Rubén Ramos, El Gato Negro, comes to Perrysburg

The Perrysburg Heights Community Association hosts its annual South of the Border Festival in the Perrysburg Heights area this weekend, August 11-13, with San Antonio legend Rubén Ramos as the headliner on Saturday.
 

El Gato Negro—a Grammy winner, member of the Pura Vida and Tejano Music Awards Halls of Fame—is known as “one of the smoothest singers and classiest band leaders in the history of the genre [música tejana],” according to Ramiro Burr, in his Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican Music. At the Tejano Music Awards, based in San Antonio, he received: Best Performance—Male (March 1999) and Video of the Year (March 1999).

With a family musical heritage of over 80 years of collective history, Ramos-Pérez, born in Sugarland, Texas, has deep roots en la música tejana.

According to www.rubenramos.com, “The Ramos musical legacy began in post-World War I Texas. Rubén’s tios began performing after World War I in 1919 as Juan Manuel Pérez and the Serenaders (Los Serenateros). Between 1919 and 1941, the Serenaders eventually included all nine of Rubén’s uncles.

At the end of World War II, Rubén’s uncles returned. Tio Justin re-grouped as Justin Pérez and His Ex-GIs. They established themselves as a “topnotch, big-band orchestra in the 1940s, complete with sit-down horns, music stands, dark suits and ties, and a sound consistent with the times,” according to www.rubenramos.com.
 

According to www.rubenramos.com, in the mid 1950s, the band became the Alfonso Ramos Orchestra. Rubén continued with the band on weekends, increasingly singing English cover R&B tunes, while he worked with the Texas insurance department.

All five Ramos brothers—Alfonso, Elijio, Rubén, Joe, and Roy—were performing. As the orchestra’s drummer, Rubén performed throughout the 1960s with Alfonso’s band. The band played a mix of tunes, from cha chas and cumbias to boleros and rancheras and from country to rock. Rubén provided the vocals and the push to many of the English songs the band played.

The name was picked because the 1970s saw the emergence of the Chicano civil rights movements. The band played the Texas circuit that ran from Dallas-Fort Worth to the Rio Grande Valley, recording a number of albums on a series of independents.

In 1987, Alfonso and Rubén were named best vocal duo at the 1987 Tejano music Awards. By this time, Ramos had scored with the regional hit “El Gato Negro” (The Black Cat), which became his nickname.

“I’m a horn’s man,” explains Rubén. “There ain’t nothing like a wall of sound—real sound—coming at you.” This depiction characterizes the sound of El Gato Negro—horns, drums with crashing cymbals, accordion so real you can hear the clicks of the buttons.

The Texas Revolution consists of: Joe Ramos (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Roy Ramos (bass), Alberto “Skeeter” Amesquita (trumpet and vocals), Rick Fuentes (accordion, percussion, guitar, vocals), Rick Reyes (drums), and, of course, Rubén Ramos (lead vocals).

Tickets for the Saturday performances are $10 for adults (presale price is $8); whereas the price is $5 for the performances on Friday and Sunday. Other entertainment includes: 56 Daze, La Autoridad de Matamoras, Laredo Band, Bad Boyz, DJ Excel, Tesoro, Tejano Sound, and Imagenes Mexicanas.  See the complete tentative schedule on page 16 of La Prensa.  Presale tickets are available at Treviños in Defiance, La Mexicana in Toledo, Mendoza’s in Findlay, or call Anita Serda, Festival Coordinator, at 419-450-3358.