Glenn Symmonds on the 70’s Bay Area, playing drums and touring with Coke Escovedo
© Jim McCarthy August 2009

Glenn Symmonds was originally a native of and went to High School in Spokane Washington, his mother originated from the city of Liverpool (home of The Beatles) and he toured in later years in the UK with a band called The Untouchables, (a second wave ska band) supporting well-known chart toppers, the Birmingham based band UB40.

One early influence was to have a direct and overwhelming influence on Symmonds’ life, “Tower of Power used to travel through the border of Washington and Idaho, on the state line. There was a place where you get in to the bars there, so we’d all go to catch the groups coming through. Tower, Elvin Bishop, Cold Blood, lots of the Bay Area bands. I was drawn to the Bay Area from listening to David Garibaldi’s playing with Tower of Power. We became friends and he invited me over to listen to him practice in his hotel room and go over the stuff he was studying with his teacher Chuck Brown. I knew then that the minute I graduated, I wanted to take lessons with Chuck Brown. That was my goal!”

He was true to his word, Symmonds graduated and leaving Spokane at seventeen years old….. “ I knocked on Chuck Brown’s door, I had a U-haul trailer filled with my stuff out on the street and I’m knocking on his door. He opened the door and introduced myself, I said I’ve driven 1300 miles to take lessons from him and he says, my teaching schedule Is pretty full for the next year (laughs!) I didn’t even have place to live, all my stuff is in the van outside and the motor’s running. I said to him, I came here to study with you and I shamed Chuck Brown into giving me drum lessons.”

Chuck Brown as well as mentoring hundreds of drummers also taught significantly Michael Shrieve as well as Terry Bozzio (who played with Azteca) and of course Garibaldi.

Symmonds plugged into the Bay Area scene fairly quickly, he attended his first audition and remembers, “ My first audition was going down to a club in Berkeley and Linda Tillery and The Loading Zone were playing and I was friendly with Bill Meeker. He was drummer with Elvin Bishop. Coincidentally I had met him before at the state line when Elvin had come thru, so I asked him
If I could sit in, as drummers do! They were a very cool soul and R&B type band with great vocals, Vince Denim on saxophone, (who went onto play with Elvis) they had a great groove, they also had Dougie Rauch on bass with them. Bill was a phenomenal drummer, they turned round and said “ Do you know What Is Hip”. I had worn out the grooves on my vinyl record, learning that song. I wore that vinyl white, I just knew it inside and out. I had to put a coin on top of the needle to get it to stay down while playing the record, I’d played it so much. I used to slow the tracks down to 16 rpm, it was like W-O-O-O-AAAHHHHHH, very low sounding and demonic (laughs). That’s how I learned those Tower tunes. They didn’t know that I knew that song like the back of my wife’s ass!
So I had practiced them also with my friend Dave Garibaldi, studied ’em further with Chuck Brown and David had written out those parts too. First nite in Oakland and they call off What Is Hip and I nailed it. They turned around and grinned at me – just look at that kid play! It was a great entrée into that world. In the audience were some people that offered me a job with Frank Byner and The Night Shift who wrote songs for Tower Of Power. A bass player that came up to me also that night was David Margen. He was also playing with Frank. So I was playing with them now as well.”

His expansive personality and expressive drum chops, made his entry into the Bay Area more established, “I also was playing with a guy called Gideon and in his band he had a guy called Melvin Seals. He was the leader of The Jerry Garcia Band. Melvin was groomed in the church and could make the Hammond B3 sing man! They had a high-energy gospel-rock vibe. All those bands played the same kinda’ clubs, The Keystone Korner, LaValles, The Long Branch, they were three of the top ones. Also during that intern, I met Eddie Money and played with him. He knocked on my door, saying ‘ I hear you’re a drummer, my drummer didn’t show, so I want you to play with me tonight, I did one song and he says, “That’s it, I want you in the band. He said, “My name’s Eddie Money and I want to be a rock and roll star by 25, I don’t have a lotta’ time!“ Just like that! So I was gigging with everybody.”

Gigs for the young Symmonds were plentiful, “I was in a fourth band too, called Grayson Street. They had a phenomenal harmonica player called Ricky Kellog, who ended up in Canned Heat. Grayson Street was mostly original R&B style East Bay grease and very funky – James Brown orientated1”
The East Bay, particularly Oakland was a breeding ground for the funk and Symmonds went on to discuss one of Tower of Power’s greatest vocalists, the redoubtable but also controversial Rick Stevens. “Rick had a cover band, they were doing Tower songs and he was the best of all the Tower singers in my opinion. I saw Tower with Lenny Williams mostly at the time I saw them.”

His connection with Coke Escovedo was fairly straightforward, “ I was on a bill with Coke, There was Grayson Street and Coke was checking me out from the side of the stage. I knew something was up and he came over and asked me to join his band! He already had very talented musicians, he had a guy on drums apart from Harvey Mason on his first album and I came in after that. I knew of him from the Third Santana album, with the dedication to him on there. We started rehearsing and every Monday night in Oakland we would play at a club called King Richards. That was in Jack London Square, we would hold court there and a lot of great jazz and other musicians would show up unexpectedly, you never knew who – it could be Malo’s singer, it could be brother Pete or Sheila would sit in and play congas. Abel Zarate was in the band too, another guy there was Ray Obiedo, he was very popular.”

The line up didn’t have a regular conga player, Coke simply invited his family down. “ Frank was on keyboards, (later on it would be Herman Eberitsch ) Erroll Knowles was singing and also another girl was Lynn Mabry, who later became a Bride Of Funkenstein (an off-shoot of Parliament) and later became a back up singer in George Michael’s show. Everybody in the East Bay could play- everybody was really good. My parents were very supportive and I got well schooled- I could play mallets, for zylophone, vibraphone, marimba and Coke let me used that talent on the Comin’ At Ya’ album- he let me play vibes on there on the Jose Feliciano song, “Stay With Me.”

“Playing with Coke was my first recorded album and he let me play and recorded three of my songs as well. He took all the credit for the first one- a guaganco groove and he had everybody singing “Coke Escovedo play the guaguanco, Coke Escovedo play the guaguanco” and he put his name on that (laughs). I don’t even remember what I was getting paid. He had a three-album contract with Mercury Records- and considering he was sideman and not a singer- it’s great he got a record deal!

Coke certainly had hit a home run in the recording stakes for awhile, and apparently was an outgoing individual; Glenn describes Coke thus. “ He had a gentle heart, a lovely guy, with a lot of talent, he loved to be the centre of attention. He was great to me, showed me how to play drums with him, he kept his distance too, with the employees, he had a dark side to him that I was to become aware of. His eyes would get really glassy at times. He would get very wasted and spaced out on cocaine, I know sometimes he would get so high, he didn’t want to be standing up there with his timbales. So, he would come to the back of the stage and kick me off the drums and get me to play timbales.
He told me to go play ‘em, he would play drums- he was a terrible drummer (laughs).

I asked Glenn about the slew of outstanding timbale players in the Bay Area at that time. “Well – Jose “Chepito”Areas absolutely, Chepito was so strong he didn’t play with those thin little dowelling timbale sticks, and they’d cut them in half. Chepito played with brutal hardness, using thick drumsticks and was intensely talented. They’re as no rivalry at all in Coke. I remember we played Madison Square Garden and Tito Puente came down. Backstage Tito treated Coke like a long lost son, he was very gracious and invited us to his nightclub after we were done. We got there and a table was set, he wined us and dined us, we came into this Latin club, there’s a ten- piece band playing and Tito really took care of us. He was very grateful that Coke had brought “Para Los Rumberos” to the Third Santana album sessions and got that song Tito wrote included on the Third album.

Symmonds’ path crossed most of the Bay Area percussion luminaries. “Mingo was a hugely talented and strong and powerful conga player- a triple Sagittarius, like I said. He was very intense, very crazy and wild! He was involved in the Chick Corea Electric band when they had Steve Gadd- the very first incarnation of that, before Al Di Meola and Lenny White. Mingo would sit in at King Richards club. He asked me also to play with him, and he also had an album deal with CBS and was putting together a batch of his songs. He had hand picked musicians , we would rehearse seven days a week and I had gigs at night too, playing with all these other bands, so I could not give Mingo the commitment he wanted. I took from him all the lessons he showed me, he showed me the conga, timbale techniques, applied to the drum set, when there isn’t a conga player or a timbale player, what do you do?? How do you simulate those sounds and rhythms, he’d also showed Steve Gadd the same type of stuff. Gadd and Mingo were very tight. At that time he was not maybe been even twenty-one year old – nor was I for that matter.

Glenn’s time with Coke was curtailed by the encroaching drug related aspects of those day in the music business and later on in the USA as coke and heroin spread thru out US society rapidly. “ Coke’s band was a great band playing locally, so musicians who didn’t play on a Monday night, it was a great place to hang but with the hang came the drugs too. When we were on the road we were opening for Parliament and Funkadelic. We were opening for The Johnson Brothers. There were some characters hanging around – they were in the van with us. In the hotels with us, on the stage with us! I didn’t know who they were but I got to know why they were there. To some degree they kept me isolated, I was a nineteen-year-old kid at that time. Erroll Knowles and Coke were much older and I was a younger guy and I was mostly friends with Abel Zarate in the band, A very sweet guitar player. But I started to find out, one night Coke told us to get onstage and I had to go back to the dressing room, I’d forgotten my drumsticks and the bag. I rushed offstage and get to the dressing room and there’s Coke, with a needle in his arm. He yelled, “Get the fuck outta’ here!”

One character in particular was to hasten Glenn’s departure from the group, “Big Ronnie was one of those guys hanging around, he came out from the side of the stage and he poked me in the ribs one night, during the first song, told me to “Shut the fuck up, that I was playing too loud”. I turned around and bashed him on the head and on the shoulders with my sticks- told him to get the fuck away from me.
He crawled off the stage with his purple pimp hat (with a big feather in it) his purple pimp jacket and his platform shoes. (laughs) He was total pimp man; it was the seventies. When we walked offstage, you can imagine the audience is roaring out a standing ovation – and everybody is patting themselves down with towels, congratulating each other and Big Ronnie is grabbing me with two hands round my neck and I am down in the curtains. I am down man. He is choking me, “I’m gonna’ kill you motherfucker”, he’s going for broke and the band realise and pulled him off me. I swore that was it, I did one more show and then the tour was over. I never played again with Coke Escovedo. I totally lost touch.

He described the adverse effect cocaine had on his drumming abilities, “I only did cocaine a couple of times but I experienced the same feeling, my back was very tensed up and it also made me very gun-shy. It inhibited my playing a lot. I think maybe the first hit can be great. But if you’re in concert and you’re revved and do you do a line of coke, you’re only going to feel that for five minutes and then you’re going to crash while your playing. Then you feel terrible, you are thinking those people are looking at me.
My hands hurt and you start to feel achy and you can’t wait to get off stage and get another hit. It was always counterproductive for me – I wasn’t addicted but I think Coke was, he wasn’t as sharp; he became less focused than he was.”

Glenn went on to along and varied drumming career with among others, Automatic Man, John Klemmer, Dave Mason, Elvin Bishop, Etta James and a long association with Eddie Money.

Look out for further revealing stories and tales from the rock and roll merry-go-round;
Glenn Symmonds
is part of a upcoming VOICES interviews feature on Automatic Man – The Greatest Group You Never Heard!!

© Jim McCarthy July 2009

Tags: Abel Zarate, Automatic Man, Azteca, Carlos Santana, cocaine, Coke Escovedo, Cold Blood, Dougie Rauch, Eddie Money, Glenn Symmonds, Jerry Garcia, Jose (Chepito) Areas, Linda Tillery, Mingo Lewis, Pete Escovedo, Santana Third album, Sheila E, The Loading Zone, Tower Of Power, Voices of Latin Rock

CD Review: Naked Lunch.
Released early 2009
(World In Sound Records)

This is a real curio and a must for Latin Rock completists everywhere.
Comprised of a few live tracks from the little known Naked Lunch and the
remainder culled from Abel Zarate¹s follow up project called Banda de Jesus.
Naked Lunch grew out of the heaving Bay Area confluence of the late 1960¹s.
They were notably absent at the time from getting a major record label
release but this live CD soundboard recording (recently and luckily salvaged
from an almost forgotten reel-to-reel recording) is a testimony to their
strength. It is interesting to note that although Chicago had an album
release at this time, the first Santana album had not been released as yet.

The sound is clear and punchy, if a little trebly and the CD leads off with
³Love Is Everywhere,² with a robust, soulful vocal from Abel Zarate with
back up from saxophonist Robert Olivera, the band is a stylish crossover,
attempting a big band sound with their seven members. Zarate¹s vocals are
really good and one wonders why he hasn¹t exercised this area of his talent
more. The band are positioned by way of their sound somewhere between The
Rascals and Chicago and an original Santana vibe. The musical flavor is horn
driven with Jose Marrerro¹s congas driving the beat along with future Malo
member on drums, Richard Spremich. The young and precocious Abel Zarate on
guitar is both a powerhouse playing big chords and some chunky rhythm
playing. It is worth bearing in mind that Zarate and Murray, both joined in
time for Malo¹s debut recording as well as Spremich, under the behest of
producer David Rubinson.

³Changes² features some lyrical Zarate guitar followed by some funky riffing
from the guitarist. Essentially a blues song, the piece chugs along at
mid-tempo with a grinding funk base. Zarate had started playing guitar at
the age of thirteen, turning himself onto Gabor Szabo in the process. He
spent time in the Bernal Heights area of San Francisco, hanging out with
doo-wop corner vocalists. Even here at this fairly early stage in his
development, he shows a confident up-front style to his playing. Jose
Marrero, hailing from Puerto Rico, shows a down-home street conga style with
similarities in his playing method, to another Puerto Rican called Mike
Carabello, who went onto international fame with Santana. Marrerro reaches
out with a pleasing conga outing, playing a solo, drenched in ambience and
power. ³Changes² also features a mighty Hammond organ solo and fills from
Ludwig ³Fist² Stephens.

The San Francisco Bay Area at this time was host to so many guitar
prodigies; Zarate was already in the company of Carlos Santana (their paths
had crossed already, with both auditioning for The Righteous Ones, with
Zarate winning out on this occasion). Also present during this time period
or coming up were Neal Schon, Mike Suzaki, Ray Obiedo, Jorge Santana, Oscar
Estrella, Steve Busfield and other less known players like Tony Juncal and
who both played on Jose ³Chepito² Areas solo recording issued in 1974. Amid
this heady brew of musical cohorts or competitors, Zarate had a distinctive
aspect to his playing, both blues and soul-filled but with jazz-like,
lyrical facets re-occurring strongly. The young player was always on the
lookout for opportunities and Naked Lunch grew out of the ashes of The
Righteous Ones, who also sported Richard Bean on lead vocals and saxophone,
who famously went on to write Malo¹s only Billboard hit, the Latin lover¹s
anthem, ³Suavecito.²

³Endless Night² starts off with a more relaxed Rascals-like vibe with some
relaxed trumpet from Roy Murray. Some tasty harmony vocals augment the
song¹s summery feel.
It¹s under laid tastefully with some cool organ washes and sax trills.
³Virgin Woman² has a full on Latin cha-cha vibe with nice conga flams from
Marrero. Roy Murray adds hot trumpet here and solos over Zarate¹s chiming
rhythm and stirring solo playing. Sounding heavily influenced by Carlos
here, this could be a cut from the first Santana record. The guitar outing
is followed by a superb Hammond solo by ³Fist² Stephens. The parallels with
Santana¹s ³Evil Ways¹ are readily apparent, perhaps not surprising,
considering the esteem with which the Willie Bobo sound was held, amongst
the nascent young Latino rock fraternity.

³Your Song/Time Trip,² starts with a mighty organ swell; that shakes the
venue¹s rafters. It breaks into a heavy, attacking Abel Zarate guitar solo
followed by the horn anthem to the song, which itself evolves into swing
timing over which there is further Zarate soloing in a hot, bluesy vein. The
song halts with a heavy bass reminder of the main riff, then it¹s a drop
down into the Time Trip, which is a free form organ drone followed by some
Richard Spremich drum explorations, that rounds out this performance.
³Encore² follows and guess what? ­ it is the encore. More heavy and churning
riffing ensues with Abel blowing more fuses in his amplifier. Real
free-form, gut-bucket stuff!!

My only real criticism of the young band would be a lack of light and shade
in the music but I¹m sure had they gone on further these aspects would be
resolved.

The rest of the music here is comprised of cuts from Banda de Jesus. David
Rubinson, the hot-shot producer who imported himself into the Bay Area
scene, took an interest in this Zarate project. The sound is again fresh,
with a pop and jazz feel and Abel Zarate¹s playing has also evolved in step
with the music. ³Better Days² is not dissimilar to Naked Lunch but the songs
are more cohesive and the horn arrangements more solid and structured. The
song goes thru fairly rapid changes in tempo. ³Lovely Day² exemplifies that
titles feeling in an positive manner, with that sound, peculiar to Latin
style projects started in San Francisco at that time, upbeat and with
excellent backing and harmony vocalising.
The song heads into 6/8 territory with a cooking riff by Zarate and tricky
horn charts, with a smoking sax solo from Robert Olivera. It further locks
into a rim-shot led samba beat, backed by the funky soul brother hand
clapping, prevalent at the time.

³Living Is Funky,² allows Abel to hit some lovely guitar runs over a Latin
cha-cha beat. Zarate further hits in with some great funk licks and reminds
us all that living is indeed funky!
Another version live is included here of ³Ozone.² This is more up-tempo and
sporting the same arrangement, with excellent conga from Marrero, who enjoys
himself on two conga breaks here. The songs owes more than a little to ³I¹m
A Man,³ by both The Spencer Davis Group and Chicago.
The song features an ending that will be instantly familiar to ALL Malo
fans, Abel Zarate judiciously used it again as the explosive coda to ³Peace²
on the debut Malo recording.

The CD is further served by having a twenty-page CD booklet with detailed
and lovingly recreated liner notes from conguero Jose Sierra. It has good if
indistinct live shots of the two bands and the graphics are befitting the
time and era. The notes also let you know what the players are up to now and
Roy and Abel, close them up with a little spiritual food for those of you
that are so inclined.
All in all, a welcome addition to the San Franciscan Latin rock discography
and a hot snapshot of bands playing for the sheer hell of it, whether they
made it or not!

Jim McCarthy.
East Sussex. England.
March 2009.

CD Total playing time = 57.08

Questions for Abel and Roy?????????????

(1) Abel, tell us how the group met and was formed??
The band started off called ‘Brown Magic’, with myself, Bob Olivera, Jose
Marrero, and Rick Tiffer… Spremich was added on drums a few weeks into the
project … we were turned on to the ‘Mu House’ in the Haight by Bernardo
Quintana, who fancied himself our manager for awhile. It was there that Roy
Murray, and Ludwig Stephens joined the group and we became NAKED LUNCH. By
the way; the lead vocals on the Naked Lunch CD are done by me

(2) Roy, what are your influences, as a horn player??
Horn influences: Since I’m really a multi horn player my influences were a
long line of both saxophone and trumpet big band players plus the Coltrane
and Miles

(3) Roy, say something about The Motivations?
In the Motivations (Philadelphia) was future Santana & Weather Report
bassist Alphonso Johnson, future Buddy Miles, Azteca & Loading Zone
guitarist Steve Busfield (he was the one who encouraged me to make the trip
to San Francisco, Linda Creed who co wrote over ten top ten hits, Duane
Hitchings who played with Rod Steward and also Heart (keyboard), myself and
of course several others.

(4) Abel, tell me how you experienced the Mission at that time?
My family lived in the Fillmore district, and then we lived for a time near
Mission High School, until we finally settled in the heart of the Mission by
Precita Park … I grew up with all my Latin brothers, and soaked in the
culture and music, which was close to my own Filipino heritage. Most of my
friends who were 5 – 6 years older than me all went to school with Carlos
Santana.

(5) Roy, tell me about Wendy Haas and Western Addition group??
When I arrived in San Francisco (May…1969) the first band i joined was the
Western Addition with Wendy Hass (future Azteca & Santana vocalist). These
were great days!! Nobody knew what was to come or that we would all be
playing a role in music that would live on for 40 yrs. afterwards. What we
lacked in finesse we made up for well in fun and all learning to put it out
there.
Next I replaced Chepito Areas in the Aliens at The Nite Life for almost two
months.
After that I formed a band called Stone Creation. A part time player with
Blue Cheer that also had several future Azteca players. Then into Naked
Lunch for a good 15 months before Malo. When I actually joined Naked Lunch
the Santana LP had not yet been released and we were playing those songs.

(6) Any stuff Abel you may wish to add??
Where is Jose Marrero now??
The last time I saw Jose Marrero was in the late 90′s. He was very much
settled into his family life with wife and children, and retired from the
music scene.

Tags: Abel Zarate, Carlos Santana, Chepito Areas, Naked Lunch, Robert Olivera

by Mark Guerrero
Posted on March 19, 2006 by RDSMarketing

Malo is one of the most successful and enduring Latin rock bands in the world. In 2003, they celebrated their 31st anniversary. Their biggest hit, “Suavecito” reached number 18 on the Billboard charts in April of 1972. They’ve played all over the world and have performed on the bill with the Rolling Stones and Queen. Malo has at least ten albums to their credit and continue to tour. In 1997, along with Tierra and El Chicano, they recorded a live album called “Latin Legends Live.” The three bands have toured extensively since as “Latin Legends.”

To get the story of Malo, it begins with lead singer Arcelio Garcia. Arcelio was born in Puerto Rico and moved to San Francisco with his family when he was three years old. When he was a teenager, some friends of his had a singing group and asked him to sing with them because their baritone had gone into the army. Arcelio didn’t know if he could sing, but said he’d give it a shot. He found that he liked it and started to learn from his more experienced friends. One day a car drove by while Arcelio was singing on the sidewalk with his group. The driver told Arcelio he liked his voice and asked him if he would join his band. Arcelio checked it out and joined the band called the Malibus, named after the sporty Chevrolet. They went on to become a very well known and popular band in the Bay area in the mid-sixties. At first they played mainly r&b, but later started to add Latin music to the mix. Three or four years into the career of the Malibus, a guitarist was brought in by the name of Jorge Santana, the brother of the already famous Carlos Santana.

In 1970 the Malibus changed their name to Malo and things started happening. By 1971, they were signed to Warner Brothers Records and recorded their first album, which was simply entitled “Malo” (BS-2584). Arcelio co-wrote four of the six songs, including their classics “Nena” and “Cafe.” Released in 1972, “Malo” also included “Suavecito,” which had evolved from a song they had written and been doing in clubs called “My Love.” One of the band members at the time, Richard Bean, wrote a new lyric which gave birth to a major hit record. Malo members Pablo Tellez and Abel Zarate also got credit for the composition. “Suavecito” led to world tours and laid the groundwork for their career of three decades so far. The members on the first album were: Arcelio Garcia, lead vocals; Jorge Santana, lead guitar; Abel Zarate, lead guitar, vocals; Pablo Tellez, bass; Richard Spremich, drums; Richard Kermode, keyboards; Luis Gasca, trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals; and Roy Murray, 2nd trumpet, trombone, flute and sax. Guest musicians included Coke Escovedo, timbales; Victor Pantoja, congas; and Richard Bean, timbales and lead vocal on “Suavecito.” Malo has always had a “melting pot” of an ethnic mix, with Chicanos, Anglos, and people of Puerto Rican, Nicaraguan, and Philippino descent.

Later in 1972, Warner Brothers released Malo’s second album, “Dos” (BS 2652), followed by “Evolution” (BS 2702) in 1973. In 1974, Arcelio was incorrectly diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. It turned out to be yellow jaundice, but he was unable to sing for a year. This was the period when Little Willie G., formerly of Thee Midniters of East L.A., came in and became lead singer for Malo. Willie did one album entitled “Ascención” (BS 2769) and toured with the band. This album was Malo’s last with Warner Brothers. Back in good health, Arcelio, who owns the Malo name and logo, moved to New York and started a new Malo. This resulted in the release of Malo V in 1981. Arcelio then came back to the west coast, where he has been based ever since. In 1986, Malo had an album called “Coast To Coast” on the Blue Heron label. “Señorita” was released on GNP Crescendo Records in 1995. In 1997, two live albums were issued, “Malo Rocks the Rockies,” on an independent label, and “Latin Legends Live,” on Thump Records, featuring Malo, Tierra, and El Chicano.

It was recorded live at The Hop in Puente Hills and it has sold very well, according to Arcelio. Malo has gone through many personell changes over the years, but Arcelio is the one constant. Jorge Santana, played with Malo for three or four years in the early 70s. Since then he’s had his own bands and has performed often with his brother, Carlos. He’s also had albums out, including 1978’s “Jorge Santana” and 1979’s “It’s All About Love,” both on Tomato Records. In 1994, Jorge was on an album with Carlos and their nephew, Carlos Hernandez, entitled “The Santana Brothers” on Island Records. In the last several years Jorge plays often with Malo. In fact, he just performed with Malo last weekend, on March 29, 2003 at the Star Plaza Theater in Merrillville, Indiana.

Malo’s current lineup includes: Arcelio Garcia, lead vocals; Julian Molina, bass; David George, drums; Gabriel Manzo, lead guitar; Jay Rossette, 2nd lead guitar; Daniel Cervantes, keyboards; Frank Bailey, lead trumpet; Pete Rodriguez, trumpet; Steve Rocha, trombone; Gibby Ross, timbales; and Tony Menjivar, congas. Another addition to the current Malo is Arcelio’s son, Octaviano, who’s an excellent singer and performer in his own right. He and Arcelio work very well together. My band, Mark Guerrero & Radio Aztlán, performed twice on the bill with Malo in 2002. The first time at the Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, California and the second at The Hop in Puente Hills, California. Believe me, the current Malo is great and can rock the house. Their music ranges from romantic ballads to high energy Latin grooves. I met Arcelio at the second concert at The Hop and spoke to him about doing this article. I’m also on an album with Malo called “The Chicano Alliance” on Our Town Records (1998), which includes my songs “On the Boulevard” and “Rosalie” and Malo’s “Lady I Love.”

Malo has given back to the community by doing many benefits for schools and other good causes over the years. They recently raised $35,000 to refurbish public baseball fields for Latino teams in the bay area. Arcelio is also proud of the fact that some of Malo’s music, including two songs he co-wrote, “Nena” and “Cafe,” are in college music text books. He jokingly says that was the only way he was going to get to college. In 1999, longtime Malo members Gabe Manzo and Tony Menjivar formed a faith based band. Since Malo means “bad,” they named their band, Bueno, which means “good.” The bands Malo and Bueno have a close connection, but are separate entities and completely different in the mission and purpose of their music. Arcelio, who became a Christian about three years ago, occasionally sings with Bueno, but is not a regular member. Speaking of good, a few years ago, the band Sugar Ray recorded a hit song called “Every Morning,” which used the vocal hook from “Suavecito.” Unlike many other artists, Malo did not have to go to court to get their share. Everything was handled properly up front. It turns out, Sugar Ray’s lead singer, Mark McGrath, had seen Malo play at a car show when he was a kid. McGrath was taken to the show by his father, who was as big Malo fan and loved the song “Suavecito.”

Malo has some reissue collections available. GNP Crescendo Records released “The Best of Malo” (GNPD 2205) in 1991 and Rhino Records issued a boxed set called “Celebración!,” which includes Malo’s first four albums. Also, Malo’s 1995 CD on GNP Crescendo Records, “Señorita,” (GNPD 2244) is still available on the net at: www.gnpcrescendo.com. As for the future, Malo will be back in the studio in two weeks to record a brand new album on Arcelio’s new label, Olam, which is Malo backwards. They’re also doing a dvd with VH1, which will include clips of various television appearances Malo did in the early 70s such as, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, and “The Midnight Special.” VH1’s cameras will also follow Malo around on tour for the dvd.

This article is based on an audiotaped telephone interview by Mark Guerrero with Arcelio Garcia on March 28, 2003.

Tags: Abel Zarate, Malo, Mark Guerrero, Pablo Tellez, Richard Bean, Suavecito