Joshua Morrison/Mount Vernon News
Jose Madrigal opens the Friday night headline show of the Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival in downtown Mount Vernon. [request]
MOUNT VERNON — The way Jose Madrigal sees it, there are few musicians who would be better than him at duplicating the sweet Latin rock and jazz-influenced sounds of Carlos Santana — given everything the two have in common, starting with their appearance.
Madrigal looks so much like Santana that he could be his doppelganger — or at the least his brother. The two are separated by just two years in age, with Santana a spry 72 and Madrigal a youthful 70. Age never stops either, and Madrigal, who gives about 12 performances a year, offered the Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival crowd another treat Friday evening.
He delighted hundreds of audience members from the main stage on Public Square, donning the same cool clothes and hat as Santana. Madrigal delivered amazing riffs up and down the fretboad on his Paul Reid Smith guitar to play such hits as “Black Magic Woman,” one of 15 songs in total. It’s the same make of guitar Santana uses.
“I will tell you, the best thing I like about Carlos is that his songs like Black Magic Woman have a signature melody line, which you have to play, and then everything else is up for grabs,” Madrigal said. “It’s improvised. I’m not corralled into a strict (routine).”
Madrigal offered a story when interviewed by the News beside the stage near sound checkup time. Not long ago, he received a call from the cousin of Michael Rios. Rios is an artist from the San Francisco area, who designed Santana’s colorful album art.
“He said, ‘I just called to tell you how great you guys are, and to thank you for perpetuating Latin music, rock music, in the Midwest,’” Madrigal recalled, adding that he only does 12 shows a year because the band plays east of the Mississippi River — where Latin rock is not as popular as out West.
However, Madrigal likes performing in Mount Vernon, being made aware of two performing arts venues gathering momentum — the 500-seat Woodward Opera House downtown, and the 1,000-seat Memorial Building Theater on East High Street boasting a new lighting and sound system. Madrigal is interested in playing at the local indoor venue in the near future. The band has played here before in the recent past, about a year ago during the Summertime Series at Ariel-Foundation Park.
“I was kind of surprised we got the call to come here again. We must have done something right,” he offered. Most recently, the band played in Gulfport, Mississippi, at the Island View Casino Resort.
Though he plays for appreciative audiences now, Madrigal said family history has a lot to do with a budding musician’s future fate. His background and that of Santana show a striking similarity. Both have Mexican roots, and both have fathers by the first name of Jose who were accomplished musicians.
Santana was born in the Mexican state of Jalisco — known for being the birthplace of sombreros, the Mexican Hat Dance and mariachi music. That is more than appropriate since Santana’s father was a mariachi musician, who taught his son Carlos to play the violin at age 5 and the guitar at age 8. Jalisco is a culture-rich area that is also the birthplace of tequila.
Joshua Morrison/Mount Vernon News
Jose Madrigal opens the Friday night headline show of the Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival in downtown Mount Vernon. [request]
Madrigal’s family roots are in the neighboring Mexican state of Michoacan. It has a similar culture to Jalisco and is the world’s largest supplier of avocados. Madrigal’s father, Jose Sr., was the son of a Mexican immigrant, Rafael Madrigal. Jose Sr. became an accomplished musician who was part of the University of Northern Kentucky faculty, a professor of guitar. He taught his son to play starting at age 10. His father, who passed on at age 95, recorded music with The McGuire Sisters during the Big Band Era.
Madrigal not only did well with his father’s guitar lessons, he spent 19 years in Nashville as a studio musician and vocalist. He is also a former 20th Century Fox recording artist, and owns Home Tree Studio in Murfreesboro, Tennesse, where he is active in music and video production, and developing new talent.
The Madrigal family history involved quite an ordeal to get to the United States, where they settled in Chicago. He said his grandfather Rafael was among the many Catholic Mexicans who were persecuted in the late 1800s during a time of French rule. His father decided to go north and immigrated to the United States, where he worked for a railroad company in Illinois. He did well, which allowed his wife, Consuela, to enter the United States about a year later — after walking to the border from Mexico City. She was pregnant at the time with Madrigal’s father, Jose Sr.
Madrigal has never met his idol, Santana. “I’d love to...I’ve read his book,” he offered. Both seem to have another thing in common, Madrigal said, which is getting better in their musicianship as they age — like a fine wine.
Asked if he could keep up with Santana’s guitar prowess, Madrigal offered, “I can hang with him.” Perhaps that gathering of two Latin guitar virtuosos will happen one day. Rolling Stone Magazine has rated Santana one of the 20 greatest rock guitarists of all time.
“We just love small American towns, and this is Americana right here,” said Madrigal, whose fellow four group core musicians are percussionist Frank McGucken, percussionist/ vocalist Kevin Coggeshall, keyboard player/vocalist Bob Kennedy, and bassist/ vocalist Steve Schmitt.
Four years ago, after playing “in fleabag hotels” from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m., a friend suggested to Madrigal that because of his resemblance to Santana and guitar playing similarities of high talent, he and bandmates ought to consider a tribute band. The fair and festival market “bubble” for tribute bands had taken off in recent years, and the rest, as they say, is their next booking.
