Friday, 06 February 2009 01:13

Mark Guerrero Enshrined in the Grammy Museum

Mark Guerrero may not be a household name but he follows a legacy established by his late father, Lalo Guerrero. In this report, our correspondent Ramon Hernandez outlines Guerrero's musical contributions.

The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles was officially opened on December 6th and among those honored with an exhibit is Mark Guerrero.

Not only is this an honor, but a great accomplishment for the singer-songwriter-musician, who is the youngest son of the legendary Lalo Guerrero, the acknowledged “Father of Chicano Music.”

The display features the 59-year-old’s controversial 45 rpm single “I’m Brown,” a photo of his band at that time, and the original manuscript of his lyric in “Songs of Conscience, Songs of Freedom,” the first major museum exhibit to explore the full 200-year history of music and politics in America. Guerrero’s artifacts can be seen on the second floor of the four-floor facility where his peers are Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne plus many other musical innovators.

“I wrote ‘I’m Brown’ when I was 21 and in 1972, I recorded it as a solo artist,” Guerrero said during an interview at his home in Cathedral City, California.

   “It was sort of a protest song, but the chorus says, ‘Don’t you know I’m brown, Can’t you see my face, but I’m first a member of the human race.’ I’m proud of that song because it expresses Chicano pride, but also says, ‘hey, I’m first a human being.’ I also love the music and the magical atmosphere of the recording.

“It came out on Capitol Records, but they didn’t promote it for probably a lot of reasons. One reason is that it was almost five minutes long at a time when records were normally three minutes. But who knows, there might have been some other things behind the scenes, like, ‘Oh, it’s kind of radical and who’s going to buy that. So they may have just buried it.

“The next year, when I had a sort of country-rock group call Tango, I was signed to A&M Records, ‘I’m Brown’ was included on our album as well, so it came out twice. However, we didn’t get to tour, so the album sort of died on the vine. Nobody knows about that record because it kind of got buried in these two situations,” the 59-year-old composer revealed.

In spite of the lack of exposure, airplay or touring to promote the record, the single which was practically shelved did not go unnoticed since it was selected by the Grammy Museum as an important part of musical history.

For Texans not familiar with Guerrero, he grew up in East Los Angeles. At 13, he formed Mark & the Escorts, who often shared the bill with hit bands such as Cannibal and the Headhunters, The Premiers, and Thee Midniters. Mark & the Escorts were also included on the 1965 album “West Coast Eastside Revue,” which featured all the top East L.A. bands of the era.

He was a student at Garfield High School when at 15, he recorded his first two singles, “Dance With Me” and “Get Your Baby.”  Many of the popular musicians who were part of the East L.A. music scene at the time went to Garfield, including The Blendells and a couple of future members of Los Lobos.  This is also the high school that a decade later had on its faculty the phenomenal math teacher, Jaimé Escalane on whom the movie “Stand and Deliver” was based.

   Next he led “The Men from S.O.U.N.D.” and at 21, he wrote and recorded the Chicano equivalent of James Brown’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud” and Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” and which became his most famous opus.

Guerrero is a musician because he plays guitar, bass and keyboards, but along the way, he also became a radio personality as the host of “Chicano Music Chronicles,” on crnlive.com based out of Phoenix, Arizona.

“The idea of the show is that I would pick about a dozen of my favorite songs by the guest artist and we’d talk about them, each song and about their career,” Guerrero explained. “Some of my guests were Trini Lopez, Chan Romero, Tierra, and El Chicano.”  “Each show ranged from about an hour to two hours and you can still hear them on my website.”

That brings us to the living legend’s latest feather in his cap, that of being webmaster of his own website. At www.markguerrero.net, he chronicles the history of Chicano music. And without realizing it, he also became a musicologist and writer since his site features in-depth interviews with a ‘who’s who in Chicano music. It is also here that La Prensa’s readers can receive a detailed crash course on Guerrero’s illustrious musical career.

Fast forwarding all the way to the present, the singer-songwriter-musician is also featured in “Chicano Rock: The Sounds of East Los Angeles,” a PBS documentary that aired on December 14, 2008 and will continue to be intermittently aired throughout the remainder of this year. Check www.pbs.org or your local TV Guide for future airings.

“It’s a great one-hour documentary that tells the story of particularly the Chicano rock & rollers out of East L.A. and I’m in a couple of interview spots and a performance spot.

“The graphics, the way it’s put together, the way the story is told – it touches on the discrimination that we’ve gone through and it talks about the Chicano Movement and the radicalization of the music, the riots in East L.A., the Viet Nam War, etc.,” Guerrero raved. “It touches on not just the music, but the sociology and the history around it. It’s really inspiring.

“I also want to tell you about the Trini López television special that we just taped on November 11 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles. It was a seven high-definition camera shoot for PBS and it is called ‘Trini López Presents Latin Music Legends.’ Tierra backed me up on my dad’s ‘Los Chucos Suaves,’ then Trini came out and did a few songs with a big band.”

As we were talking, his cell phone rang and it was Trini López, who almost lives next-door to Guerrero in Palm Springs. Excusing his self, without losing his excited state and without skipping a beat he continued, adding the other performers on the special; Little Willie G. & Thee Midniters, El Chicano, Tierra, and the Gregg Rolie Band. Also, Los Lobos, Julio Iglesias, and José José provided videos which will be inserted into the show.

While Guerrero’s noteworthy achievements have brought him national recognition and high prestige, he still has to make a living. So as he says, “I perform five nights a week at Las Casuelas Terraza, an outdoor nightclub in Palm Springs. (Not to be mistaken with Las Casuelas Nuevas in Rancho Mirage where his father performed for many years.)

“This is my ‘meat and potatoes,’ ‘pay the bills’ gig and we (Hot Rox) are a great cover band. So I don’t do any original material because it’s really a ‘top 40’ kind of gig.

As for the future, Guerrero said, “Chan Romero and I are planning to go Liverpool (England) this summer and perform together.

“On February 21st, I’m doing a re-union concert with Mark and the Escorts. We haven’t played together since 1966. I got five of the original members and we’re going to perform in Van Nuys at a garage rock ’n’ roll blow out kind of concert. There’s going to be 13 bands and out of the thirteen, there are two Chicano sixties bands from East L.A., that’s us and Thee Ambertones. I’m pretty excited about the show and am going to video tape our performance and put it up on ‘you tube.’

This is a ‘don’t miss’ event and as long as you’re in Los Angeles, go check out his exhibit in the Grammy Museum. For its hours and exact location, go to www.grammymuseum.org.

If this article has sparked your interest in Guerrero’s repertoire, his recordings are available at www.markguerrero.net. In addition, you may view seventy videos of the Grammy Museum honoree in action at www.youtube.com/markguerrero49, about twenty of those are with his father Lalo.

Fans can also meet Mark when he comes to San Antonio for the “American Sabor” exhibit that will run at Museo Alameda from June 17 to September 20.