Many in San Antonio will remember Joe “Jama” Perales Jr. for his soulful singing voice and masterful bass guitar playing, but his family also wants him to be remembered for his loving heart and good-natured humor.
Perales, once a member of formative West Side Sound band the Royal Jesters, died Sunday at age 74 of complications from diabetes.
“I’m gonna miss his laugh,” his wife Lilly Elizondo said. “To everybody, he’s Joe Jama … but to me, he’s my life. He was my best friend.”
The two became best friends in the 1990s when Perales played regular gigs at The Snake Pit on Culebra Road and the Saluté International bar on the St. Mary’s Strip. Elizondo was married at the time, but following her divorce, Perales surprised her after a gig as she sat on the band’s drum set waiting for them to pack up. Rather than gathering instruments, Elizondo said Pareles embraced her, dipped her and gave her a big kiss.
Soon after, the pair wed and were married for 26 years.
‘A real good crooner’
Vocalist David Marez met Perales when both were students at Luther Burbank High School. They were in music classes together but saw themselves as athletes.
When Perales transferred to Brackenridge High School, they met on the football field as opponents. “He tackled me and he remembered that all his life,” Marez said, laughing.
Pareles formed bands The Radiants in 1962 and The Revells in 1964 before joining with Marez in the Eptones along with other musicians including Robert Gomez. Using a sports metaphor, Marez described himself and fellow band members as the “triple AAA” league to the more prominent Royal Jesters, who he said was the top San Antonio band at the time. All three musicians would go on to join or sit in with the Royal Jesters for various stints over the years.
Royal Jesters founder Henry Hernandez recalled Perales as “a great singer, a great bass player [and] a great asset to the band” during his two stints with the group in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Marez called Perales an “amazing talent” and “a real good crooner,” and said his friend earned the “Jama” nickname “because he could [really] jam” on the bass guitar.
Dan Michael Escobedo, who at the time led a band called Danny and the Dreamers and replaced Perales on bass for the Royal Jesters, said he learned a lot from Perales, who he described as a “monster” on bass.
All three said that aside from his musicianship, Perales was a good friend and a great person to be around.
“He was a really jovial, happy-go-lucky guy,” Marez said. “He was always upbeat. I guess it’s the music, it makes our character. Music sort of builds your spirits up.”
A powerhouse
Pecos Records founder Rae Cabello said he was fortunate to meet Perales a dozen years ago on the last night Saluté International bar was open. Cabello and others spun records that night, and Perales performed as Joe Jama.
Working with the Numero Group record label in Chicago, in 2015 Cabello helped put together Royal Jesters: English Oldies, a 28-song collection featuring three songs written by Perales.
“He got really popular again,” Cabello said, praising his signature voice on such songs as “I Got Soul” and “My Kind of Woman.”
“The music is 100% West Side Sound. You know it’s San Antonio,” Cabello said. “But then you hear the vocals. … He would always tell me [he] was super influenced by Black singers, and you can hear it. … To hear Joe with this wailing voice … while also going up and down the neck of a bass guitar, was something you don’t see very often.”
“He was a powerhouse,” Cabello said. “He stood out in the canon of what we call the West Side Sound today.”
While Perales faded from the music scene to devote time to family, Marez continued as a touring musician with his Tejano band David Marez and People. Though the two friends kept in touch and saw each other occasionally, Marez said he wishes it would have been more often.
“We stayed in contact, not as much as we used to. Now that I look back on it, maybe I should have just been a little bit more in contact with him. That’s my sorrow.”
Later on, cachetón
Perales’ stepdaughter Celeste Gonzalez said, though her father’s influence on music is an important part of his character, “I consider him Dad first, and then famous musician later.”
Recalling his devotion to her mother and the family, she said, “I want people to remember him by his music, by his love of family, his faith and the love he gave my mother and to his kids and grandkids.”
Gonzalez said as a teen not yet ready for her mother to remarry, she gave Perales a hard time at the beginning of their relationship.
“I would try to sabotage everything and get him to leave, and he never wavered,” she said.
When Gonzalez had a child of her own, “I watched him become the best grandpa … and it just melted away. I was like, ‘Man, I’m so sorry that I fought so hard to try to get you out of our lives because you’re actually the best thing that ever happened to us.’”
Elizondo said she will remember her husband as “everything that a woman could possibly want. To experience all the love that he gave me — he loved me, my children. He would do anything for me; he would kiss the ground I walked on. … He put everybody else’s happiness first.”
And the teasing catchphrase Perales would often say to family members as they parted ways now applies to him: “Later on, cachetón.”
The celebration of life for Perales will be held at Castillo Funeral Home on Jan. 22, with visiting hours from 4-8 p.m. Gonzalez has started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise donations for funeral expenses.
