BOBBY REDFIELD, FUHS 1955? born Robert Peter Leyva
Bobby Redfield, Latin jazz guitarist from O.C.
Jan. 9, 2015 12:00
a.m.
By Antonie
Boessenkool Staff Writer
Friends this week remembered guitarist Bobby Redfield
as a consummately professional musician with warmth, humor and a love for jazz.
A longtime fixture in the local jazz scene, Redfield
died Dec. 20 in his home in Laguna Hills after a battle with cancer. He was 77.
Redfield performed with the Righteous Brothers in the
early days of that group, played at the Monterey Jazz Festival and played with
Latin jazz legend Cal Tjader's band on the road and on albums including
“Puttin' It Together” and “Guarabe.”
In Southern California, he led his Bobby Redfield
Latin Jazz Band with an ever-changing succession of musicians, appearing
regularly at Steamers Jazz Club in Fullerton.
“I will consider him as one of the most memorable acts
that I've presented at Steamers over the years,” club owner Terence Love said.
“He will be greatly missed.”
“He was ego-less and just a warm soul.”
Redfield was born Robert Peter Leyva in Santa Barbara,
grew up in La Habra and went to high school in Fullerton.
He didn't have formal music training, said his wife,
Shirley Leyva. One of his early jobs was working for guitar maker Leo Fender in
Fullerton, where he “swept the floors and jumped on guitar necks” to test them,
Leyva said. He learned by listening, playing and meeting the musicians he
admired when they came to Fender to pick up their custom-made guitars.
“He felt that other musicians could teach you
something, thus grew his talent by experiencing the talent of others,” Leyva
wrote in a remembrance of Redfield.
In addition to Tjader, he'd played with other
well-known jazz musicians such as saxophone player Art Pepper and keyboardist
Clare Fischer.
He got his first guitar at age 15 in the 1950s, said
S. Duncan Reid, who interviewed Redfield extensively for his book “Cal Tjader:
The Life and Recordings of the Man Who Revolutionized Latin Jazz.”
At the Fender factory, he met Les Paul and Mary Ford,
which marked his entrance into jazz, Reid said.
“He really absorbed what they were doing at the time,”
Reid said. “He was very passionate about jazz. He had a modern sensibility. It
wasn't straight rock 'n' roll guitar, (but) kind of a jazzy, blues-y feel.”
Guitar is not a typical piece for Latin jazz playing.
But with Tjader's inclusion of Redfield in his band, guitar was incorporated
into the Latin jazz sound, Reid said.
“He was the only regular guitar player in any of Cal's
Latin jazz bands. He was very proud of that,” Reid said. “He really brought the
guitar into that sound, and it wasn't really something you would hear in most
Latin jazz bands. He was unique, different. He innovated in a lot of ways.”
Latin jazz bandleader Poncho Sanchez met Redfield in
the late 1970s, while playing with Tjader's band.
“He had a nice mellow sound,” Sanchez said. Redfield
disdained the add-on effects like reverberation, he said. “He liked the natural
guitar sound … the natural warm sound of the guitar.
“He was a good guy,” Sanchez said. “He just loved
(Latin jazz) like the rest of us. Of course, he was half (Latino), so he had it
in his blood.
“He was funny. Every time we'd be in circle of a bunch
of Latino people, he'd say, ‘Well, I'm half(Latino) … is that cool?' ” Sanchez
remembered.
Leyva met Redfield in 1992 when she heard him play at
a club in Newport Beach.
“I walked in with a girl friend and I was stunned. I
said, ‘What am I, in New York? Listen to this music,' ” Leyva remembered.
“His music was like Cuban, Brazilian,” she said. “It
was hot – tangos and mambos and cha-chas.” Leyva describes that night as “love
at first sound.”
With his hat pulled down, she remembered, “I didn't
even know if he had a face! ... But that guitar.”
After just six months, they were married, the second
for both. It lasted 22 years. Between the two of them, they had five grown sons and
now nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.Leyva said after Redfield retired from playing music,
he would spend his time outdoors, golfing and swimming for hours in Shaw's Cove
in Laguna Beach. When he'd leave while she was still at work, he'd put a little
tabletop sign holder on the counter that read “Gone to the beach!!” with
several “X's” to signify kisses.
From the Orange County Register, Jan 9, 2015
posted by Connie @ 2:26 PM
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