Pete Escovedo live

Latin Beat Magazine, June-July, 2003 by Rudy Mangual

Native Californian Pete Escovedo was raised in Oakland in a home where his father, an amateur singer/guitarist, passed along his love for Latin music to his children. At an early age Pete discovered and cultivated a love and passion for jazz, which soon led him to embrace Latin jazz. Today, Escovedo leads one of the top ensembles in the country, performing their own unique brand of Latin jazz. The group is a mixture of musicians from Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area plus daughter Sheila E. and sons Peter Michael and Juan Escovedo, all three percussionists. Collectively they are the latest evolution of the Escovedo musical family dynasty that continues to deliver a colorful and powerful concoction of Latin rhythms with elements of jazz, R&B and funk that pleases aficionados of good sound and vibes everywhere. Following is a brief chat with Pete Escovedo in Los Angeles prior to the release of his new CD, Pete Escovedo Live!

Rudy Mangual: When did you start your musical career?

Pete Escovedo: As a teen, around the time I was in junior high school and throughout high school, I played in several neighborhood groups. But after graduating from high school I was lucky to start working with the Carlos Federico Band. Federico was a Panamanian pianist and bandleader popular in the Bay Area during that time. I had just turned 18 years old.

RM: Did you begin playing Latin rock music soon after that?

PE: No, after working with Federico's band, I formed the Escovedo Brothers Band, headed by my brother Coke and me. It was a four horns dance band that played everything from salsa music to R&B as well as some Latin jazz. What eventually happened was that as we branched more and more into Latin jazz throughout the years, the band became a sextet which we renamed The Escovedo Latin Jazz Sextet. With the smaller sextet we were able to play many of the jazz clubs in the Bay Area, rapidly making a name for ourselves in the scene. Then the rock scene started invading the Bay Area with the popularity of Carlos Santana's band, followed by many other bands such as Malo and Sapo. My brother Coke joined the Santana band and after several tours returned home and asked me to join the group because percussionist Mike Carabello was leaving the band. So I joined the Santana band and we toured throughout Europe, the States and Japan. Upon returning home one day, after what became our last tour with Santana, my brother and I decided it was time to form our own band again. So we searched around for the right players and ended up with a big band of 16 members. I named the new band Azteca. Together we recorded two albums and became part of that historical rock movement of the 1970s.

RM: Who would you name as your biggest Latin influence?

PE: Tito Puente was the man! My brother and I met Puente when we were young so his music and playing was a big part of our musical upbringing and development. I was also influenced by the music and playing of Mongo Santamaría, Willie Bobo and Armando Peraza.

RM: Do you consider yourself a part of what is called the "West Coast Latin jazz sound" by the historians of this music?

PE: I think I am part of its history because of what Cal Tjader did in the West Coast as well as the Durán Brothers, Benny Velarde, Eddie Cano and others like myself of the same age, same environment and throughout the same period of time.

RM: What prompted you to do a live recording with this latest release?

PE: I really wanted to do a studio recording, which is always safer and easier, but the label suggested a live recording and convinced me to do it, which turned out to be a lot of fun. It was recorded live in San Diego with a cast of players from Los Angeles and the Bay Area featuring Sheila and my two sons.

RM: What can you tell us about the material played in the session?

PE: There are a total of four new selections on the recording as well as several fan favorites like Azteca Mozambique from the Azteca days, Viva Cepeda and Pete Kelly's Blues in honor of the late Cal Tjader, the funky mambo of Esta Noche, the deep urban groove of Whatcha Gonna Do, the Tito Rodríguez classic Suena Tu Bongó, a tune I co-wrote with the late Tito Puente called Ah Ah, and a 12-minute medley of Escovedo favorites named The E Medley.