Ruben Guevara and The Eastside Luvers The Tao of Funkahuatl review by Vicente Mercado

Rubén Guevara and The Eastside Luvers 
The Tao of Funkahuatl

by Vicente Mercado

  

Rubén Guevara and The Eastside Luvers’ The Tao of Funkahuatl is a highly personal and long overdue album that borderlines on a masterpiece. A man of multiple talents who has gone through several incarnations in his long career, Guevara put together The Eastside Luvers, a top notch band of veteran musicians to helpe him create an original musical blend of subtle funk, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, spoken word, Mex-Americana, and good old time rock ‘n’ roll. Produced by Guevara and John Avila, engineered and mixed by Avila, of the El Chicano, Food for Feet, and Oingo Boingo fame. The first half of the album was entirely written by Ruben Guevara.  For the flip side Guevara wrote the lyrics and was joined by the whole band in composing the music. Minimalist is a word that can be used to describe the album’s overall bare bones sound. The four instruments mostly lay a thick solid funk and jazz foundation for Guevara’s poetic singing or spoken word.
    Presently, The Tao of Funkahuatl is limited to 100 vinyl copies with a signed art print by artist John Valadez. The release bridges many things: Chicano music and Chicano art; East and West; sexuality and spirituality; youth and wisdom; yesteryear’s music format, vinyl, and today’s downloads. (A download link is included with each album.)

    A couple of decades ago Rubén Guevara created and adopted a new persona, Funkahuatl -the Aztec god of funk based on a character from a solo performance art piece.  In The Tao of Funkahuatl he sings, defines, discloses, and explains his new outlook on life and philosophy: mature love, sensuality, sexuality and spirituality as a senior soul man, reflecting on his personal life, Tibetan Buddhism, the beauty of the duality of Chicano life, and Pachuquismo. Like many thinkers, shamans, visionaries, and Chicano philosophers who have tried to intellectualize the idea of being a pachuco, The Tao of Funkahuatl takes a stab at it, and borrows professor/poet Alurista’s, definition, “Being a pachuco is living your life as a work of art.” This concept became a principal tenet in The Tao of Funkahuatl.
    Rubén Guevara was born into show business. His father was part of a Mexican trio who came to Los Angeles in the late 1930s to represent Mexico in an international folk music festival at the LA Memorial Coliseum. The group included one of Mexican ranchero music’s main icons Miguel Aceves Mejia. The group, Los Porteños, found steady work doing live radio, movie soundtracks, and concerts and refused to follow Aceves Mejia back to Mexico. Guevara’s mother, Sarita Vara, met Rubén senior back stage at the Million Dollar Theatre after a performance. She convinced his dad to stay and pursue his career in LA. She later became an actress who performed with leading Hollywood movie stars such as Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, and Jack Palance. 

    Guevara was born in Boyle Heights but lived all over L. A.  due to the family constantly moving because of his dad’s touring. He finally moved to Boyle Heights in the early eighties, then later worked on the movie Born in East L. A. as an actor and music producer/coordinator. He was credited on screen as the flick’s East L. A.’s cultural attache. Since then he has been a proud resident and cultural activist in the area, becoming, as the LA Times put it, “Cultural godfather of Boyle Heights,” which is the principal setting for The Tao of Funkahuatl.

    Guevara began his musical career as part of the doo wop duo The Apollo Brothers, (the duo’s name was misspelled by the printer, reading Appollo with two Ps), ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5mHSVWdrMs ). He did one national TV music appearance on Shindig! in his early 20s along with Tina Turner and Bo Diddley. 

He is better known for bringing to life the Frank Zappa concept album Cruising with Ruben and The Jets. Fatefully, Guevara’s first name was Ruben and had a long history of singing doo wop with the Apollo Brothers since the late 50s and early 60s and had deep appreciation for modern classical composers. This led Zappa to ask him to form and lead a for real Ruben and The Jets. They recorded two albums for Mercury Records (1973), and constantly toured all over the country, opening for big rock ’n’ roll acts of the early seventies, such as Frank Zappa and The Mothers, Three Dog Night, T-Rex, West Bruce and Laing, playing every important venue and festival of the day. (When I interviewed Ruben back in 1980 we discovered that we were both big Bruce Sprinsteen fans -who was at the threshold of superstardom at that time, Guevara shared with a gleam in his eyes that when Ruben and The Jets played New York City, either at the Filmore East or Max’s Kansas City, Bruce Sprinsteen and The E Street Band shared the marquee, scheduled to play the next day.)

     When it came to women, Ruben lived a typical rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. There was a band of groupies along the Sunset Strip back in the day, who became legendary for sleeping with just about every major rock star. They eventually formed an all girl rock ’n’ roll group and recorded one album as The GTOs, Girls Together Outrageously, guided by Frank Zappa. A member, Pamela (Miller) Des Barres, eventually wrote the tell all book “I’m With The Band” about their sexual experiences, which has since become a significant part of rock ’n’ roll’s lore. Rubén gets an honorable entry in the book. 

     In contrast to that era of sexual pleasure abuse, libido and intimacy of a man in his mid sixties is an idea across the new album. “Actually, I’m addressing the increased libido and intimacy that can be achieved through Tantric practice” (as in) “Crawlin’ in Lust, Love & Light” when merged with conscious love making,” explained Guevara. There is a reference to Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” furthering the idea. Wisdom, touching, and making love to a woman’s soul and spirit are spoken about as Guevara reflects on his platonic relationships with women and the wisdom that he has learned with age. 

    The line “Spider Woman incarnate” is the only connection to Ruben and the Jets on The Tao of Funkahuatl. Night Train, a character in the spoken word piece “Sacred Hearts” is such. The narrator picks her up in skid row, her tattooed figure is not gone yet. She is taken through a cruise across Boyle Heights and East L. A., ending up in City Terrace Park, where they make love viewing the city lights below. After peaking and passing out, the narrator is awakened by her sobbing, crying out some dude’s name. 

    In the late 70s and through the 80s Guevara led the group Con Safos. Always made up of a Chicano/East L. A. stellar line up, the group recorded the song “C/S”. Guevara drew a line on the sandy bank of the L. A. River. The song can be taken as an angry indictment against the historical mistreatment of the descendants of the founders of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula. It was like a child telling his mother that despite the abuse and neglect, he still loves her. That anger turns into wisdom, beauty and poetry in “La Virgencita de Boyle Heights,” a passionate pachuco prayer/spoken word piece told over a lonely bass line that plays echoes of a thousand traditional and familiar barrio rhythm and blues anthems. Guevara digs deep into the soul, heart, spirit and life of the bilingual/bicultural Boyle Heights people. There is no Virgen of Boyle Heights, but you are made to believe that there is one. He paints a human like beautiful virgen, full of compassion and soul, with a sensual touch in her angel baby eyes. The smell and taste of Wrigley’s chewing gum, corn dough for tamales, lipstick, and mole poblano come through. Joy, anger despair, sweat, fatigue, hope, and the asking for love, forgiveness, and energy are deeply felt. In this plea he captures the color, smell, taste, feel, and sound of all those struggling through life in this sliver of America. The only thing missing on this piece is the pipe wrapping of a straight six Chevy and Lil Willie G. exclaiming “Va va voom!”
    In a recent talk with Guevara, I mentioned that I heard Americana in his album. Then the discussion turned into what is Americana, a musical style, or a cultural thing. The Eastside Luvers guitarist, Bob Robles, plays with Thee Midniters and the Chicano Roots/Americana group Tremoloco. Bob brought along a lot of that into The Tao of Funkahuatl. Ry Cooder’s guitar playing style comes to mind. In my opinion, what Rubén Guevara and The Eastside Luvers do in this album is firmly place the Chicano community as part of Americana, “or MexAmericana,” as Guevara puts it.

    “At the Eastside Luv” is a catchy blues-rock tune that could be perceived as an infomercial for that Chicano wine and cheese bar. (I don’t go out that much because of my hearing. Most of the people who grew up in the sixties and seventies suffer from the same hearing damage. We should have listened to our fathers when they told us to turn down that damned stereo. Anyhow, the few times I’ve been to the Eastside Luv, never seen any cheese, not even cotija nor queso fresco, so I can’t see the cheese part.) Rubén sings over a contemporary sort of Howling Wolf groove, with a jazzy spoken word bridge, and yet a pachuco hop bridge within it. The veteran band easily and flawlessly goes through the changes. Sax player Steve Alaniz carries the melody, not only on this cut but throughout the album. He has superior jazz chops. Alaniz and drummer Ramon Banda speak the same jazz language. 

     “Flesh and Bone” has the attitude of a man practically bragging about inventing electricity and the telephone, but in essence, this man worries about being just a mortal who has found an ethereal young maiden. Age is an issue. He begs the young woman not to tell her parents how old he is, just to tell them about the magic he has. There is excellent interplay between Robles’ guitar and Alaniz’ sax. “I call the tune musically - swamp rock,”  stated Guevara. 

    “The Eyes of God.”  Every album must have a slow tempo rola, but leave it to Rubén Guevara and The Eastside Luvers to turn this age old barrio tradition into a cinematic, philosophical, gospel meets the Eastside Sound juxtaposition. I got writer’s block working and thinking to come up with about something deep and transcendent about this tune. I’ll let Ruben explain, “I think this song comes from a Xikano (I use this spelling because the song’s message comes from a spiritualized Chicano) gospel/ballad angle – Staples Singers meet Lil Willie G. I agree it does have a touch of Ry Cooder/Americana.  It sheds light on a predicament that many active men in their 60s might encounter – still feel half their age but don’t look it. The attraction one feels for young beautiful women but because of societal norms is considered taboo to pursue. And, being a so-called mentor and Chicano role model and elder you have to respect that role. So, you figure out ways to have a relationship - platonic ones. You create a platonic harem. Interestingly enough, I learned more about love through platonic relationships than through carnal ones. There is more loving compassion than heated passion. More selflessness. You really open your heart more. Like one of the lines says, 'Even though we may never be lovers, still, there are many ways to love. I will love you in all my dream time, in every heart beat, breath, and song.' The song is also a painful swan song to my youth.”

    “When I Was Young” sets the premise to many of the stories, lots of free and easy love in his youth. Then age came. Poetry being a strong part of The Tao of Funkahuatl, “My smile no longer kills,” he reflects. Many of us men past mid fifties can relate to that line on this funk driven song.

    Ruben Guevara describes “Crawlin’ in Lust, Love, & Light” as having  a ”funky Latin groove.” I does have a catchy funk bass line with a clean James Brown like rhythm guitar riff. The “Latin” part is ironic, despite of drummer Ramon Banda having superb Afro Cuban credentials: original longtime Poncho Sanchez timbal player, co-leader of The Banda Brothers band, and one of the busiest timbalero and jazz drummer in Southern California, The Tao of Funkahuatl is entirely short on Latin percussion, no conga, no cowbell, no guiro, and no maracas. Ramon’s creative high hat pattern gives “Crawlin’ in Lust, Love, & Light” a Latin feel. (I stand corrected, Ramon plays conga, but it mostly heard in the outro.)According to Guevara  the song “looks at the three levels of a true love relationship – first the lusty romantic attraction, then a committed love, then after many years of devoted mutual, reciprocal spiritual love, the relationship goes into 'light' territory – enlightened love – true love. There is a playful pick up line about wanting to touch and kiss in places she has never been touched or kissed before. But I’m talking about touching, kissing and blissing her soul.” 

    The title song closes “The Tao of Funkahuatl.” Here Ruben Guevara lays down the tao, or way, of the tantric pachuco lifestyle he has created for himself. Borrowing a line from Chicano poet and college professor Alurista, who wrote that the pachuco lifestyle is living your life as a work of art. Guevara adds to this mix the “Tibetan Tantric Buddhism (concept of) the merging of sexuality and spirituality on the path to enlightenment: 'Make love with your life, your spirit and your soul, sex is sacred, love is God.'" An important personal discovery of a historical character, pretty much like himself, the Sixth Dalai “Lover” Lama, who practiced Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, wrote poetry and songs and loved drinking wine and women, but was busted hanging out at the local tavern and eventually defrocked and exiled, further inspired Funkahuatl’s  philosophy. Now, the catch to all this deep meditative contemplation is that you are dancing.