Sunday, May 6, 2012

EASTSIDE LEGENDS - ALFRED & JOE


   
Alfredo Garcia was born in Mexico in 1945. In 1955 his family moved to Los Angles. He came from a musical background influence by his grandfather & father and later the Los Angeles music scene. He attended Catherdral High School and then went on to East Los Angeles College.

His singing partner, Joe Silva was from Lincoln Heights, California. Alfred & Joe formed a band, The Noblemen whose members were from Cathedral and Belmont High Schools. The band included Richard Duran on lead guitar and drummer Alfred Rubalcava. The band performed locally at weddings and quinceaneras.

Alfred & Joe used to buy records at the Flash Record Store where they met Rudy Benavides, an employee. Rudy attended a couple of Alfred & Joe's gigs and after liking what he heard sent them to Godfrey Kerr who owned the Kay-Gee record label. Godfrey picked a song, "Darling Dear" which was a 1953 classic recording by The Counts for them to record.

In 1964, Alfred & Joe & The Noblemen recorded "Darling Dear" released on the Kay-Gee label (Kay-Gee 101). The B-side of the record, "Soul Shuffle" an instrumental with a surf flavor recorded by The Noblemen.







The Noblemen would go on to back Godfrey on his 1965 single "The Trip" (see my profile of Godfrey Kerr under The Eastside Sound Hits The Radio Airwaves.


Thanks to Ruben Molina, Alfred Garcia is back in the Eastside scene talking about his music and memories.

You may listen to a fascinating interview Steve Propes did with Alfred on Steve's 45's show on radio station WPMD in Cerritos, California by following these links:

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED!!!!!

Solely for historical & educational purposes and for listening pleasure

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