Ruben Guevara

To some listeners, Ruben Guevara (sometimes referred to as Ruben de Guevara) is most important as the man behind Ruben & the Jets, the real group that followed in the wake of the 1968 Frank Zappa album Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and left behind two of the finest rock & roll albums of the early to mid-'70s. But Guevara is more than that -- indeed, he is a multi-threat musician, performer, writer, and producer, for whom Ruben & the Jets are but one small musical achievement in a nearly five-decade career. He was born in California, the son of a Mexican immigrant musician and composer -- also named Ruben Guevara -- who moved to the United States following a 1941 performance in Los Angeles for Cinco de Mayo. He met his future wife backstage at the performance, and the two were later married. The younger Ruben Guevara spent his early years in the Mexican enclave of Santa Monica and later moved to Los Angeles. He started studying music with his father and at nine formally took up the trumpet, and became proficient enough to join the California All Youth Symphony. He reached his teens just as rock & roll and R&B were sweeping the nation, and in high school he began singing R&B harmony vocal (i.e., doo wop) music, in the mold of the Penguins, the Flamingos, et al. With a friend, Pablo Amarillas, he formed the Apollo Brothers. His early influences included Don & Dewey, Little Richard, the Cadillacs, and, a little later, Ritchie Valens. The Apollo Brothers performed at various local venues and were good enough to make it onto local television. Guevara continued studying music at Los Angeles City College. He played sessions, sang where he could, and made his way as younger musicians must. Then, in 1968, lightning seemed to strike nearby, if not exactly on his career, when...