Luis Gasca -

Luis Gasca (born March 23, 1940) is an American Latin/spiritual-jazz trumpeter and fluegelhorn player from Houston. He played with Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Mongo Santamaría, Santana, and Malo across the 1960s and 1970s. As a leader, Gasca made the 1968–74 albums Little Giant, For Those Who Chant, Born to Love You, and Collage.

Background

Luis Gasca was born March 23, 1940, in Houston, Texas. His parents came from Mexico; his father emigrated from Cuerámaro, Guanajuato, and worked as a shoemaker. Gasca took up trumpet at Jefferson Davis High School at age 15 and rented his first instrument for five dollars a month. He eventually led the school band. Gasca joined Beto Villa’s Tex-Mex orchestra as a trumpeter at age 16 in 1956, his first paid band job. He subsequently played with bandleader Isidro López.

In 1958, Down Beat awarded the Jefferson Davis senior a $350 Berklee scholarship. Gasca spent eighteen months at the Boston institute and played in Herb Pomeroy’s student big band. He also made frequent trips to New York for jazz and Afro-Cuban performances.

Gasca left Boston around age 20 for Los Angeles, where he auditioned for pianist Pérez Prado, a Cuban expat bandleader. Prado hired Gasca for an extended 1960 tour through Japan, Hawaii, and Las Vegas. In 1961, trumpeter Marvin Stamm alerted Gasca to an opening in Stan Kenton’s four-mellophonium section. Gasca spent a year with Kenton and played mellophonium on the 1962 Capitol album Adventures in Time.

Gasca left Kenton for Mexico City, where he took studio and television jobs. He later spent four months on a jazz engagement in Acapulco. Gasca returned to Los Angeles, where tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb alerted him to an opening with Woody Herman. He toured Europe with Herman and joined the orchestra at the 1967 Monterey Jazz Festival for the performances issued on Concerto for Herd.

Bassist Victor Venegas approached Gasca at a Herman engagement in Las Vegas and recruited him for the Mongo Santamaría band. Gasca played trumpet on Santamaría’s 1968 Columbia album Soul Bag. Atlantic producer Joel Dorn approached Santamaría about a recording date while Gasca worked in the band. However, Santamaría remained under contract to Columbia. Dorn offered Gasca the Atlantic leader date with control over material and personnel.

Discography: