Coyoacán and the Coltrane tribute mark the next chapter for a musician who, at 81, says his priority is to play live as much as possible.
This article was written with AI assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.