Malo
Encyclopedia
Malo was an American
Latin-tinged rock and roll
group
. The San Francisco
-based ensemble was led by Arcelio Garcia and Jorge Santana
, the brother
of Latin-rock guitarist
, Carlos Santana
.
Four of Malo's original members (Santana, Garcia, Tellez, and Bean) had previously played in a band called "The Malibus". The other three founding members (Abel Zarate, Roy Murray, and Richard Spremich) had played together in a band called "Naked Lunch".
, "Suavecito," was written
by timbal
e player Richard Bean, who initially wrote it as a poem for a girl in his high school algebra class. The song has been called "The Chicano National Anthem" and was arranged for Malo by Richard Bean, bassist
Pablo Tellez, and Abel Zarate. Tellez and Zarate also received co-author credits on "Suavecito". Guitarist Abel Zarate gave Malo a distinctive two-guitar sound with intricate harmony
and dual solos the norm. The band featured full horn and percussion sections in the style of contemporary bands Blood, Sweat & Tears
and Chicago
. Some of the best musician
s in the Bay Area were featured in Malo, including Forrest Buchtel, Jr., Ron Smith, Luis Gasca, and Tom Harrell
in the trumpet section. Malo's music was also hugely popular in Central
and South America
, especially the songs "Chevere", "Nena", "Pana", "Cafe" and "Oye Mama".
After the release of its first album, many of Malo's original band members left the group in a rift widely popularized in the media. Buchtel went on to play with Blood, Sweat and Tears, Jaco Pastorius
and Woody Herman
; Harrell became one of the most lyrical trumpet soloists of all-time, working often with saxophonist Phil Woods
; Abel Zarate went on to play with Latin-jazz legend Willie Bobo
and continues to play Latin/Brazilian Global jazz in San Francisco with his group Zarate Pollace Project. Richard Bean formed the group "Sapo" with his brother Joe and still tours throughout Northern California; Jorge Santana embarked on a solo career and still plays frequently with the current Malo band, which is also still touring, featuring only two of its original members and led by Arcelio Garcia Jr., who took over the band in the late 1970s.
The 1972 "Suavecito" release was sung by Richard Bean with Abel Zarate and Arcelio Garcia on background vocals and Zarate playing the signature guitar riffs. Richard Bean continues to perform the single
with Sapo and recently shared his story of writing "Suavecito" on CalMagazine.com Channel 9.
In 1995, Malo released a new CD entitled "Senorita" on the GNP Crescendo records label. The title track of the CD was written by new lead singer Martin Cantu, who like previous band members also grew up in San Francisco's Mission District. Martin went on to write "Take My Breath Away" with long-time friend Damon Bartlett and two other songs, "More Than Friends" and "Malo Ya Yellgo," with Arcelio Garcia. Since leaving Malo in 1998, Cantu has played with his new Gospel/Christian band, L-Rey.
A vocal section of "Suavecito" was included in the refrain of Sugar Ray
's 1999 hit on the album "14:59", "Every Morning
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Latin-tinged rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
group
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
. The San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
-based ensemble was led by Arcelio Garcia and Jorge Santana
Jorge Santana
Jorge Santana is a Mexican guitarist, brother of musician Carlos Santana.He was a former member of Malo who had a top twenty hit "Suavecito" in 1972....
, the brother
Sibling
Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...
of Latin-rock guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
.
Four of Malo's original members (Santana, Garcia, Tellez, and Bean) had previously played in a band called "The Malibus". The other three founding members (Abel Zarate, Roy Murray, and Richard Spremich) had played together in a band called "Naked Lunch".
History
Malo's 1972 Top 20 hit singleHit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
, "Suavecito," was written
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
by timbal
Timbal
For Cuban and Latin drum, see timbalesThe Timbal is an instrument derived from the Caxambu drum. Slightly conical and of varying sizes, it is usually light in weight and made of lacquered wood or metal with a tunable nylon head. The drum is most often found in Bahia, originating in Salvador,...
e player Richard Bean, who initially wrote it as a poem for a girl in his high school algebra class. The song has been called "The Chicano National Anthem" and was arranged for Malo by Richard Bean, bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Pablo Tellez, and Abel Zarate. Tellez and Zarate also received co-author credits on "Suavecito". Guitarist Abel Zarate gave Malo a distinctive two-guitar sound with intricate harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
and dual solos the norm. The band featured full horn and percussion sections in the style of contemporary bands Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles...
and Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
. Some of the best musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s in the Bay Area were featured in Malo, including Forrest Buchtel, Jr., Ron Smith, Luis Gasca, and Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell is a renowned American post-bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and arranger.-Biography:Tom Harrell was born in Urbana, Illinois but moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of five. He started playing trumpet at eight and within five years, started playing gigs with...
in the trumpet section. Malo's music was also hugely popular in Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, especially the songs "Chevere", "Nena", "Pana", "Cafe" and "Oye Mama".
After the release of its first album, many of Malo's original band members left the group in a rift widely popularized in the media. Buchtel went on to play with Blood, Sweat and Tears, Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
and Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
; Harrell became one of the most lyrical trumpet soloists of all-time, working often with saxophonist Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
; Abel Zarate went on to play with Latin-jazz legend Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo was the stage name of William Correa , an American jazz percussionist.-Biography:William Correa grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York City. He made his name in Latin Jazz, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, in the 1960s and '70s, with the timbales becoming his favoured instrument...
and continues to play Latin/Brazilian Global jazz in San Francisco with his group Zarate Pollace Project. Richard Bean formed the group "Sapo" with his brother Joe and still tours throughout Northern California; Jorge Santana embarked on a solo career and still plays frequently with the current Malo band, which is also still touring, featuring only two of its original members and led by Arcelio Garcia Jr., who took over the band in the late 1970s.
The 1972 "Suavecito" release was sung by Richard Bean with Abel Zarate and Arcelio Garcia on background vocals and Zarate playing the signature guitar riffs. Richard Bean continues to perform the single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
with Sapo and recently shared his story of writing "Suavecito" on CalMagazine.com Channel 9.
In 1995, Malo released a new CD entitled "Senorita" on the GNP Crescendo records label. The title track of the CD was written by new lead singer Martin Cantu, who like previous band members also grew up in San Francisco's Mission District. Martin went on to write "Take My Breath Away" with long-time friend Damon Bartlett and two other songs, "More Than Friends" and "Malo Ya Yellgo," with Arcelio Garcia. Since leaving Malo in 1998, Cantu has played with his new Gospel/Christian band, L-Rey.
A vocal section of "Suavecito" was included in the refrain of Sugar Ray
Sugar Ray
Sugar Ray is a band from Orange County, California. The band, starting off more as an alternative metal band, first gained fame in 1997 with their release of the song "Fly". This song's success, coupled with its pop rock sound that was quite different from the rest of their material at the time,...
's 1999 hit on the album "14:59", "Every Morning
Every Morning (Sugar Ray song)
"Every Morning" is the second track off Sugar Ray's third album 14:59. It was one of Sugar Ray's most successful singles, climbing all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart...
.
Discography
- MaloMalo (album)Malo is the first album by 12-piece San Francisco band Malo, released in 1972.It contains the #18 single, "Suavecito". The album charted 14 at Pop albums.- Track listing :# "Pana" - 6:45...
(Warner Brothers RecordsWarner Bros. RecordsWarner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, 1972) - DosDos (Malo album)Dos is the second album by Latin Rock band Malo, released in 1972.- Track listing :# "Momotombo" - 5:06 # "Oye Mamá" - 6:03 # "I'm For Real" - 6:39...
(Warner Brothers, 1972) - EvolutionEvolution (Malo album)Evolution is the third album by Latin Rock band Malo, released in 1973. The album has been reissued on CD in 2001 as one of the discs in Rhino Handmade's Celebración box set, with the addition of single edits of I Don't Know and Merengue....
(Warner Brothers, 1973) - AscenciónAscenciónAscención is the fourth album by Latin Rock band Malo, released in 1974.- Track listing :# "Offerings" - 5:40 # "A La Escuela" - 3:15 # "Everlasting Night" - 4:10...
(Warner Brothers, 1974) - Malo V (Traq, 1981) http://molo.fool.jp/malo/i6.cgi
- Coast To Coast (Blue Heron, 1986)
- The Best Of Malo (GNP CrescendoGNP Crescendo Record Co.GNP Crescendo Record Co. is an American record label based in Hollywood, California. Its catalog primarily consists of jazz records, as well as motion picture and television soundtracks and film scores, mostly in science fiction, fantasy and horror....
, 1991) - Señorita (GNP CrescendoGNP Crescendo Record Co.GNP Crescendo Record Co. is an American record label based in Hollywood, California. Its catalog primarily consists of jazz records, as well as motion picture and television soundtracks and film scores, mostly in science fiction, fantasy and horror....
, 1995) - Rocks The Rockies! (Night Beat, 1998)
- Celebración! The Warner Bros. Recordings (4-CD Box Set by Rhino Handmade, 2001)
- En Vivo/Live (EMI Latin, 2005)
- Live (Thump Records, 2006)