Grupo
Rodeo is making an exciting comeback, celebrating
the return of its original lead singers. That’s
right: brothers Alfonso and Marco Jaime, who served
as vocalists for the San Antonio-based group from
1993-97, are back. And their brotherly vocal blend
sounds better than ever on the new album Nuevos Caminos.
The Jaimes and Rodeo founder Frank Villarreal Jr.
got to talking during spring 2004 and realized that
they still wanted to make superb music together. “It
feels great because we had a real good thing going,
a good chemistry,” Frank says. “And the
chemistry is still there.”
You can see it when they play live and the crowds
are more enthusiastic than ever.
You can hear it on the first single “No Te Puedo
Olvidar,” a catchy cumbia written by Pete Bustamante
and Mark Ledezma. Harmonies that tight and emotion
that real are hard to come by in today’s music
scene. Rodeo also puts a new spin on some great tunes
of yesteryear, adding sax and accordion to the irresistible
cumbia “El Cafetal” and reinventing the
José Alfredo Jiménez chestnut “Sin
Sangre en las Venas.”
Rodeo makes musical excellence look easy, but the
group has built its reputation on a solid foundation
of experience. Villarreal Jr., the group's musical
director, played sax and keyboard with Emilio Navaira's
Grupo Río and arranged their first four albums.
His superb sax playing can be heard on recordings
by Latin music stars La Mafia, Jay Pérez and
Eddie González among others. Villarreal handles
producing and arranging duties, and co-writes many
of Rodeo's songs.
Naming the band Rodeo was Villarreal's idea. He used
to tell friends he had the perfect name for a group,
but if anyone asked him what that name was, he'd just
smile and say it was a secret. In June 1993 the secret
was out, as Rodeo impressed critics and fans with
its debut release Step By Step. Rodeo followed up
in 1994 with the CD Unidos, featuring the monster
hit "Cobardemente." The group's third release,
Nuestro Tiempo (1996) yielded a hit remake of the
conjunto classic "Cuatro Cartas."
Rodeo's 1997 CD Sobreviviendo produced another classic,
the smash cumbia "Esta Vez."
In 2000, the group signed with Luxor Records, releasing
2000 (Dos Mil), and earning a Tejano Music Awards
nomination for Showband of the Year. That album featured
the multiformat hit “El Baile de Rodeo.”
Rodeo released its second Luxor album, Estrellita
del Norte, in 2002.
|
