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Adolfo de la Parra | |
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Background information | |
Born | Mexico City, Mexico | February 8, 1946
Genres | Blues rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician, author |
Instrument(s) | Drums |
Years active | 1958–present |
Member of | Canned Heat |
Formerly of | Los Sinners Bluesberry Jam |
Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra (born 8 February 1946) is a musician who is best known for his work as the drummer of the American blues rock band Canned Heat, which he joined in 1967. [1] [2]
Parra was born in Mexico City, and as played in bands such as Los Sinners and Los Hooligans. When he moved to the United States, he joined The Sotweed Factor, and then left them to join Bluesberry Jam. [3] [4] [5] Members of this band were later in Pacific Gas & Electric. [3]
When Parra was with Bluesberry Jam in 1967, he was discovered by the members in Canned Heat.[ citation needed ] He was invited into the band and made the classic member lineup. Parra replaced Frank Cook as drummer for Canned Heat, and Cook replaced Parra as drummer for Bluesberry Jam, which was described by them as a “simple switch over”. [6] [ better source needed ] He joined shortly before they recorded their first worldwide hit song On the Road Again. His first gig was on December 1, 1967. [4]
Parra has been a member of Canned Heat since he joined in 1967. He played on all of their biggest hits from the 1960s, such as Going Up the Country and Let's Work Together. He also played with the band at Woodstock in 1969 (Parra and Canned Heat appear in the 1970 documentary film Woodstock , as well as featuring on the original soundtrack recording). [7] [8] [9] [10] The members of the band were given nicknames, and Adolfo was given “Fito”, which was also the only non-animal related nickname.[ citation needed ] Since the death of Larry Taylor (The Mole) in 2019, Parra is the only principal member of the 1960s who is still alive. [11] [12]
In his career, Parra has also played with blues musicians such as The Coasters, T-Bone Walker, Ben E. King, Mary Wells, Etta James, and The Platters. [5] He produced and appears in the 2007 film Rock 'n Roll Made in Mexico: from Evolution to Revolution, [4] [13] and also wrote the 2010 book Living The Blues. [14]
Canned Heat is an American blues and rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The group has been noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues", a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called "canned heat". After appearances at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals at the end of the 1960s, the band acquired worldwide fame with a lineup of Hite (vocals), Wilson, Henry Vestine and later Harvey Mandel, Larry Taylor (bass), and Adolfo de la Parra (drums).
Henry Charles Vestine a.k.a. "The Sunflower", was an American guitar player primarily known as a member of the band Canned Heat. He was with the group from its start in 1965 to July 1969. In later years he played in local bands but occasionally returned to Canned Heat for a few tours and recordings.
Alan Christie Wilson, nicknamed "Blind Owl", was an American musician, best known as the co-founder, leader, co-lead singer, and primary composer of the blues band Canned Heat. He sang and played harmonica and guitar with the group live and on recordings. Wilson was the lead singer for the group's two biggest U.S. hit singles: "On the Road Again" and "Going Up the Country".
"On the Road Again" is a song recorded by the American blues rock group Canned Heat in 1967. A driving blues rock boogie, it was adapted from earlier blues songs and includes mid-1960s psychedelic rock elements. Unlike most of Canned Heat's songs from the period which were sung by Bob Hite, second guitarist and harmonica player Alan Wilson provides the distinctive high pitched vocal, sometimes described as a falsetto.
Hallelujah is the fourth album by Canned Heat, released in 1969. It was re-released on CD in 2001 by MAM productions with four bonus tracks. It was the last album to feature classic lineup mark 1, as Vestine left the band prior to Future Blues.
Robert Ernest Hite was the co-lead vocalist of the American blues and rock band Canned Heat, from 1965 to his death in 1981. His nickname was "The Bear".
Hooker 'n Heat is a double album released by blues musician John Lee Hooker and the band Canned Heat in early 1971.
Samuel Lawrence "Larry" Taylor was an American bass guitarist, best known for his work as a member of Canned Heat. Before joining Canned Heat he had been a session bassist for The Monkees and Jerry Lee Lewis. He was the younger brother of Mel Taylor, long-time drummer of The Ventures.
Reheated is the twelfth album by Canned Heat, released in 1988. It features two members of the band's classic lineup, Fito de la Parra and Larry Taylor. Among the titles, "Bullfrog Blues" was originally on the B-side of the first single recorded by Canned Heat in 1967; "Built for Comfort" by Willie Dixon was popularized by Howlin' Wolf; "Take Me to the River" is a R&B/soul song which has been recorded by artists such as Al Green and Talking Heads.
Harvey Mandel is an American guitarist best known as a member of Canned Heat. He also played with Charlie Musselwhite and John Mayall as well as maintaining a solo career.
Canned Heat '70 Concert Recorded Live in Europe is a 1970 live album by Canned Heat. The album is taken from various locations on live concert European tour right before Alan Wilson's death and is the band's first officially released live album.
Live at Topanga Corral is a 1971 live album by Canned Heat. The album is taken from a 1969 concert at the Kaleidoscope in Hollywood, California and not at the Topanga Corral as the title suggests. Canned Heat was under contract to Liberty Records at the time and Liberty did not want to do a live album, so manager Skip Taylor told Liberty that the album had been recorded in 1966 & 1967 at the Topanga Corral and released the record with Wand Records to avoid legal complications. The record has been bootlegged and reissued countless times, and is also known as Live at the Kaleidoscope.
The Heroes of Woodstock Tour was a North American concert tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The tour featured several bands, most of which performed at the original Woodstock festival or feature members that performed at the festival. The musicians featured differed slightly from venue to venue but most of the concerts featured Jefferson Starship, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Canned Heat, Ten Years After and Tom Constanten. Some dates featured Melanie, Edgar Winter, John Sebastian, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Mountain and the Levon Helm Band. Country Joe McDonald hosted all of the concerts, playing a couple of songs in between the different sets. The tour was widely viewed as a financial failure as attendance proved to be dismal across most of the dates.
Bluesberry Jam was a blues rock band active in the 1960s. They were for a time geographically as well as chronologically similar to Pacific Gas & Electric and Canned Heat. Their musical styles were also similar.
Frank Lenord Clayman Cook was an American drummer and member of blues bands Canned Heat, Pacific Gas & Electric and Bluesberry Jam. For a time he was also the manager of Pacific Gas & Electric.
Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music is a 4-CD live box-set album of the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Its release marked the 25th anniversary of the festival. The box set contains tracks from Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More, Woodstock 2, and numerous additional, previously unreleased performances from the festival as well as the stage announcements and crowd noises. Just prior to the box set's release, Atlantic Records released a much shorter 1-CD version entitled The Best of Woodstock. In 2019, Rhino Records issued a 38-CD box set called Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive which includes every musical performance as well as stage announcements and other ancillary material.
Walter de Paduwa is a Belgian radio DJ, musician and rock'n'roll historian best known for his association with Canned Heat.
Dale Spalding is an American singer, harmonicist, guitarist and bassist, best known for his works with Poncho Sanchez and Canned Heat.
Dallas Hodge is an American blues rock singer, guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He has released two solo albums since 2007, with the most recent, Don't Forget About The Music We Made (2019) appearing in the US Billboard Blues Albums Chart. Otherwise, Hodge is best known for his collaborations with Canned Heat and Steve Marriott.