The seeds of PICANTE were sown as early as 1994. I had been helping starting up or supporting various bands and projects for and with other musicians while constantly pushing back my own, as of yet un-named project. I had been writing more music with a defined purpose and direction, but yet, the projects I was involved in weren’t just quite for the music I had written. In 1996 I made an attempt to form the first version of the un-named project by enlisting a few musicians that I had already been playing with in some previous projects. (Names being withheld to avoid troubles!) We got together at my home, myself; a guitarist, a trap set drummer, and 2 percussionists, and literally just jammed and came up with some new material. We also worked on some of my original compositions as well as those that the guitarist came up with. We actually even committed some of the music to tape for future reference. But after listening to the recording, and I really thought the music and musicianship was good, I decided that it really wasn’t the direction that I wanted to take with the project I had in mind. Four years pass before I make another move towards my project.
In the year 2000, I joined fulltime one of the oldest Mambo/Latin Jazz ensembles in Chicago (See name withholding in above paragraph!) that I had played with off and on for about 15 years. After a few months, I was assigned to be the musical director, chief arranger, and logistics manager for this band. During my fulltime tenure with this band, the bandleader constantly changed band personnel. Once again, I found myself looking to people I had worked with in order to put together a reliable back bone for this project, neglecting my own project once again! This version of the band was probably one of the best in years and was breaking attendance records at a regular venue that we played at. So I knew I was kind of going in the right direction, personnel wise. I continued to write more music but again, this project wasn’t the right medium to present my ideas. Then, a turning point came in 2003.
In mid summer of 2003, I received a phone call from a woman who was to be wed in early fall. She was inquiring about me and my band for her wedding. I asked if she meant the band I was currently in, as I wasn’t the bandleader. She said: “No, I want to hire your band.” So naturally I said “Sure!” After I had negotiated the terms, written out a contract, and mailed said contract with a poop eating grin, I realized that I DIDN”T HAVE MY OWN BAND! Oh crap! What am I going to do! So after I regained my composure, I figured that I would call the same musicians I had assembled in 1996 for this wedding. Then as I was dialing the first phone number, I stopped myself and said “No! If I’m going to do this, I’m going to use the best musicians I know so that I can really play what I had in mind.” So I put in a bunch of calls to the best musicians that I knew and got only two replies out of thirteen calls! So I thought to myself that two calls are better than none. Besides, the return calls I got were from a keyboardist, Bob Long, and a percussionist, Rick Purro. I figured what the heck, I’ve got a great rhythm section at least! But I did contract for a quartet. So I called my friend Bill Kujawa to round out on trap drum set. After about three rehearsals, we had the material nailed. This was the original PICANTE that played it’s first gig at a wedding. And the ball started rolling! Later in October 14, 2003, I procured opening for Conjunto, another extremely talented Latin Jazz ensemble in Chicago. This time, I augmented the band with two horn players, Willie Garcia on saxophone & Freddie Rodriguez on trumpet. Also I had Carlos Cornier on percussion for this show as Rick Purro had a commitment in which he couldn’t reschedule. The reason I remember that exact date is because it was the date that the Chicago Cubs were robbed of their World Series chance by Cubs fan Steve Bartman. Also, due to that very fact that this was a play off game of much import, we played to a capacity crowd of 4 not including the bar staff! I still remember getting score updates between songs from the T.V set at the venue! Shortly after this show, I parted ways with the Mambo ensemble that I was still playing with to concentrate on PICANTE.
So in rings 2004 with more writing, somewhat of a band together as I lost my horn section and trap drummer. So in essence it was just Bob Long, Carlos Cornier, and me. A great rhythm section with no melodic voices, so to speak. So I spent the first quarter of 2004 doing minor music work like subbing and some minor recording. It was during one of those subbing gigs that I found trumpeter Chris Davis. I didn’t ask him to join straight away, but I knew I wanted him in the band that I almost didn’t have at this point. It was during this time that whilst on my day job, I happened on to a new Cuban restaurant that had just opened, Café LaGuardia West. I noticed that they had a tiny little stage. I inquired if they offered live entertainment in which they said yes. So if course I asked about playing there and they reluctantly offered me a date as I didn’t have ANY demos or press kit. I thought to myself “Great! I got a gig for PICANTE! I DON’T HAVE A FULL BAND!” I had three weeks to gather a band together. I frantically was making calls and had no one to do this gig. I was really starting to freak out as the gig was a week away and I had no band! I was even starting to fell physically sick because I thought I wasn’t going to be able to commit to this date! It then occurred to me that I had been playing in another world music ensemble called Sabu with Carlos and a few others. I decided to call some of those few others, namely Mani Bances and Rich Conti. So in addition to Mani, Rich & Carlos, the band included Bob & me. We did one rehearsal, as that was all the time we had and we were determined to do the best we could.
We showed up at Café LaGuardia and set up our gear, quite crowded on the tiny stage. Owner and Executive Chef Jorge LaGuardia was just watching us with quite a bit of suspicion, as he still hadn’t heard us play a note, while we set up. It is now show time. We hit and PICANTE was a hit! I knew this right away as I looked at Jorge and saw a huge grin on his face. As the evening went along even the kitchen staff came out to dance while the food orders were piling up! But the customers didn’t seem to care because they too were dancing! It appears that PICANTE was a hit and were asked to return again and again. It was at this time that I would alternate the personnel of the band as well. Sometimes I would include Chris Davis whom I hadn’t forgotten about on trumpet and my friend Roy Trevino from Conjunto on percussion. I even had the opportunity to have Rick Purro play with us a couple of time too!
2006 was a year that affected PICANTE personally and in personnel. Our first loss was Bob Long. He was moving out to the West coast to further his education and pursue his career. Losing Bob to me was major as he was the one that encouraged and supported me when I put PICANTE in full operation mode. Filling Bob’s shoes was not going to be an easy feat. But in came the suggestion of Rob Block. Recently displaced by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Rob and his wife Tomoko landed in the Chicago area. I remember going to an open jam previously that my friend Steve Hashimoto hosted and I met Rob there the first time and was very impressed as he not only played piano, he also played great guitar! There was no question that Rob could do the job. He was most definitely in. 2006 also brought us in some very frightening news. Carlos had been diagnosed with cancer. We had been contracted to do a show right at the same time he was scheduled to undergo surgery. He had recommended another percussionist named Paul Cotton. I knew Paul from one of those many projects that I was helping get off the ground back in the late ‘90s. Since I was familiar with his style and I knew I could lock in with him rhythmically, it was a no brainer that he would be a suitable substitute for Carlos while he recovered.
In 2007, the official PICANTE roster was Mani Bances, Rob Block, Rich Conti, Carlos Cornier, Paul Cotton, Chris Davis, and me. We decided to ask Paul in the band full time as he really filled in a rhythmic void that was present. This was also the year that Rob introduced us to keyboardist Alex English. As Rob schedule began to get busy, he would recommend young Alex as his substitute. We so much enjoyed what Alex was doing, we asked him to join full time! So now we had both Alex & Rob in the band.
From 2007 until now, PICANTE’s personnel has generally stayed the same and has played a numerous amount of shows in that time. We’ve made and met many new friends, experienced many interesting things and have really come to know what we do best. Playing the best World-Latin-Jazz music that we can possibly provide to all of our friends and supporters.
