Rudy Regalado & Chevere

Rudy Regalado & Chevere

Chevere is Spanish for "Cool", "Great", "Wonderful". With compositions and arrangements by El Gran Maestro Oscar Meza and a line-up of musicians that reads like a Creme de la Creme of the Los Angeles Latin music scene, Chevere's moniker seems appropriate.

Chevere has performed overseas in summer festivals in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Kuala Lampur, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Canada, Puerto Rico and throughout the European continent. In the United States, Chevere has appeared at The Playboy Jazz Festival, L.A. Street Scene, Hollywood Dance Machine, Disneyland, Magic Mountain, Universal Studios, The Los Angeles Forum and on The Tonight Show, The Nancy Wilson Show, American Bandstand and the Jose Feliciano Special. In between tours, they have created TV scores for Miller, Bud Light, Budweiser, Busch, Dr. Pepper and The California State Lottery.

Venezuela is the birthplace of Hector "Rudy" Regalado, founder and leader of the L.A.-based Latin big band known as Chevere. Regalado began his musical training in Caracas and later moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to study at internationally renowned Pablo Casals Conservatory as a percussion major.

While playing at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, Regalado was offered a gig in California as a drummer with a rock band. And in 1971, Regalado joined El Chicano, a Latin rock band born in East L. A. After El Chicano, Rudy became a member of Tolu, an all-star big band that received recognition and critical acclaim through a series of intense live performances in the early eighties.

In 1982, Regalado realized that in order to bring his own style of music to the world, he needed to form his own big band. Initially known as Todos Estrellas, Regalado's band made its debut in December of 1983 at an annual Christmas telethon called Navidad en el Barrio (Christmas in the Barrio). The name of the band was soon changed to "Chevere", the colloquial adjective of Cuban origin which so aptly describes this exciting, high-energy group.

Rudy Regalado has recorded with Quincy Jones and Alphonse Mouzon, composed the title track for Weather Report founder and keyboardist Joe Zawinul's 1988 Columbia recording Criollo and participated in the U.S. Recording debut of Alex Acuna, a Peruvian drummer who also paid his dues via collaborations with Weather Report.

Currently available from NETunes for only $9.99 per CD shipping included...

La Gloria

FREE MP3

For a FREE MP3 from Chevere's La Gloria CD, click on below...

CHEVERE
(Rudy Regalado, Harry Kim and Michito Sanchez) 3:44

Chevere@NETunes.com