El Chicano - Revolución

EL CHICANO
Revolución
1971

86 MB
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Kapp KS-3640


I've seen lots of Malo around (especially over at hippy-djkit's hideout), some Azteca and Coke Escovedo and even more sightings of Sapo than usual these days but outside of "Best Of" comps and their debut release featuring the hit instrumental "Viva Tirado," there seems to be a distinct lack of El Chicano on the blogosphere. Soundological will be dropping three of their discs in a row the next few days and attaching a discog with bonus blog links to the third. For now, here's their second effort and their first with vocals, featuring the powerful pipes of Ersi Arvizu (check the link for news on her recent release with Ry Cooder) in addition to Baéza, who would perform much of the voice duties for the band over the following years.

You'll note a distinct Carlos flavour creeping in here, especially on the preview track above. However, it's kept at a minimum with most tracks coming off as a souped-up version of their instrumental style on Viva Tirado rather than sounding like an ersatz Santana set. There's a lot of solid source material to work with on this one, including Willie Bobo's "Spanish Grease," Cold Blood's "I'm A Good Woman," Ray Bryant's "Cubano Chant" and Latin staple "Sabor A Mi" to boot. Andy Kim's bubblegum classic "Sugar Sugar" is also Latino-fied with so-so results while originals make up the balance. Personal faves are the previously-mentioned "Keep On Moving" and the more laid-back "Don't Put Me Down (If I'm Brown)." Definitely one of their strongest outings!

Here's a video of El Chicano performing their big hit around the same time Revolución was recorded.

AMG has a fairly informative bio but we highly recommend this interview with founder Freddie Sanchez for a good rundown of their long history. We'd also like to point you towards El Chicano's own well-designed multimedia website where digital versions of a few of these OOP albums are being sold directly by the band.


Freddie Sanchez - Bass, Vocals
John DeLuna - Drums, Percussion
Michael "Mickey" Lespron - Guitar
Bobby Espinosa - Organ
Enrique "Andre" Baéza - Vocals, Congas, Percussion
Ersi Arvizu - Vocals, Percussion


1 Keep On Moving
2 Cubano Chant
3 Sabor A Mi
4 Make It All Go
5 I'm A Good Woman
6 Viva La Raza
7 Spanish Grease
8 Sugar Sugar
9 Chicano Chant
10 Don't Put Me Down (If I'm Brown)


Viva la Revolución cortesía de Soundological AQUÍ! (updated 2012-07-27)