LATIN JAZZ LEGEND
PETE ESCOVEDO
& His Orchestra
IN CONCERT!
March 18 – 20, 2010 • 8pm
Legendary Percussionist Pete Escovedo is an artist who broke down the barriers between Smooth Jazz, Salsa, Latin Jazz and contemporary music. His name has been synonymous in the music industry for more than 50 years.
As a solo artist Pete has recorded 6 acclaimed albums on Concord Records, 1 album on EsGo Records, and 2 albums on Fantasy Records with his daughter Sheila E.
Escovedo, along with such seasoned bandleaders as Eddie Palmieri, Poncho Sanchez and Ray Barretto, is today viewed as one of the standard bearers of Latin jazz. “There are so many great young players who are carrying on the tradition,” he says happily. “My job, as I see it, is to keep on doing what Tito, Mongo, Cal, Willie and others would be doing if they were still with us today. At the same time, we need to experiment and expand the genre.” The younger guys will see to that. But for Escovedo right now things couldn’t be better. “The audience is there, and it’s worldwide,” he enthuses.
A California native, Escovedo was raised in Oakland. His father was an amateur singer and guitarist who passed along a love of Latin music, while young Pete discovered and cultivated a love of jazz largely on his own. Early on, he embraced the Latin jazz style, steadily building a reputation in the Bay Area as part of The Escovedo Brothers Latin Jazz Sextet.
Together, Pete and Coke (who passed away a number of years ago) became the most in-demand rhythm section in Northern California. "Eventually we thought maybe it's time to put our own band together," Pete says. The Escovedo Brothers Latin Jazz Sextet grew into one of the most popular Latin jazz combos in California. The addition of Pete's younger brother Phil Escovedo on bass cemented the family band, until the late '60s when guitarist Carlos Santana hired Coke and Pete for his hugely popular group. "That was our entry into the Latin rock scene," says Pete. Pete toured with Santana for three years, performing internationally and playing on three Santana albums: Moonflower, Oneness and Inner Secrets. Eventually, though, Pete and Coke felt the need to branch out on their own again and in 1970 they founded the band Azteca, a cooperative 14-piece Latin big band. Azteca recorded two albums for Columbia, an eponymous debut and Pyramid of the Moon. "Those were the days of Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago, the big band sound," Pete says, "and we wanted to have that same kind of thing."
Today, Escovedo leads what is widely considered one of the finest ensembles in Latin jazz, a mix of musicians from both Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Since moving to L.A. he is working more with daughter Sheila E. “When we perform in Southern California, I always check to see if she wants the gig,” Pete says. “Although with my group, she works for scale!” For Live!, which was recorded in San Diego during the summer of 2002, Escovedo’s sons, percussionist son Juan and brother Peter Michael, joined the ensemble of talented Latin jazz musicians on-stage to make this a truly swinging family affair. The end result is a joyous concoction of Latin rhythms with elements of jazz, R&B and funk that is hard to resist. Latin jazz fan around the world will rejoice.
$28 • $30 PURCHASE TICKETS PeteEscovedo.com |
