Cesar Rosas & the Chi-Town Playboys
Cesar Rosas & the Chi-Town Playboys
Guitarist Cesar Rosas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, the birthplace of his legendary Mexican American rock’n’roll band Los Lobos, frequently splits his time these days between the City of Angels and Chicago.
Rosas, who just turned 70 on Sept. 26, says he made his part-time home in Chicago mainly because he was on the road all the time and kept finding himself “around the lake.”
“So, I’m always stopping in Chicago to hang there for a little bit between shows,” he says.
A New Band
Another reason is his work with the Chi-Town Playboys, who play Saturday at the Vivarium.
Rosas says the group’s beginnings were sparked by his longtime friendship with Chicago blues musician Dave Herrero. The band also features other members of the Chicago music community: Scott Tipping, Ari Seder, Dan Ingenthron and Gerald Dowd. Herrero helped bring together the Playboys with the idea of playing a few shows in and around Chicago.
“We’ve been just having fun with it,” Rosas says.
With the background of Herrero and some of the other Playboys, the band is more blues-focused than Los Lobos. They play a mixture of cover songs and music from Rosas’ career, including music from his 1999 solo album, Soul Disguise.
“With Los Lobos, we play our own music and a few other different genres,” Rosas says. “But one of the styles of music I like is the blues. And I love playing the blues and hanging out with the Chi-Town Playboys because they bring the blues out of me. It lets me stretch out in a different way than I normally would with Los Lobos. … and I do some Tex-Mex music and some Latin music. It’s pretty cool.”
Los Lobos Turns 50
In 2023, Los Lobos celebrated its 50th anniversary, a year after the group won its fourth Grammy award for the Los Angeles-music celebrating Native Sons. With his band’s big anniversary and his big birthday, a little reflection was certainly due for Rosas. He says his and Los Lobos’ longevity really started to come through during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID taught us a lot about humanity and the arts and so forth,” he says. “I recently found out that music means so much more than I ever thought to people, especially myself. Music is such a powerful, powerful thing, and we need it. And I just very proud to be a musician.”
No Bullshit
Upon the release of Los Lobos’ celebrated Kiko in 1992, Rosas told an interviewer on a local TV program that unless you had a “Madonna-like gimmick” it was hard to be successful in the music business. Being a real musician, he said, was becoming a “lost thing.” Flash forward to 2024, Rosas and Los Lobos are still standing, still playing music the only way they know how, Rosas says.
“It just withstands time, I guess,” he says. “We don’t have no gimmicks, no bullshit. Whatever we write, we stand by it. Cut and dry, maybe you’re gonna dig it, but maybe not. We say we’re true to who we are.”
Good, Good Music
No recordings yet for the Playboys, but it could happen down the road, Rosas says. For now, if you want a sneak peek at the band, someone has uploaded Chicago radio station WDCB’s broadcast of a July concert from Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn, Illinois. Regardless, don’t miss your chance to see them live, Rosas says.
“We want to invite everybody to come down and rock out with us,” “and just have a good time. I'm pretty sure it'll be good, good music, and it's just a good way to go, man.”
Cesar Rosas and the Chi-Town Playboys play Saturday, Oct. 5 at Vivarium. The show starts at 8 p.m.
