Cheo Feliciano in Los Angeles

Cheo Feliciano at the Hollywood Park Casino - September 23, 2006

After thirteen years Cheo found his was back to L.A. With his charisma, charm, and gorgeous smile intact, he was received by a full house, at times seemingly desperate to hear him.

JaqueMate Productions, which --at least to me-- is a new venture headed by Joe Marcus, did a good job putting the show together.

The band behind Cheo -- which he kept on calling the Jaque Mate All Stars -- was in reality more like "Melaza y Ron"... or hmmm... "Tabaco y Melaza" ? -- heh...either way it sounds yummy huh?--, was made up of members from both Orquesta Melaza and Orquesta Tabaco y Ron, and they also did a great job.

DJ Aries was the DJ between sets. Good stuff.

With Cheo came Louis Garcia, tres player, to whom Cheo called his "angelito de la guardia", and Cheo's wife of almost 50 years, Coco.

A day after Tommy Olivencia's passing, Cheo dedicated "Sobre una tumba humilde" to him. The entire song is one of my clips below. The other clip is "El Raton", the song that put Cheo on the map and became, as he called it, his worldwide passport.

It was personally a huge deal to see Cheo sing live. He is witty, a real showman, who dances and sings like 71 years haven't done a thing to him. Here's hoping he has many more years to be happy and make us happy!

Thanks to all of you promoters that work so hard to bring these people to L.A. for us to enjoy. I, for one, appreciate it very much!

CHEO FELICIANO AND THE MUSICIANS WHO BACKED HIM

Cheo

Louis Garcia

Recognition of almost 50 years of music

with the event organizers