Legendary Interviews
Pete Escovedo
Legendary Percussionist Pete Escovedo is an artist who broke down the barriers between Smooth Jazz, Salsa, Latin Jazz and contemporary music. His name has been synonymous in the music industry for more than 50 years.
Born in Pittsburg, CA, July 13th, 1935, he began his musical journey while attending high school in Oakland, CA. At the age of sixteen, he began playing the saxophone and then discovered percussion which became his love of rhythm and his dream of playing Latin Jazz music.
After performing with various bands, in 1960 Pete and his brothers, Coke and Phil Escovedo formed the Escovedo Brothers Latin Jazz band, performing around the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 1970 Pete and Coke formed the band “Azteca” that toured the United States with Stevie Wonder and The Temptations. They recorded two albums on Columbia records which are now considered collectors items, “Azteca” and “Pyramid of the Moon”.
In 1972 Pete toured and performed
Patrice Rushen
Multi-Grammy nominated artist, Patrice Rushen, is fashioning her career after the legacy of her long-time friend and mentor, Quincy Jones. Composer...Producer...International Recording Artist...Rushen has definitely earned the respect she has been awarded by her peers in the music industry.
Admired by many for her groundbreaking achievements, Rushen has amassed an impressive list of “firsts”. She was the first woman to serve as Musical Director for the 46th, 47th & 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the first woman in 43 years to serve as Head Composer/Musical Director for television’s highest honor, the Emmy Awards and the first woman Musical Director of theNAACP Image Awards, an honor she held for 12 consecutive years. Rushen has also been the only woman Musical Director/Composer for the Peoples Choice Awards and HBO’s Comic Relief. She was the only woman Musical Director/Conductor/Arranger for a late-night television talk show. The show wasThe Midnight Hour, which aired on CBS.
Stephen Doc Kupka- Of The Tower Of Power
composer, and is a founding member of the band.
In 1968, Kupka met Emilio Castillo and joined his soul music cover band, The Motowns, which was based in Oakland, California. Kupka convinced Castillo to start performing original songs, and they changed the band's name to Tower of Power. Kupka has been with Tower of Power ever since, and is also responsible for co-writing (with Castillo) a majority of the band's songs.
"Doc" plays a Yamaha YBS-62 baritone saxophone, Berg Larsen 130 facing metal mouthpiece, and Rico Plasticover 1.5 strength reeds. Kupka has also recorded with numerous other artists, including The B-52's, Chicago, Dan Fogelberg, Heart, Elton John, Huey Lewis and the News, Little Feat, Elkie Brooks, and Bonnie Raitt.
In 1998, Kupka founded Strokeland Records along with Andy Ebon, CEO of Soul, as a platform for his own songwriting. Strokeland Records has since grown to include numerous other soul, jazz, and funk artists.[7][8][9]
In 2006, Steve Finch took over as director of operations for Strokeland Records as Kupka began work on two new releases: Doc Goes Hollywood (a collection of his songs written in the Great American Songbook style) and Bumped Up To First Class (a new collection of Kupka's classic soul songs in the early Tower of Power style).
