Genre names are, for the most part, ridiculous ways for folks to display records in stores and hock stuffs to the consumer public. Chicano Rock, for whatever reason, doesn’t bother me as much as other contrived genre name. Part of that, I’d imagine, is the fact that brown folks wouldn’t object to the classification. There might be a sense of pride in having an entire ‘thing’ named after one’s heritage. Maybe not, but it sounds better than post-punk or whatever other silly amalgam of random words have been mashed together in order to distill the sound of music in two words.

Of course, Chicano Rock has to include everything from Santana to Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers. The overarching inclusion of rock, funk, soul, Latin and African percussion is what holds it all together. And while neither of those aforementioned bands sound too much alike, if they were to have performed together during the ‘70s the resultant show would have been well attended and also probably a pretty funky good time.

Regardless of that speculation, there were other west coast ensembles apart from Santa and his cohort working out some combination of funky and soulful sounds. Down there in Los Angeles, a group called the VIPs was working towards the end of the ‘60s. Shortly thereafter, the band, led by Bobby Espinosa, his organ and Mickey Lespron’s jazzy guitar chords, changed its name to El Chicano – hopefully no translation is necessary.

Gigging around SoCal the group gained a decent sized local following and eventually garnered a recording deal with MCA for which El Chicano released Viva Tirado in 1970. The disc, comprised of mostly covers, was still a soul-jazz affair with more than a dash of Latin percussion stuff that granted the group a singular sound. Again, there were unquestionably other groups working in this territory, but between the unique voicings of Espinosa’s organ and Lespron’s chunky jazz chording, El Chicano became something of a sensation.

In listening to the album almost forty years after its release, the grooves still speak to a time and place while summoning images of traversing the concrete landscape of East LA. That’s some pretty hefty stuff for an album to do this long after its release.

But what the disc and El Chicano is most remembered for – even as the group performs today – is its cover of Gordon Wilson’s homage to Mexican bullfighter Jose Ramon Tirado entitled "Viva Tirado." The song should be instantly recognizable even to those that don’t generally explore the Latin side of funk and soul. Either way, it’s a classic. And having survived atop the charts for thirteen weeks after its release, El Chicano was able to tour extensively on the East and West coasts becoming the first Hispanic group to ever perform at Harlem’s Appollo Theater.

El Chicano, though, regardless of its past successes is still highly regarded today. And even if those sporadic live performances don’t yield a general popularity, the band remains an important part of America’s development of soul, funk and jazz.