JOE JAMA
born June 12, 1949, This singer with a vocal range many
peers envy was born Joe Perales in San Antonio. He was raised
on Black music and he started singing along with the radio
and records at age 5.
"As for my name. When I got in with the Royal Jesters,
I was 16 and I was all verde (green) when I did my first
gig. It was in Corpus (Christi) and since it was out-of-town,
we had to spend the night in a motel.
"In the motel room, everyone was running around naked
and when I came out of the bathroom in pajamas, they took
one look at me, started laughing and calling me Joe Pajamas,"
Jama revealed.
"Later they shortened it to Joe Jamming, Joe Jamas,
until it would up Joe Jama; and that nickname stuck. In
fact Oscar Lawson even registered the name at the court
house."
"What got me interested in music? The Beatles! What
can I say. Elvis Presley was another of my idols,"
Jama said. "I learned all their songs then I taught
myself to play my cousin's guitar."
The first tune he learned was "Honky Tonk." Today
people say he sounds like a black singer in a Chicano body.
Jama can go pretty low and he can go pretty high. As a result,
he is best known as a soul singer who sings from the heart.
It's not really true Jama didn't record from 1976 to 1996
because if you've seen the Taco Cabana television commercial
featuring "Gotta Lotta Enchilada," that's Joe's
vocals making your mother water for an enchilada. Another
popular television commercial on which you can hear Jama's
voice is on a car dealership's commercial where Jama says,
"Here in S.A. it's Team Chevrolet." Jama has also
done Bud Lite and numerous other commercials |
