Head jalapeno, Professor Jose "Dr. Loco" Cuellar, chair of La Raza studies and leader of Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeno Band, is flying high with the release of the band's third album, Puro Party, the second on the Flying Fish Records label.
He says that managing his career as a musician and educator can be tricky.
"We dedicate Wednesday evenings to rehearsal and we perform on weekends -- mostly Fridays and Saturdays," Cuellar said. "We've all learned over the years to balance our commitments and projects."
Dr. Loco started the group while working at Stanford University in 1990. He described its sound as, "Chicano World Music" and said that it reflects the music of the world through the experience of Mexicans in the United States.
The exciting new release features six oldies and six original Chicano World Party songs produced by Wayne Wallace and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos.
Wallace said that producing the album was a real joy -- not only did he learn more about different stylings of Mexican American music, but he also had a chance to blend these styles with other elements of popular music.
"The musicians in Dr. Loco's band are willing to explore and challenge all the musical avenues available to us here in the U.S., draw from them, mix them together and make something old and new at the same time," Wallace said.
Working with Wallace, a former SF State student, was also a coup for the band. "I am really pleased with the work of our producers -- the legendary Wayne Wallace's work was particularly important. He's worked with such a range of artists from Aretha Franklin to Pete Escovedo," Cuellar said.
"It was just incredible. We learned so much about the recording process through them."
Grammy Award winner Patrick Coughlin was the sound engineer for the album. "When you hear how he's layered the sounds, it's a tribute to his talents," Cuellar said. "That's very difficult to do with a nine-piece band and still have everyone's sound come through. He was tremendous."
The band's featured originals on the new release include a blend of meren-soukos, bluesiana, Afro-Cubanesque and salsa music. Oldies include renditions of "Vamos a Bailar" and a polka called "Pancha's Mix."
Dr. Loco described the album as a "rich melange of mestizo and mulatto styles that celebrates the diverse origins of our multicultural, Mexican American musical heritage."
"We recorded the album last December in the middle of the flu season," Cuellar said. "It was very difficult because you never know how it's going to come out. There are all of the pressures -- a set amount of time, budget and you just hope everything will come out fine."
"Puro Party is Chicano music for a new millennium that embraces a global barrio and is as sweet in Havana as it is in Aztlan," disc jockey Jesse Varela said.
The band has grown a great deal since their last album, Cuellar said. "Musically, we've really pushed our limits compared to our last compact disc," he said. "There's been some real musical growth both vocally and instrumentally. We've incorporated a different rhythm and sound that we picked up in Cuba last summer. The Caribbean rhythms that we incorporated in this album show real growth."
In addition to his talents as a saxophonist, Cuellar has a Ph.D in anthropology. In fact, the entire band is comprised of scholars. All nine members hold at least a bachelor's degree and many are full-time teachers by day and rockers by night. They reserve touring for summers when they are off from school.
This summer the band will tour southern California and leave for Texas in August. In the fall, Dr. Loco and his bandmates will begin production on their next album.
Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeno Band plays La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley on June 6 at 9 p.m.