Who is Chuy Varela? Currently Jesse “Chuy” Varela is Music Director at public radio station KCSM 91.1 FM in San Mateo, CA., the Bay Area’s jazz station. You can hear him on Sunday afternoons from 2-6pm hosting “The Latin Jazz Show,” and on Mon. & Tues., from 2-6pm, with “Jazz in the Afternoon.” Varela is also a freelance writer and contributes to the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.
Born May 21, 1954 in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, Chuy grew up in El Paso and Ysleta, Texas. As a boy his family migrated to California where they first landed in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles but soon settled in Long Beach a few months later. He was part of the first students bussed to integrate the Long Beach schools following the 1965 Watts Riots. Part of the program was to help the black and Latino students to pursue a college education. Toward that end they toured Long Beach State University. It was there that Varela first saw KLON Radio, the college station, as a young fourth grader.
When his father passed away the family moved to Martinez, CA. with relatives. In the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area, he attended Alhambra High School where he attests to being "a hippie lowrider." A guitarist since age ten, he found jazz in high school and first attended the Concord Jazz Festivals and famed Keystone Korner while still in school. He attended Diablo Valley College after graduation in 1973. He garnered a scholarship to a Jamey Aeborsold Jazz Camp and studied with Dr. David Baker, James Williams, and others. But times were tough and he joined the US Army in 1975 where he spent over three years as a supply sargent who moonlighted playing guitar in soul and jazz combos for over three years.
In 1979 he returned to the SF Bay and attended DVC studying music. He played in both the school's big band and jazz combo. Via Santana, Eddie Palmieri and Cal Tjader, he found Latin jazz and Salsa music and started attending the Salsa Workshops at the Eastbay Center For The Performing Arts in Richmond to study with Bay Area Latin music pioneer, Carlos Federico.
Varela found radio broadcasting in his 20s while a student at Cal State Hayward (now Cal State Eastbay) and decided to pursue it as a career. His resume includes stints at KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley (15 years as Public Affairs Director and 3 years as Music Director ), KJAZ Radio in Alameda (12 years as an Announcer/Production Assistant), and numerous correspondent assignments for Pacifica Radio, National Public Radio, Latino USA and others.
Varela’s CD productions include “To A Mambo King - The Carlos Federico Memorial Album (JCV) and co-productions like “Pachuco Boogie“ (Arhoolie) and “Ay Califas! Raza rocks the 70s & 80s" (Rhino). He has written numerous liner notes and translations for record companies like Verve, Concord, Nonesuch, Six Degrees, and many others. He taught a course on Latin Jazz at Stanford University and has lectured at UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and other educational venues.
He has served as a consultant for the Smithsonian Institution's "La Combinacion Perfecta" Latin Jazz Exhibit as well as the Oakland Museum and the SF Mexican Museum. Varela recently gave an oral history interview to the Experience Music Project of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington for their upcoming exhibit, "American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music," which will run from October 13, 2007 – September 7, 2008.
In 2006, Varela was awarded a Bob Geddins Lifetime Achievement Award by the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame in Oakland, a Music in Excellence Award from the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and a Salsa Ambassador Award from the West Coast Salsa Congress in Los Angeles. Most recently Chuy Varela was honored with a Community Award from the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies.
WHY A MUSIC STORE?
I started selling LPs and CDs at the Oakland Coliseum Flea Market in 2006 and found I really liked it. Over the years I have visited some great record shops like Subway Records & Casa Latina - New York City, Vieras Discos - Santurce, Puerto Rico, Thee Record Inn - Whittier, CA, Down Home Music - El Cerrito, CA., Village Music - Mill Valley, CA., Grooveyard - Oakland, Ameoba, Rasputins and many others. The closing of Tower Records in 2006 and the upcoming closure of Village Music in 2007 have made me realize we are ending an era when the brick-and-mortar record shop was the center of a community’s musical culture. My goal is to create a cyber-shop with that type of spirit. Right our stock is limited but check it out you might find some music you like. For more info: Chuyvarela@aol.com
WORD
As many of you know I am also a freelance writer who has written over the years for The Eastbay Express, SF Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, San Jose Metro, and the San Francisco Chronicle. I have written publicity material for Los Lobos, translations for Ry Cooder's album, "Chavez Ravine," and numerous liner notes. Here are some links for a sampling of what I have written.
SF Chronicle Datebook - Pink Section - Search at http://www.sfgate.com in the Resources section under Searches & Archives.
