Originally formed in the barrio of east Los Angeles, California this US group started out as the V.I.P.’s in the late 60s. Their funky reworking of Gerald Wilson’s ‘Viva Tirado’ was successful on the emerging local Mexican-American music scene. Changing their name to El Chicano, the band built a solid local reputation for their energized Latin rock sound. Band members at this time included Bobby Espinosa (keyboards/vocals), Mickey Lespron (guitar/vocals), Freddie Sanchez (bass/vocals), and Andre Baeza and John De Luna (percussion). With ‘Viva Tirado’ achieving good sales in Latin and jazz charts, the band began to be noticed all across the country and they travelled to jazz festivals and were also booked into New York’s Apollo theatre. ‘Viva Tirado’ belatedly made it into the pop US Top 30. Through the 70s El Chicano made several well-received albums for MCA Records featuring some of their hit singles, such as...
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