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El Chicano returns for Super Love Jam concert

A force in Latin-rock in the 1970s, the Los Angeles band’s latest iteration carries musical torch into new century

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El Chicano stood close behind San Francisco’s Santana and Malo in the Latin-rock pantheon of the early 1970s. Today, 46 years after the release of its 1970 debut album, “Viva Tirado,” the Los Angeles-bred band continues to tour, with dates this month in Texas and California.

On Saturday, the latest iteration of El Chicano will perform at Valley View Casino Center as part of Art Laboe’s Valentine’s Super Love Jam concert. The lineup features nine other acts, including Zapp, The Delfonics, Atlantic Starr, Freddie Jackson, The Persuaders and Tierra.

Art Laboe’s Valentine’s Super Love Jam

With: Zapp, The Delfonics, Atlantic Starr, Freddie Jackson, El Chicano, The Persuaders, Tierra and more

When: 7:30 Saturday

Where: Valley View Casino Center, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego

Tickets: $34.50-$57.50 (plus service charges)

Phone: (888) 929-7849

Online: axs.com

While the guitar-fueled influence of Santana was readily apparent in El Chicano’s early work, the band drew from an even broader array of musical influences.

The title track of “Viva Tirado,” a Top 30 hit in 1970, reshaped big-band leader Gerald Wilson’s soul-jazz classic. The same album also featured the 1962 Mel Tormé hit “Coming Home Baby,” the song after which Steve Winwood modeled the Spencer Davis Group’s 1967 gem “I’m a Man.” (The pianist on Tormé’s recording, incidentally, is San Diego’s Mike Wofford.)

El Chicano also covered songs by Herbie Hancock, Ray Baretto and Tito Puente, the composer of Santana’s 1970 hit “Oye Como Va.” The L.A. sextet’s music was featured in an array of film soundtracks, from “Last Tango in Paris” to “Donnie Brasco.”

The band only had one other Top 40 hit, 1973’s “Tell Her She’s Lovely,” but remained a key exponent of what its all-Chicano members proudly called “the Brown Sound.”

San Diego fans can revisit that sound Saturday. With 10 acts on the bill, it’s likely each set will be brief. With any luck, El Chicano and its fellow Super Love Jam performers will make each song count.

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