Finally going solo

Juan Escovedo releases his first solo album

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

IF YOU GO

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Empress Theatre, Vallejo

Cost: $27.50-$55

For more Info: empresstheatre.org

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.