Land of a Thousand Dances
A good weekend for El Chicano fans
By Bliss 07/16/2009
It’s a good weekend for local music fans to indulge their taste for Chicano rock. Fans of El Chicano should be especially pleased that the East LA legends will be performing with original members Bobby Espinosa and Freddie Sanchez, plus Jerry Salas and Rudy Regalado from the early ’70s lineup, when they hit the Pershing Square stage Saturday night.
El Chicano first came together as the VIPs in the late 1960s, with a soul-rock-funk-jazz fusion that elicited numerous comparisons to Santana — an obvious influence. They’d changed their name and established a solid regional following by the time they released their debut album, 1970’s “Viva Tirado,” which put the band on the map when the instrumental title track landed on multiple Billboard charts. Three years later came their biggest hit, “Tell Her She’s Lovely,” which remains a classic; their recordings of songs like “Brown Eyed Girl” and “What’s Going On” were regionally popular as well.
They’d gone through several personnel changes and were touring Asia by the time the “Donnie Brasco” and “Mi Vida Loca” soundtracks introduced their music to new generations in the 1990s. In 1998 El Chicano issued an album of new songs, “Painting the Moment,” but it’s their early ’70s catalogue, with a mix of organ-fueled soul, electric rock guitar solos, jazz instrumentals and Afro-Cubano grooves, that has cemented their place in local and national rock history. It’s a sound that’s aged quite well.
For those with more academic interest in Chicano rock, authors David Reyes and Tom Waldman will be visiting Vroman’s Bookstore Saturday afternoon to sign copies of their 1998 book “Land of a Thousand Dances: Chicano Rock ’n’ Roll From Southern California.” They’ll be joined by punk veterans Los Illegals, who brought the early ’80s punk explosion to the Eastside with their club Vex. Revised and reissued in paperback this spring by University of New Mexico Press, “Land of a Thousand Dances” offers amply researched cultural and political context for the achievements of El Chicano and other Eastside legends such as Ritchie Valens, Cannibal & the Headhunters, Tierra and Los Lobos, showing how they overcame prejudice and, in several cases, lack of musical training to contribute so much to American pop.
David Reyes, Tom Waldman and Los Illegals appear at Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, at
4 p.m. Saturday. Call (626) 449-5320 for details. El Chicano and Upground give a free concert from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Pershing Square, on Hill Street between 5th and 6th streets in downtown LA. Call (213) 847-4970 for more info. elchicanomusic.com, upgroundmusic.com.
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