PITTSBURG —No matter where he plays, acclaimed jazz percussionist and composer Pete Escovedo opens his show by telling the audience he hails from Pittsburg.
“I like to say that. Sometimes I hear two or three people say ‘yeah, I’m from Pittsburg,’” said the 81-year-old Pittsburg native.
Escovedo is sure to get a much bigger response to naming his hometown when he performs at the California Theatre for a New Year’s Eve show presented by the Pittsburg Arts and Community Foundation.
“Whenever I’ve been asked to come and play here, I’ve always felt privileged to do that,” said Escovedo, who has been a major force in Latin music for more than a half century.
In recent years, Escovedo has given benefit concerts at Pittsburg High School to support the school’s award-winning marching show band appearances in London, New York and at the Fiesta Bowl.
Escovedo spent the first few years of his life living in a house on Black Diamond Street before his farmworker father moved the family to Oakland after attending night school so he could get a better job as a pipe fitter at the army base. But the Escovedos often returned to Pittsburg to visit family members.
“Pittsburg has grown so much and it’s quite different from when I lived there with my parents,” he recalled.
He is looking forward to playing at the California Theatre and is glad it is a venue for a range of musical and theatrical acts.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “More and more of the arts are coming back to Pittsburg. … There are actually a lot of musicians that grew up here and some of them that I’ve worked with in my band, and others that have gone out on their own. It’s really a great little melting pot of where musicians come from.”
When he was 17, his band got its first professional gig, opening for the Count Basie Orchestra at San Francisco’s Downbeat Club on Market Street. A year later he met the late Tito Puente, a percussionist, bandleader and composer, who became a mentor and lifelong friend.
“I was so very privileged to meet him when I was about 18 years old. He had just come to San Francisco then and was playing at a club. Me and my brother (had) a chance to go backstage and meet him. He just welcomed us with open arms,” Escovedo said. “We let him know we were just young aspiring musicians and wanted to play and just admired him so much because he was the guy, he was the king.”
Pete and his brothers went on to form the Escovedo Brothers Latin Jazz Sextet. The group broke up when Carlos Santana hired Pete and his late brother Coke to play in his Latin rock band.
Music continues to run in the family. Sheila E. first joined her father on stage as a teenager and sons Juan and Peter Michael are also in the music business. The sons will be joining their father at the New Year’s Eve event.
Escovedo has received many accolades, including a National Academy of Recording Artists lifetime achievement award, a Purple Glove Award and a Grammy nomination. In 2013, he was part of the inaugural class of the Pittsburg Entertainment and Arts Hall of Fame.
Escovedo and his wife Juanita, who have been married for more than 60 years, moved to Los Angeles about 18 years ago to be closer to Peter Michael and Sheila E. and the music industry.
Escovedo, who also paints, is still actively touring and has no immediate plans to stop. “Every time I talk about it and I mention it to my kids, my family, they all say ‘no you can’t retire. What are you going to do when you retire, sit on the couch and watch TV?’ Sometimes I feel like George Burns. I just keep getting booked on engagements,” he said with a chuckle.
IF YOU GO
What: Pete Escovedo Orchestra New Year’s Eve show
When: 9 p.m. Dec. 31
Where: California Theatre, 351 Railroad Ave. Pittsburg
Info: www.pittsburgcaliforniatheatre.com
Tickets: $59. $99 VIP tickets, which includes meet and greet from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., are available by calling the box office at 925-427-1611. Tuesday to Friday from noon to 5 p.m.