Cesar J. Rosas (born September 26, 1954) is a Mexican-American

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

best known as a member of the rock and roll group

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") is a Mexican American rock group, rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional ...

. Rosas also participates in the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

supergroup

Los Super Seven Los Super Seven is an American supergroup which debuted in 1998. According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "Los Super Seven isn't a band, per se – it's a collective, organized by manager Dan Goodman, who comes up with a concept for each ...

. Rosas is known for his trademark black sunglasses, goatee and black hair. He plays guitar left handed. Aside from live shows with Los Lobos, Cesar Rosas has been active as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

and

sideman A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform live with a solo artist, or with a group in which they are not a regular band member. The term is usually used to describe musicians that play with jazz or rock artists, whether solo o ...

during the past several decades. In addition, he released a solo album, ''Soul Disguise'', in February 1999, and toured after its release.

Biography

Rosas was born in Mexico and grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He was deeply interested in music from his teens, taking inspiration from a wide range of performers including traditional Mexican styles, mainstream rock & roll, as well as soul music and R&B. He met the musicians who would later form Los Lobos while a teenager at Garfield High School. Rosas generally writes material solo and sings his own tunes, while bandmates David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez work as a duo for their songs that Hidalgo sings. Los Lobos were embraced by the 1980s LA

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

scene, and Rosas reports taking inspiration from the energy and aggressive guitar styles of punk rock bands.

Personal life

Rosas has three daughters, Ruby, Amber and Victoria. Rosas's wife Sandra Rosas was reported missing in October, 1999. Her daughters had returned home, and discovered her missing along with signs of a struggle such as broken glass and the front door wide open. Her half-brother Gabriel Gómez quickly became a suspect in the case, given his long history of criminal activities and recent tensions with Sandra. Though her body was not immediately found, Gómez was tried on the basis of

circumstantial evidence Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact, such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without need ...

and convicted of her murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

. Gómez later led police to Sandra Rosas' remains on November 22, 2000, in Santa Clarita.

Solo discography

*''Soul Disguise'' (1999) *''Live from the Galaxy ecorded at the Galaxy Theater, Santa Ana, California, in 1999(2015) *''La Fiesta'' (2016)

References

External links

Cesar Rosas Interview
at NAMM Oral History Collection (2019) 1954 births Living people People from Hermosillo American rock songwriters American rock singers American rock guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters Los Lobos members 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians {{singer-songwriter-stub

Biography

Personal life

Solo discography

See also

References

External links