A Hugely Successful Benefit For A Legend Turns Out To Be A Successful Benefit For La Onda And Me As Well.

A TALE OF TWO DANCES

Blanco Ballroom in San Antonio this past Thursday and Friday night was as different as night and day and black and white. Both nights reflected the best and the worst of La Onda. The benefit dance for George Cantu exemplified the best of La Onda. It showed what happens when a respected musician calls for help and support rallies behind him. About 900 people worth of support showed. Latin Express, Sunny Ozuna, Q-VO Band and others played to a standing room only crowd as our beautiful people danced the night away to the old school Chicana and R&B sounds.

This was in stark contrast to the handful of support that came out the night before for the TTMA Tejano Music Awards nominees dance. We heard from several people who attended that night stating maybe…MAYBE…one hundred people showed up. How could there be such a difference in attendance from one night to the next in the Tejano capitol of the world especially with such headliners such as Jay Perez, Gary Hobbs, Ram Herrera, Fama, Albert Zamora, Jonny Martinez and more? So what if the dance was on a Thursday night (a work night)? You mean to tell me fans in the capitol of Tejano music are not able to suck it up for this annual event and sacrifice some time and sleep from their busy work week?

I couldn’t believe the huge difference in attendance which caused me to immediately try to rationalize and search for answers to this puzzle. The nominees dance was on Thursday night. Was this the cause for the poor turnout? Has the TTMA lost the luster of years past when it was considered the crowing jewel of the industry? Or, is it a symptom of a much larger, unforeseen problem with La Onda? A disconnect, maybe, between fans and artists? I don’t know. But the outcome Thursday night is alarming to me and it seriously begs the question “what is going on?”

THE OLD SCHOOL FOR THE NEW SCHOOL IN LA ONDA

On the other hand, old school was the new school on Friday night in San Anto. Hundreds of music fans came out to support George Cantu and enjoy the brassy sounds of Onda Chicana. Even the zoot suit contest was entertaining as men and women strutted across the dance floor showing off their struts and dance moves to the beats. The music was great and the people were great. The only negative thing I could think of was, by scanning the crowd, the average age of the crowd in attendance had to be in the late 40s early 50s. Why is this negative? Well, this fan base isn’t going to live forever. We need a new generation to embrace our music. But, I digress.

TEXAS-SIZED HOSPITALITY

George Cantu was a gracious host by seating us with his family and introducing all sorts of people to us including Gilbert Velasquez, Joe Jama, Danny Casanova, Rene Rene, Gilbert Rodriguez, Gibby Escobedo and on and on and on. When Latin Express kicked off their set with a tight Latin Breed medley I knew it was ON! The party people in the house crowded the dance floor. As they danced by, couples stopped to hug George and say a few words. One by one people kept coming up to George as he stood at the front of the stage greeting, hand shaking and laughing. With the horn section blasting, the organ churning, the guitar strumming and George smiling, I knew right then and there I did the right thing by making the 12-hour trip at the request of George Cantu to participate in his benefit. And what a benefit it was. George was all smiles that night and by the end of the night he was still grinning from ear to ear. That smile and his sincere expression of gratitude for all those that showed their support is priceless and timeless. Thank you George Cantu. May you continue to get well.

Afterward, we followed a caravan to the nearest IHOP for breakfast with Latin Express, George Cantu and his family. I tell you, there is no hospitality like Texas hospitality. In fact, Tomas broke his glasses only a couple hours before the benefit dance. We ran to the mall to try to get them fixed before the dance. We weren’t able to get the glasses fixed and Tomas was really bummed out. In fact, he lost all interest in going to the dance and just wanted to stew back at the room. I couldn’t let my buddy sit in a hotel room while I was having a good time enjoying the old school. So, I talked him into going to the dance at least for a little while and if his eyes began to give him too much trouble then I would take him back to the hotel. But, the music was so damn good and the people were so damn nice that Tomas totally forgot that he couldn’t see. He was having fun throughout the night.

We met George’s brother-in-law that night who I forgot we met back in November in Alice, TX. As we reunited we told him about Tomas’ story with his broken glasses and he said his wife works for an optical store. Huh? What? Who? Maybe it was a stroke of luck or maybe it was meant to be. But his wife offered to help Tomas find new frames the next day. So, we hooked up for breakfast and took a drive to Converse, TX to get Tomas some new frames. Thank you to Frank and Gloria Guzman for their generous hospitality.

WHAT'S NEXT? THERE IS MORE!

Wow! How could things get any better? Well, how about getting to hear the new Ram Herrera? How about getting to hear the new Ruben Ramos? How about getting to hear some new Latin Express? How about getting to hear the new Veronica y Avance? All that and more on my next blog.

That's it for now!
-DJ Ritmo

The Tejano Industry. What's going on?

As Marvin Gaye would say "What's Going On?"

Tejano pipeline

Tony "Ham" Guerrero is currently rehearsing the Tortilla Factory to prepare the band for any forthcoming bookings. I learned that Charile T from Houston is not going to book the band afterall. Skeeter (formerly of Ruben Ramos) is handling the bookings as well as JV who runs JayVee Entertainment.

I spoke with Joe Posada earlier this week. I was giving him feedback on David Marez's new cd which is recorded on Joe's label Baby Dude Records. Joe is really cool to talk to. Leslie Lugo's cd has been pushed back. She sings Salsa and Latin music in the San Antonio area and performs quite frequently on a weekly basis. Leslie has been working on a solo Tejano cd project and I have been eagerly awaiting her cd release. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer. Joe is working on another cd and hopes to release it in a few months.

Rebecca Valadez called the studio this past Monday. Thank you Aur Marc management for setting that up. Fiesta Musical has been interviewing Grammy nominees in the Tejano category in the weeks leading up to the Feb. 11th broadcast of the Grammys on CBS at 7:00 pm CST. We kicked off our Grammy interview series with Chente Barrera right before the new year. Then we interviewed the legendary Jimmy Edward and the talented Rebecca Valadez. And I just got off the phone with Jay Perez and he is a go for this coming Monday's show 2-5-07.

Rebecca has been an artist we have been chasing for a long time. I felt it was important to talk to her because she can definitely hold her own in mainstream music. She has been to Hollywood and back. But Tejano is her first love and now she wants to make her own music her own way. And she is working on another Tejano cd and I am looking forward to it. Our Onda is very lucky to have that caliber of talent in the industry.

How to be fair?

I've struggled with this for some time. My first priority, which some people forget, is Tejano music. Of course, growing up in Topeka, I try to support local Tejano related events as much as I can. Sometimes, though, supporting events in Topeka may conflict with other Tejano events in other cities. I want to make clear that I support all Tejano events, first, so that's why I'll speak of other Tejano events in KC, Lawrence or Emporia or somewhere else close by. I guess my conflict this month is the Pan American Golf Association (PAGA) in Kansas City who are hosting Sunny Sauceda the same night as the LULAC Sweethearts dance in Topeka featuring Las Estrellas. Both are excellent fundraisers supporting worthy causes. Maybe my mention of the PAGA event may take away some potential business from LULAC or vice versa. Although that's not my intent, some people may see it that way. My higher purpose is to continue promoting (and at times it feels like preserving) a portion of our culture which has seen some pretty bad days, lately. And my hope is that both events do well because if they do, then Tejano music succeeds as well.

The business

The business is rolling along pretty good. As for the mobile dj business, I am booking as far in advance as November with May looking pretty busy again. And with Tomas and Luis helping out, we have plenty of djs to handle several jobs. So, I thank those of you for calling and booking in advance which makes the business run a little smoother.

The consignment agreement I worked out with 419 Designs is slow like I expected because there haven't been too many new releases. But I've made some sales and I can already see a trend. People have come in to purchase David Marez, Joe Posada, Little Joe and Jimmy Edward. Eddie Gonzalez, surprisingly, has not sold at all. But the trend seems to be toward quality and the old school. I only have a couple of conjunto titles and I wonder how well conjunto will sell around here. But right now it looks like the classier and jazzier sounds are beating out the accordion.

And as far as the production studio is concerned, I have nearly run out of space on my internal hard drive. I think I have maybe 5 GB left and I have begun to lose some functionality. My computer no longer recognizes my external DVD/CD drives but it still recognizes my external hard drive. And I have trouble saving my large audio production files onto my external hard drive so I am forced to leave it on my internal drive which is taking up more of my precious space. I have put a complete stop on large music production projects but I still do little jobs from time to time.

I have been dragging my feet on this but I am going to take my eMachine in for an upgrade. I should be able to upgrade it if it is one of the newer models. I need to find out. If it is upgradable, then I am going for the dual core processors which I can get done at half the price of a dual core processor desktop off the shelf. So, it sounds like the upgrade fits my budget if I can get it done.

Tejanos for a better tomorrow

A new discussion has been brought up on a message board I frequent. An idea has come up on the creation of an organization to help promote Tejano music. I have been having some fun kicking the tires on the concept. The problem I have is the basic assumption this idea is based on. I get the impression that Tejanos in Texas think that Tejano business people outside of Texas don't have a proper network in place. I keep hearing phrases like "you'll get more access to artists and cds", "you'll get more control of music programming on radio", etc. Dude! I already have all that. The problem is not access or control. The problem is the industry is doing nothing to promote themselves. One example is that more often than not, cds get released with no publicity, no fanfare. This is why it's so important that we do the "CD pick of the week" feature on Fiesta Musical. And then there is a mention of pooling money and kicking back to a governing body in Texas. I don't think so. But, the idea is in it's infancy stage. I guess I'll see where it goes. Of course, one of the businesses in Texas is all behind it. It's a management business who stands to make a lot of money off of potential bookings. And, hey, if we helped finance the marketing and promotions budget as well, well shoot, it sounds like a sweet deal to me, too.

That's it for now
-DJ Ritmo