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El Chicano Rocks On!
Topics: El Chicano, Bakersfield, history, band, latin rock, 2008, Viva Tirado, Freddie Sanchez, Mickey Lespron, Andre Baeza, John Deluna, Jerry Salsa, Ersi Arvizu
Posted by matt Wed May 28, 2008 23:43:15 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Location: 3805 N. Chester, Bakersfield, CA 93301

El Chicano Rocks On!
After all these years, 'band' of friends from East LA - El Chicano - still keepin' it real. Appearing at Stramler Park, June 1!


El Chicano 2008, L to R: Jerry Salas, Freddie Sanchez, Bobby Espinosa, Rudy Regalado. Photo by Eddie Rouse

By Matt Muñoz
MÁS staff

Author Henry David Thoreau once said, “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

Those famous words have never been more appropriate than when telling the story of Latin rock originators El Chicano — a band of friends from East L.A. who, practically overnight in 1970, went from nightclub jammin’ to the world stage.

Performing live at the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Latin Food Festival and 10th annual Menudo Cook-Off on Sunday, June 1, at Stramler Park — most fans of the band might be taken aback when they hear their story.

No revolutionary origins in the movimiento of the ’70s, no involvement in protests or politics … just rockin’ and jazzin’ after hours.

How could that be with a name like “El Chicano?”

“El Chicano is an extension of the original band — The VIPs, a band I started in ’67-’68,” explained El Chicano bassist and manager, Fred Sanchez, via telephone from his current home in Cave Creek, Ariz. “Then, in 1970, we recorded the hit, ‘Viva Tirado,’ and we became El Chicano.”



Describing the El Chicano sound as “complex simple,” you can just as easily apply that to the band’s history — all of which stands as a statement to the people and culture from which the band’s name is derived.

“As The VIPs, we used to play at a supper club called Kabuki Lounge in Los Angeles, just off Crenshaw in the late ’60s,” said Sanchez, 60. “We played R&B, Top-40 dance music, but during dinner we played jazz instrumentals.”


El Chicano in the '70s

With Sanchez on bass and vocals; Bobby Espinoza, keyboards; Mickey Lespron, guitar; John De Luna, drums; Andre Baeza, congas; and friend Ersi Arvizu jumping into the mix with a ballad or two on vocals, the band was a hit on the L.A. live music scene.

“We’d have people lined up down the block every night,” remembered Sanchez.

Working tirelessly six nights a week, the band continued going through their catalog of jazz standards, re-worked with a modern feel. Among the dinner repertoire was a cover of the Gerald Wilson jazz classic, “Viva Tirado,” a song inspired by Mexican bullfighter, Jose Ramon Tirado.

One night after a show, the band was offered a free recording session with the help of Espinoza’s brother.



“We’d always wanted to record,” remembered Sanchez. “It was about 4 a.m. and we went to this studio in Hollywood. They had everything set up for us there. The engineer asked us to play something to get the levels checked, and I suggested ‘Viva Tirado.’”

Partied out, but with enough mellow enthusiasm for a warm up take, the band performed the song until the session went south — the recording machine broke down and the band went home to sleep.

“When that happened, we just kept moving on as we always had,” said Sanchez. “Then, one day I was driving in San Diego and I heard this song come on — ‘Hey, that sounds like my band!’”


El Chicano today...

As fate would have it, the warm up track recorded back in L.A. had been released to radio without permission, but that wasn’t all that happened much to the shock of Sanchez.

“They were playing ‘Viva Tirado’ on the radio, and the DJ goes, ‘Here’s a brand new song, it’s a big hit for a group called ‘El Chicano,’” he said. “I contacted our management company — someone put our sound out there and renamed the band!”

Officially still The VIPs, Sanchez and crew were staring at a record deal within days with the option to go with the name El Chicano from record execs.



“We became El Chicano through a marketing aspect of what we were and how the record deal happened,” explained Sanchez. “I’ve done so many interviews and there’s a lot of finger-pointing about it. My positive take is we were named by fate. Because it’s one thing getting there, but it’s another thing staying there.”

Swooped up by the train of fame, the ’70s were a quick ride for this young band of talented Latinos, most of whom had never left Southern California.

“We were playing Kabuki’s on a Saturday, and the following week we were on a plane to New York as a group for the first time on our way to open at the Apollo Theater,” laughed Sanchez. “They didn’t even say our name right. The crowd must’ve thought we were a black group, because we had a certain sound. We came out there, long-haired Latinos, with a girl singer who wasn’t even going to sing, and their expressions were like, ‘What?’”



On a historical note, El Chicano was the first Mexican American band to play on the Apollo stage. After their NY appearance, the band released its first full length LP on KAPP Records (later sold to MCA) in 1970, and went on to record six, full-length albums with hits such as a cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl,” with lead vocals by Sanchez, and the original “Tell Her She’s Lovely,” sung by guitarist Jerry Salas, who, like well-known percussionist Rudy Regalado, is part of the extended El Chicano family.

In conversation, it’s impossible to mention El Chicano without talking about their version of the Latin ballad, “Sabor A Mi,” sung by former vocalist Ersi Arvizu and included as an album track off of the band’s second LP “Revolucion” in ’71. Not a hit upon its release, the song has become the standard for generation of Latin rock bands to learn.


Ersi Arvizu today

“She sang it so well, we asked her to record it,” remembered Sanchez. “The producer was also Neil Diamond’s, so we recorded at Neil’s studio with the benefit of having his producer. He definitely captured a beautiful vocal sound with our arrangement and flavor. It’s kind of taken on a life of its own.”

Like all bands who’ve been thrust quickly into the limelight, El Chicano struggled to keep itself moving through the tail end of the rockin’ ’70s with the entrance of the disco era. Members would be replaced, disband, and every once in awhile, get that calling to step to the stage once again for a reunion.

But as far as Sanchez is concerned, keyboardist Bobby Espinoza has always been the embodiment of the band’s spirit.

“Bobby has always been a true, dedicated musician — to music and El Chicano, that’s all he’s ever done since he came into it at 16 years old,” he said. “When I left the band, I turned it over to Bobby and Mickey, but Bobby kept it going after that imploded — even to the point where he ended up being out there by himself!”

Never completely “by himself,” the band has managed to fill the stage with some of Latin rock’s newer stars, including Bakersfield’s Marco Reyes, percussionist for the band WAR, who also sports some ’70s-style curly locks. Reyes will join the band onstage June 1.


Marcos Reyes

“Marcos blends in perfectly with us,” said Sanchez. “I used to say he’s a miniature Andre (Baeza.) I’d tell him, ‘Hey, you look like the way we did back in the ‘70s!”

Not forgotten by original and new fans who’ve embraced the El Chicano sound as an important part of music history alongside the likes of Richie Valens, Santana, and Malo, among others, Sanchez now looks to spark new fire into the name with the upcoming release of a band documentary, and hopefully some new music.

“I feel that we’ve worn the name El Chicano proudly all these years and gave it some justification by continuing on with the music that we put on it,” he said.

On the Web: www.elchicanomusic.com

CATCH EL CHICANO LIVE ON JUNE 1ST!!


Story originally printed in Mas Magazine, 5-30-08

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