NEW
YORK www.ponderosastomp.com) - If the name of the rock band Mando &
the
Chili Peppers doesn't evoke the immediate glint of recognition of,
say, the Red Hot
Chili Peppers, join the club. They haven't played a
gig since 1959.
This seminal
Texas rock'n'roll band has chosen
the occasion of the globally acclaimed roots music romp Ponderosa Stomp
in which to reunite and show the world they can still rock � after more
than 40 years off stage! Ponderosa Stomp is held on Tuesday &
Wednesday, April 26 & 27, at Mid City Rock'n' Bowl in New Orleans,
and will feature a host of blues, soul, garage rock, rockabilly, trad
country, Zydeco and swamp pop originators. Details and tickets may be
found at
https://www.ponderosastomp.com .
Mando
& the
Chili Peppers have likely inspired more fantasy and fancy
than anyone else in the hallowed halls where Ponderosa Stomp's Mystic
Knights of the Mau-Mau dream up their doings. They've topped the wish
list from day one; their shrine is bowed to daily in the Knights' Hall
Of Fame; toasts are often seen raised to the glory of their sole long
player, 1957's On The Road With Rock 'n' Roll. So the very idea that
they're confirmed to play the 2005 Ponderosa Stomp is at once
unbelievable and at the same time just as it should be.
If
you're wondering what all the fuss is about, take into account that
Mando & the
Chili Peppers are no ordinary band. In fact, at times
their very existence has seemed almost too good to be true. The aural
evidence suggests a group of swamp pop fanatics (who also have a
particular affinity for jazz, country & western and
Little Richard)
raised in a border town barrio recording at Cosimo's studio in New
Orleans � with Crescent City session cats sitting in. And where did
they disappear to after churning out that one great long player of the
ages? Rumors that some of the band moved to
Chicago and worked with
Eddy Clearwater seemed at once too good to be true and yet...well, but
of course!!
Led by one Armando Almendarez, nee Mando, the Chili
Peppers originally came to life as San Antonio Alegre before changing
their name to the slicker Mando & the Latineers.
Texas guitarist
Randy Garibay recalled the band's glorious beginnings for an article in
the San Antonio Express News: "I'd go to these house parties with my
brother and this guy Armando Almendarez and San Antonio Alegre would be
playing. They'd do the standard polkas and boleros and then, all of a
sudden, with Mando playing accordion, they'd break into 'Lucille' or
'Just Because' by
Lloyd Price. It was amazing. That's when I first
heard rock 'n' roll."
Inspired by
Little Richard, Fats Domino,
Gatemouth Brown and Clifton Chenier, when Mando began wielding his
accordion for San Antonio's Rio Records in the mid-'50s, he blazed
through breakneck renditions of Chenier's "Boppin' The Rock" and Chuck
Berry's "Maybelline" alongside the usual crudely-recorded conjutos that
the label specialized in. When Mando swapped his squeezebox for an
electric bass and boyhood pal
Jesse "Chucho" Perales traded his bajo
sexto for an electric guitar, the Latineers were born.
By 1956,
they had their own TV show on San Antonio's KCOR-TV appropriately
titled "Rock 'n' Roll" and were the proud owners of a black Packard
limousine which took them to engagements in
Vegas and Denver, where
Golden Crest Records boss man Clark Galehouse staggered upon one of
their red hot stage performances in the middle of a snow storm. If the
liner notes to On The Road With Rock 'n' Roll are to be believed,
Galehouse, a Long Island plastics manufacturer who dabbled in big band
recordings, was only in Denver due to the blizzard that had grounded
his plane en route to a music convention in Idaho. Galehouse changed
their name to the
Chili Peppers and released their first single, a
swampy, Fats Domino-esque treatment of the 1939 standard "South Of The
Border" backed with the bayou-meets-barrio rocker "Don't Say Goodnight."
The
results were magical. The band's insistent, triplet-infused back beat
coupled with Mando's lilting, laid-back Tex-Mex vocalizing made "South
Of The Border" the absolutely definitive rendition of an already great
song, and it became a hit along the Gulf Coast, particularly in New
Orleans. They followed it up was the frantic mambo-charged "I Love To
Eat
Chili in Chile," which sounded like Perez Prado cutting loose with
a Crescent City R&B band.
On The Road With Rock 'n' Roll was
a bold step for Galehouse, as LPs were a rare commodity for rock 'n'
roll bands in 1957 (two years later, he'd roll out the red carpet for
Tacoma, Washington's similarly rocking Fabulous Wailers, whose stunning
debut LP was unleashed in 1959), but the album stands as one of the
best ever, genres be damned. Not long after its release, the Chili
Peppers drifted into rock 'n' roll's bottomless underground. By the
time Ace Records reissued On The Road With Rock 'n' Roll in 1998 � with
liner notes by Mando fan Billy Gibbons of
ZZ Top -- the members'
whereabouts were completely unknown.
Seven years of detective
work later, the Tex-Mex rock 'n' roll pioneers are set to play their
first gig in over 40 years -- at Ponderosa Stomp.
And Mando
& the
Chili Peppers are merely only one such story in the naked
city. Ponderosa Stomp 2005 will also feature (in alphabetical order)
The Bad Roads, Classie Ballou, Archie Bell, Eddie Bo, Blowfly, Lonnie
Brooks as Guitar Junior, The Carter Brothers, Jay Chevalier, Joe Clay,
Eddy Clearwater, Larry De Riuex, Deke Dickerson & the Eccofonics,
Skip Easterling, Nokie Edwards (of the Ventures), Johnny Farina (of
Santo & Johnny), H Bomb Ferguson, Henry Gray, Betty Harris, Dale
Hawkins, Roy Head, Al Johnson, Johnny Jones,
Little Freddy King, Eddie
Kirkland, Lady Bo, Lazy Lester, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Matt Lucas,
Barbara Lynn,
Nathaniel Mayer,
Scotty Moore, Phil Phillips, Freddie
Roulette, Lil' Buck Senegal & the
Top Cats with Stanley "Buckwheat
Zydeco" Dural on Hammond B3 organ, Ray Sharpe, Warren Storm, Willie
Tee,
Travis Wammack, Barrence Whitfield (doubling as performer and
emcee), Brenton Wood and Link Wray.
