1965 – Domingo Ansotegui
Domingo Ansotegui was born in 1913 in McDermitt, Nevada. He began playing the button accordion at 13 years of age when he quit school and began to herd sheep. Domingo bought a little button accordion and took it with him knowing how bored he would be with all of those sheep. In the sheep camps, he learned different Basque tunes from the herders who came from the Basque Country. The other herders would sing the songs to Domingo, and he would learn them by ear on his accordion. Jim Jausoro and Dom were longtime friends and would often play together. By this time, they were both playing the larger and more versatile piano accordions.
They did not know a lot of the same songs, so each would take turns playing accordion with Domingo's uncle, Joe Ansotegui on the pandereta (tambourine). After Joe stopped playing in the 1950s, Jimmy and Dom would switch off with one on the accordion and the other on the tambourine. Dom first started playing drums when Jimmy bought a small drum set from the local pawn shop and asked him to play them for the Emmett Basque Dance in 1956. Domingo continued playing tambourine and drums for the Jim Jausoro Orchestra, with the Oinkari Basque Dancers and with the young Basque dancers (Boise'ko Gasteak) until his death in 1984.1
1 Information kindly provided by Dan Ansotegui.
1956, Nov. – Domingo Ansotegui's First Drum Lesson – JUHC, Bk #57, 00362.
1949 – Domingo Ansotegui on accordion at the Song of the Basque float.
1960s – Ansotegui, Jausoro, Landaluce.
1962 – Jausoro, Ansotegui & Children Dancing.
1980 – Jim & Domingo.