TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Band Leader Looks For Local Latin Jazz Venues

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Jose "Pepe" Rios, drummer and band leader of Latin Heat, is hoping to find audiences in Highlands County for the band's Latin jazz.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: December 22, 2008

LAKE PLACID - Jose "Pepe" Rios said he followed his musical passion by putting together a first class Latin jazz band.

"When we're playing with all nine pieces, it's awesome, it just sends chills down my spine," he said.

His challenge now is finding venues to perform in Highlands County, where, he said, live music is dominated by rock 'n roll and country groups.

As the drummer/percussionist and band leader of Latin Heat, the 43-year-old state corrections officer said Latin jazz provides evocative and powerful rhythms and a unique sound.

This new local band's first performance came on Oct. 18 at the La Casita Mexican restaurant in Placid Lakes, and Rios said he's hoping the positive response from many in the audience of about 80 people will help lead to future opportunities to play locally.

"I'm very hopeful about that," he said. "I'm hoping we can give our music to different cultures for everybody to listen to and see what we can give to an audience."

Latin Heat has a five-member core, composed of Rios, lead guitar player Tony Suazo, bass player R. John Peningbatan, Raul Pinzon on timbales and percussion, and keyboardist Gary Johnson.

While they can perform with a 3-, 4- or 5-piece band for small settings, Rios said, he loves the full Latin jazz sound when they bring in the well known Cabelloro Horn Section from Lakeland.

"They're all American (born) and so talented," he said about the horn section, "and it's amazing how they can play the Cuban rhythms."

Music lovers can check out the band's sound by going to www.gigleader.com, typing in the local zip code, scrolling down to Latin Heat and playing the band's three-song demo CD.

Rios said the band may have to travel to the coasts, to Tampa, Fort Meyers or Miami, to find audiences hungry for Latin music, but he's hoping they can find home-based opportunities in Highlands County.

"That's the dream," he said. "And the dream is not going to die. I'm going to keep on going because that's my passion."

Rios said music has been his passion since he was 12 years old and started drum lessons at the government run Culture House in his native Cuba.

At age 19, Rios and his parents immigrated to Miami, he said, because "we never liked the Communist government, we didn't like they way they treated the people, and it was time to find freedom." But, he said, the free lessons in the arts, ranging from dance to music, painting and acting, for all school age children were one of the few bright spots in an otherwise repressive country.

At age 15, Rios started playing in bands that toured the country. To reach that skill level, his desire to develop into a musician was so strong that he and his father built a homemade set of drums so he could practice at home.

Due to chronic shortages of every type of goods in Cuba, he said, "you couldn't find a set of drums, even if you had the money."

He remembers working with his father, measuring a drum set at the school, cutting out plywood boards and soaking them in water so they could be bent, fastening them together with bolts and glue and scrap metal, and using salvaged X-ray films for the drum heads.

"That's how much desire there was to make music," Rios said. "It didn't sound like a real drum set, but it sounded pretty good."

Leaving Cuba in 1985, Rios and his parents first went to Costa Rica for six months, where he played local night clubs and hotels with a band called Locomotion, and then settled in Miami, where he became an American citizen four years later.

"I appreciate this country that received me with open arms," he said. "And it's awesome, to me it's rewarding to be in a country where there are human rights and freedom, which is something that Cuba doesn't have."

In 1997 Rios and wife, Sara, now a Realtor with Century 21 Compton Realty in Lake Placid, and their son Michael Anthony, now a sophomore at Lake Placid High School, moved to Placid Lakes.

They enjoy the peace and quiet of their semi-rural lifestyle, Rios said, and don't miss Miami's crowding, congestion, noise and high crime rate.

"I didn't want my son to grow up in that kind of environment, and I felt like it was time to move on," he said.

Through the years, Rios has played in a half dozen bands, performing many types of music including rock 'n roll, soft rock and a little country. But, he said, he has always gravitated to the Latin sounds and rhythms of salsa, meringue, bolero (ballads) and cumbia, which he describes as similar to Mexican ranchero but with a different rhythm.

Rios said there's plenty of opportunity to perform Latin jazz in Miami, but he doesn't regret the move and is committed to pursuing his music here.

"Music is my passion, but my family is very important to me," he said. "My family is going to come first, there is just no other way about it."

Highlands Today reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT