Juan Escovedo finally going solo
Having been raised in an incredibly talented musical family, Juan Escovedo learned a lot from his siblings, parents, and friends. In fact, his father, legendary percussionist Pete Escovedo, would often have jam sessions in their living room with contemporaries including Carlos Santana and Neal Schon from Journey.
Escovedo set about at an early age to learn how to play a wide variety of percussion instruments on his own, including congas, bongos, trap drums, and timbales.
Over the years, the selftaught Escovedo made quite the name for himself with his impassioned playing and palpable love for music. Along the way, the first-class percussionist built an amazing resume of artists that he recorded or performed with, including a veritable who's who of rock n' roll — luminaries such as Prince, Lionel
Richie, Gloria Estefan, En Vogue, MC Hammer, Barry White and of course, his own family.
Escovedo started performing with his father when he was only 14 years old — over time he has also played consistently with his sister Sheila E and numerous other gifted musicians in his family.
“We respect each other, who's in charge, who's hiring, that's why we've never really had conflict like when I see other families play together,” said Escovedo.
“If it's my father's band, we have to listen to him — we still do!”
After nearly four decades of making music with others, Escovedo released his first solo album last November, “The J,” an excellent collection of songs that meld Latin, jazz, funk, rock, and more.
According to Escovedo, this was actually the third time he tried to put together a solo album, that the first two attempts just didn't sound quite the way he wanted them to, and that things finally came together when he started writing with Michael Angel Alvarado and his brother Peter Michael Escovedo came in as the producer.
When Escovedo first met Alvarado, he liked his guitar, bass, and keyboard playing, a multi-skill set that would later help with their songwriting collaborations.
“I liked his personality, the way we played, we started talking and I said, `I have some songs that I haven't finished, I would love to see what you feel and what you can add to them,” said Escovedo.“Once we got together with his ideas, I was like `Wow!'”
The album was released in November when Escovedo and friends and family celebrated with a couple of sold-out shows at Yoshi's in Oakland, and the first video from the album, “Angel” was released shortly afterward in December.
The catchy, instantly danceable follow-up, “Baila Cha Cha Cha,” was released earlier this month, featuring a fun back and forth style showing a variety of Escovedo's friends and family dancing and performing.
Among the 10 tracks on “The J” are three cover songs, all offering cool and interesting interpretations of the original; Tears For Fears' “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” Simply Red's “Holding Back The Years,” and the final song on the album, Escovedo's take on a Journey classic.
“I love Journey — Neal Schon used to play in my father's band,” said Escovedo. “And I just love `Don't Stop Believing,' it's a bad tune!”
Escovedo plans on playing many more concerts now, both with his own band, and he continues to collaborate with other musicians — and he's excited to be reconnecting with fans again after the COVID lockdowns put a stop to virtually all live music events.
“When you come back and see the fans, I'm happy, but the fans really missed it,” said Escovedo.
“You realize how much we can actually put out and receive so much love, and so much respect — it's a fun thing to be able to be a professional musician.”