Tico Zamora | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Torcuato Zamora |
| Born | November 15, 1967 |
| Origin | Washington D.C., US |
| Genres | Rock, punk rock, hardcore punk, heavy metal, hard rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Labels | Wea, WEA |
Torcuato Zamora (born 1967 in Washington D.C.), better known as Tico Zamora, is a rock musician, songwriter and record producer.
Tico Zamora began playing guitar at an early age. Starting at the age of eight, he received daily guitar lessons from his father, Torcuato Zamora, Sr., an accomplished flamenco guitarist from Almeria, Spain. After five years of apprenticeship with his father, at age 13, the young Zamora bought his first electric guitar, a Fender Stratocaster. Zamora was greatly influenced by his older sister's record collection, which included bands such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and Aerosmith. Through countless hours of playing along with and emulating what he heard on those seminal records, he discovered his passion for the electric guitar. Too young to play in nightclubs, his first performance was at a Battle of the Bands in a local Washington, D.C. area game room where he won the competition. Shortly thereafter, he was asked to join H.R. ("Human Rights"), fronted by Paul Hudson, lead singer of the influential hardcore punk band Bad Brains. This was 16-year-old Zamora's introduction to the world of punk rock.
Flamenco, in its strictest sense, is a professionalized art-form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain in the autonomous community of Andalusia. In a wider sense, the term refers to a variety of Spanish musical styles developed as early as the 19th century. The oldest record of flamenco dates to 1774 in the book Las Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso. Flamenco has been influenced by and associated with the Romani people in Spain; however, its origin and style are uniquely Andalusian.
The Fender Stratocaster is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and completed by Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously manufactured the Stratocaster from 1954 to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top "horn" shape for balance like the Precision Bass guitar. Along with the Gibson Les Paul and Fender Telecaster, it is one of the most-often emulated electric guitar shapes. "Stratocaster" and "Strat" are trademark terms belonging to Fender. Guitars that duplicate the Stratocaster by other manufacturers are usually called S-Type or ST-type guitars.
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. Along with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, the band's heavy, guitar-driven sound has led them to be cited as one of the originators of heavy metal. Their style drew from a wide variety of influences, including blues, psychedelia and folk music.
After touring and recording in the studio with H.R. for two years, H.R.'s former band, Bad Brains, went back into the studio with its original band members and released a new album, I Against I . In 1987, Zamora moved to Athens, Georgia to start a new band, Gypsy Cab Company, and immerse himself in the thriving alternative rock and new wave music scene. Two years later, Maureen Tucker, drummer for The Velvet Underground, asked Zamora to play guitar with her in the opening act for Lou Reed on his New York tour across the U.S. and Canada. In 1990, Zamora played guitar in Mo Tucker's band and toured throughout many cities in Europe, including Berlin, Germany, where Zamora lived from 1991 to 2009.
Paul D. Hudson, known professionally as H.R., is an American musician who leads the hardcore punk band Bad Brains. His vocal delivery has been described as diverse, ranging from a rapid-fire nasal whine, to feral growling and screeches, to smooth near-crooning or staccato reggae rhymes. He has departed the band periodically to pursue solo efforts that are more reggae than Bad Brains' punk sound. He is the older brother of Earl Hudson, Bad Brains' drummer.
Bad Brains are an American rock band formed in Washington, D.C. in 1977. They are widely regarded as among the pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members have objected to this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of other genres like funk, heavy metal, hip hop and soul. Bad Brains are followers of the Rastafari movement.
I Against I is the third studio album by the American hardcore punk band Bad Brains. It was released in November 1986 through SST Records with the catalog number SST 065. The best-selling album in the band's catalog, I Against I is an album that mixes American hardcore punk with funk, soul, reggae and heavy metal. It is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The album featured an MTV video for the title track directed by Paul Rachman who later went on to direct the documentary feature film American Hardcore.
In Berlin, Zamora set up a recording studio and played with and produced many bands, some of which were part of the exploding electropop/electroclash music scene occurring in Berlin in the early 2000s.
Electropop is a music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Usually, it is described as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre has seen a revival of popularity and major influence since the 2000s.
Electroclash is a genre of music that fuses 1980s electro, new wave and synth-pop with 1990s techno, retro-style electropop and electronic dance music. It emerged in the later 1990s and is often thought of as reaching its peak circa 2002/2003. It was pioneered by and associated with acts such as I-F, Miss Kittin and The Hacker and Fischerspooner.
Tico Zamora has played guitar with, H.R. and Maureen Tucker. He has produced and played guitar and other instruments with various Berlin-based bands including Jingo de Lunch, Jan Josef Liefers, Jasmin Tabatabai, Mignon and Electrocute.
Jingo de Lunch is a German punk band from Kreuzberg, Berlin. Most members had already a solid musical background, for instance Sepp Ehrensberger had played in the Berliner cult punk rock band called Vorkriegsjugend (1984–85), and also in Zerstörte Jugend with Tom Schwoll. Yvonne Ducksworth had previously sung in Combat Not Conform. Before they gave birth to Jingo de Lunch in April 1987, with the help of Steve Hahn and Henning Menke (bass), Tom Schwoll (guitar); Ehrensberger (guitar) and Ducksworth (vocals) played together in Manson Youth.
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His songs have been featured in movies such as HBO's Iron Jawed Angels , and Blood and Chocolate . Zamora has composed theme music for German television news and talk shows including Arabella Kiesbauer , Liebe Sünde, Nicole, Taff, and Bizz.
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From 2003 to 2008, Tico Zamora was married to the German actress Jasmin Tabatabai. Their only child, Angelina Sherri Rose, was born on December 3, 2002.
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