Charlie Rodriguez
– Musician / Businessman / Visionary

There’s a player in Ft. Worth who turned his dream into a reality… some thirty-five years later, but so be it. Regardless of the gap in time, you have to admire this person’s devotion to one genre — music is literally the fabric of his life.

This journey began on a celebrated Mexican holiday, May 5, 1951 in Ft. Worth, Texas as the Rodriguez family welcomed a new musician to the world. Beginning at the age of 14, Charlie had focused his musical interests on the woodwinds as he ventured off on touring and recording with Johnny Ayala and the Starlighters for the then famed El Zarape Records. The year was 1965 and shortly thereafter the trail opened a new opportunity with a more powerful group of Shorty and the Corvettes. With a few years of experience under his belt and a strong desire to partake of the musical landscape, opportunity knocked in the form of a short stint with a couple of outstanding contemporaries like Wally Almendariz and Cha Cha Jimenez. The venture honed his experience on the road and in the recording studio.

The late 60’s through the mid 80’s proved to be a testing ground for change for Rodriguez by playing gigs and indefinite duration in the recording booth grinding out music for groups like: The Latin Souls with Capri Records, and Joe Lerma y Alma 70 on Pavo Real Records/Tierra Chicana Records before making a final impact with the Latin Express Band by 1985. Consider the slow moving cloud of experience that had been steadily gathering since the mid 60’s coming to a complete stop. Why? Here’s where the journey takes an interesting hiatus, Rodriguez takes up the educational battle to beef up his musical knowledge by focusing on a musical degree and also contributing to the family business. Music has no boundaries and the time was just right to develop an army of musicians along side his brother Raul to form CR & Special Guest band to fill the road void. That group lived on for eight years predominantly in DFW/Metroplex.

Rodriguez’s appetite for music allowed him to explore and conquer other styles of music by performing gigs outside the Tejano scene with: The Vels (Motown R&B style music) and Liza Ramirez. Legendary California producer/guitarist/arranger Bob Gallarza targeted on Rodriguez’s talents in the mid 90’s and they continued performing and recording through the mid 2000’s. The trick for Charlie has been his skill to sight read charts and his improvisational style carved from his trans genre experience. The road veteran maintained a sense of balance with his exposure to great music – from roots to boots – music knows no boundaries.

After earning his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Texas at Arlington, Rodriguez seemed to have mastered the ebb and flow of performing and recording, stepping out into the limelight before his peers with the Tejano Music Awards orchestra, recording sessions in San Antonio and befriending the Latin Breed. In 2005 Rodriguez partnered up with Latin Breed vocal mastermind Adalberto and formed a corporation – Latin Breed, Inc. in order to transition the purchase of the legendary Latin Breed band from it’s retiring leader Gibby Escobedo.

Today, Rodriguez is blessed with a marriage of 30 years to his beautiful wife, Leticia, with three wonderful children Charlie, Jr., Tanya and Rosemary. When probed to evaluate one of the proudest moments of this musical journey that has spanned almost five decades, Rodriguez targeted an opportunity that presented itself early in his career. While doing a gig with Joe Lerma, Rodriguez experienced a rare moment of truth with Latin Breed founder, Rudy Guerra and mega Tejano circuit star Sunny Ozuna (with the American Bandstand famed Sunny and the Sunliners). Both rival bandleader’s stealth their way to Rodriguez each making their offers of joining either perspective band. This fork in the road situation proved to be bitter sweet in many ways as he muted the offers with his determination to complete his path to higher learning and earn his degree. " Who would believe that 30 years later I would literally play an important role, not only be performing with the Latin Breed, but enjoying the music biz as their co-owner." It’s the whatever-it takes mentality that’s defined Rodriguez’s over 30-year career.

---written by Ruben Cubillos