Biography
I was born in East Los Angeles on April 1st 1965. Basically at the corner of the 60 & 710 fwys! There's a hospital called Santa Marta Hospital north-west of the two freeways. It was a tiny hospital at the time. My brother Claudio just got his first car a 49 Ford sedan which by the way, was the car that took my mom to the hospital. I was due on March 31st but the April Fool joke had me breathing smog on April 1st. The ironic thing was it was the same hospital my father died in. For many years we lived near Whittier Blvd and I witnessed the East L.A. riots on August 29, 1970. I remember billowing smoke three blocks away and wanting to see what was going on. My mom came running after me since I’ve always had a insatiable curiosity about life and what makes people do what they do. Years later we moved to Boyle Heights and I actually slept through famous 1971 Sylmar earthquake. I woke up on the aftershock. When our last move to East L.A. in 1973 right off of Whittier Blvd. My sister in law Elia gave me my first guitar at the age of 9 years. It was a cracked classical nylon string guitar that I played for a few months until it imploded into a cloud of dust. Claudio knew I loved playing music so when he took a trip to Mexico he bought me a cheap guitar from the town of Paracho to replace the old one. I played in all the school bands through Jr. High to High School. Eventually I bought a Silvertone guitar just like the one seen with Jimmy Page and an amp that I still have to this day made for Macy's dept store from the 1950’s. It cost me five bucks at a yard sale. But I could turn it up and get lots of natural distortion! During that time I also played in a rock band called Crimson. We played all through Jr. High and High School. I sang lead vocals and picked up bass, which was a real challenge, but I managed to become a good singer. I also played with my brother Joe in a wonderful Latin Americana folk music group called Los Huicholos. We explored music from from Mexico down to the tip of Argentenia. You could say that I was wide eyed with all kinds of music from Los Folkoristas to Jimi Hendrix with a twist of Brahms and Bootsy Collins.
A brief list of my musical influences from day one to present day:
The Beatles, Johannes Brahms, Rachmaninoff, DEVO, Led Zeppelin, Mental As
Anything, Level 42, Inxs, Carlos Santana, Paco Peña, The Prentenders,
Bob Dylan, The Buzzcocks, Richard O'Brien (The Rocky Horror Picture Show),Wes
Montgomery, MIles Davis, Luis Bonfa, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Fear, Fantomas,
Mr. Bungle, Squarepusher, Hank Williams Sr, Heart, Paul Weller, Billy Bragg,
Trio Los Panchos, Los Lobos, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Stan Kenton, Van Halen
(early), Crosby Stills & Nash, Cat Stevens, Mike Stern, John Scofield,
Scott Henderson, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Prince, Lee
Morgan, Hank Mobley, Los Folkristas, Strunz & Farah, Paco De Lucia, Michael
Crawford, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Pat Metheny,
The Bad Plus, Medeski Martin & Wood, Meshell Nedeogocello, John Zorn,
Frank Zappa, Mike Ness, Bootsy Collins, Jaco Pastorius, John Denver, Rage
Against The Machine, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Neil Young, U2, Wynton Marsalis,
Howlin Wolfe, Muddy Waters, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock,
The Rolling Stones, The Who, Peter Gabriel, Henry Mancini, Alan Parsons Project,
Geddy Lee, James Jamerson,Diagble Planets, Andy Narell, The Yardbirds, The
Birds, Red Cross, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Nina Hagen, Doc Watson, Alice
& Chains, John Mellencamp, Art Of Noise, Vangelis, Tomita, Jeff Linsky,
The Hellcasters, Link Ray and his Raymen, Jerry Goldsmith, Edith Piaf, Neil
Schon, Bjork, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ray Brown, Joe Pass, Lyle Lovette,
Joe Jackson, Rimsky Korsakov, Jerry Herman, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, Phillip
Glass, Ornette Coleman, Alison Kraus, Elvis Costello, Woody Shaw, Buddy Rich,
Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Social Distortion, Jeff Beck, Gerald Wilson, The
Cramps, The Gypsy Kings, Charlie Parker, Carl Orf, Paul Young, Howard Jones,
Queen, Berlin, Screaming Headless Torsos, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Ravi
Shankar, Radiohead, Rufus Wainwright, John Coltrane, Cachao, Dixie Chicks,
John McLaughlin, J.S. Bach, Dimtri Shostakovich and a that's where I'll stop
since I could write a hundred more. One thing you can say is that I’m
no musical zealot. In the scheme of existence, all good music is valid and
has it’s place and we’re lucky to have so much diversity in the
world. It's not a coincidence that "Super String Theory" has music
references. This art form crosses many planes of thought, emotions, existence
and love that we're just starting to learn about.
I took up singing around 15 years old and I was quite bad for about a year
but I kept trying and eventually improved until I could sing quite well and
receive compliments for it. My friend Jeff Perez used to make fun of my singing
until about a few years later he apologized for making those comments. Then
I knew I was on the right track. During that time I was driving my parents
nuts with distorted guitar and singing all the time in a 500 square foot one
bedroom house behind a noisy Mexican cantina my dad worked at under the table.
We were about as poor as it got for the most part. But my dad eventually realized
that I was serious about learning music and bought me two guitars my senior
year. Before that he regarded a music career as a waste of time. His idea
of a musician was players traveling from smelly cantina to a more smelly cantina
to play for tips. One night my junior year, I was leaving to do a rock gig
and I was wearing a French cut t-shirt with black satin overalls with my long
hair! Most glam metal bands were wearing pretty feminine clothes during the
early 80's. He called me a "Maricon" which is Spanish for Faggot.
I tried to tell him that this was the style and girls really dug the clothes.
Thank God I didn't have a famous 80's band or otherwise I would be embarrassed
to see myself in that getup on VH1 where are these bozos now? Yeah I looked
a Mexican "Gallagher". He scratched his head and said don't be home
too late. "But Dad this gig not a night out on the town". I'll be
home around 2 a.m.O.K? My father was a raging alcoholic and it shortened his
life unfortunately. Being a bartender gave him plenty of access to booze I
guess. He was quite charming when he was sober or just one drink in him. But
after a few extra he became the Devil incarnate. Rumor has it when he was
a cop in the early fifties in full view, witnessed his partner execute a poor
man who was the local thief in Juarez, Mexico. (His father and my grandpa
gave him the job because he was the police chief in Juarez). He would only
steal food to eat and right before my dad's partner shot him in the head,
he had begged for his life. It happened so fast my dad didn't see it coming
because some power hungry "Federales" goofed around with the local
petty thieves all the time and my dad didn’t think his partner would
really do it.. My mom believed it freaked out my father very deeply and that's
part of why the family moved to Los Angeles in 1956.But you know how people
interpret history, I would be hurt if the partner was really my dad himself
recanting the event in his head. Knowing my dad, he would never do such a
thing. I remember him having frequent nightmares and now I know why. He was
rightfully tormented if there is such a thing but he could also be a great
father from time to time. He died in early 1994 after a long battle with diabetes.
Honestly he just didn't take care of himself and was about as stubborn as
a mule. He had all the classic lost limbs and kidney failure, blindness etc.
etc. He passed away right around 11 am. I was auditioning for a steel drum
band called Steel Parade led by a dishonest control freak named Phil Carrillo
who years later cost me an unwarranted tax audit. And right at the moment
my dad had his fatal heart attack, my left arm became riddled with pain that
I couldn't play for an hour. And realize I was only 29 years old and I was
in very good shape at that time. I know that time line was correct because
my childhood friend Robert Sepulveda was a Medic with an ambulance Co. nearby.
He heard the call about a heart attack at 759 Williamson Ave. Later when I
arrived to teach lessons later around 2 p.m. My brother Claudio called and
that's when I learned that my Dad had died. My dad might have almost blown
that audition for me unintentionally. So wherever you are "Papã",
I still love you very much. And yes, I did end up getting the gig even after
that incident!
So all during my youth, I became aware of many styles of music. Los Lobos
was a local band unknown to most outside of East Los Angeles. Both my brothers
knew them real well since they all went to Garfield High School at the same
time. Joe played with David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas many times in high school
and taught me a lot of what he had learned. And now they are a part of music
history. I learned about Jarocho, Peruvian and who was John McLaughlin. I
got the Mahavishnu "Birds Of Fire" at ten years old as well as my
brother's Santana, Led Zeppelin and Classics IV LP's. Classical music became
big with me with the works of Brahms and Beethoven. But I had no one to share
that with at school because you would be called a "sissy" and gotten
ridiculed quite badly. Schools in East L.A. didn't promote high society music
unless you were in concert band. I was chosen to play in The Junior Philharmonic
Of Los Angeles directed by Dr. Katz. I played Tuba and was quite good on the
thing sometimes coined “the chick repellent”. When he found out
I also played guitar, he asked me to play the "Elvis Concerto" on
a 50's style guitar for a special concert. Brazilian music also hit me like
a ton of bricks. One of the members of Los Huicholos (The Latin folk music
band my brother had) "Lee Cobin" was from Brazil. From the age of
15 to 18 years I watched him play guitar and fell in love with that style.
The types of chords used created dissonances while maintaining gorgeous melodies
along with sultry and intoxicating lyrics about love, tragedy, lust, and mythology
as in Luis Bonfa's "Black Orpheus". I had one lesson with Duilo
who played with the legendary Carmen Miranda for a few years. I feel very
lucky to have had that kind of exposure. When people ask me what style I play
I get a little annoyed because I want to answer "I play good music"
"That's the style I play!" As you guessed it I'm on a mission to
tour the stylistic world of music. To be a chameleon when I show up to play
a style. Louis Armstrong once said: "There's only two kinds of music,
Good and Bad!”. And I chose "GOOD"!
In 1985 I studied at Mt San Antonio College where I received an AA in music.
I studied with the famous jazz educator Ashley Alexander for two years. He
was a great player and really cared about his students. In 1987 I studied
at Cal State University Los Angeles and studied under great educators like
Bob Curnow, David Buck, William Hill, John Sciavo who was in the Los Angeles
Philharmonic at the time and saxophone great and jazz band director Jeff Bendedict.
In early 1994 I was fortunate to say the least by having the opportunity to
study voice with opera coach/vocalist great "Dr. Maurice Allard".
He was the conductor for the Orange County Master Chorale at that time. Before
that, he has been a premier instructor at Julliard and the French Conservatory.
At first I did group lessons and soon after he invited me to study with him
privately. All those years of studying voice in college and when I learned
from him it all clicked!! I studied with him for almost a year. He passed
away in 1995.God rest his soul. He was the best teacher in my entire life
hands down. I miss him very, very much.
More to come real soon.