https://youtu.be/DaHOuKzLR60 — History and Discography of Mezquita, a band from Cordoba, Andalusia in Spain that combined Spanish and Arabic aspects into their unique from of Symphonic Progressive Rock.
The group evolved from a band called Expresión and released 2 albums including “Recuerdos de mi Tierra” from 1979 which is often considered one of, if not the best, Andalusian Rock album. The band consisted of José Rafa García Roso, Fernando “Randy” López Rojas, Francisco “Roscka” López Carrillo and Rafael “Pelucas” Zorrilla.
During the band’s hiatus, Randy López played with Medina Azahara, Jose Rafa released the album, “Termina el Trabajo” under the name Adán García and unfortunately we lost Rafael Zorrilla in 2002… with Eduardo Viñolo on drums, the band also appeared on a Ronnie James Dio tribue album doing “Gates of Babylon” with Manuel Escudero and released a 30th anniversary live album.
Check out the new album by Randy López, “APOCALIPSIS?” https://5lunas.net/producto/randy-lopez-apocalipsis/
Today we’re telling the short story of Mezquita, a
band from Cordoba Andalusia in Spain that incorporated
Flamenco
and arabic aspects into their progressive rock music.
José Rafa García and Fernando “Randy” López had
originally formed a 2 spanish guitar duo back in 1969.
They called
themselves “Libra y Tauro” but Rafael “Pelucas”
Zorrilla would soon join as the drummer and
they became a trio known as Expresion. Jose Rafa Garcia
was the lead guitarist, Randy Lopez switched over to
bass and they would both sing lead and backing vocals.
At their second concert as a trio, Francisco
“Roscka” López expressed his desire to join as
another guitarist but the group was more interested in
having a keyboard player join and they allowed him time
to learn and practice before officially joining the band.
In these early days they had stage spectacles that
inspired later artists and even performed a live
rock opera that was unfortunately never recorded.
In 1973 Jose Rafa stayed in Cordoba as the other 3 went
off to Barcelona where they were joined by a couple
more members and went by the name Marrakesh. Along with
flamenco player Paco Ramos, they experimented with
merging electric
instruments with Spanish guitars and bongos and the
result was a hit in Barcelona and the band was hired to
perform every night for the next 6 months. Instead of
extending this for another 3 months they decided to go
back home and resume Expresion.
As an English speaker in the United States, it was
really hard for me to find all of this information and
I would really appreciate it if you could take a quick
second and click the “Like” button as that is the way
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In 1974 they released their only single, which gained
them some sort of award for best Andalusian Group.
The song “Marrakesh” was written by Randy Lopez and “La
Luz del Fin del Mundo” was by jose rafa Garcia.
Over the next few years the band began to fuse Arabic
and Spanish sounds into their music and continued to
tour all over Spain.
In 1979 they
changed their name to Mezquita. Named after an
ancient and magnificent mosque in Cordoba. A collection
of recordings by Expresion would later be released in
2011.
The band had sent out a demo to Madrid and
Producer Vicente “Mariscal” Romero would sign
them to his label, Chapa Discos. They released their
debut album, “Recuerdos de mi Tierra” in December 1979.
The album is a wonderful collage of styles in
order to truly create something one of a kind. Often
hard rocking symphonic rock with a lot of virtuostic
playing, this band packs the melodies and rhythms with
inspirations from their home of Andalusia including
reflecting on it’s history by mixing in Spanish elements
and that of Arabic including inspiration from Randy’s
birthplace of Morocco.
All of the songs have progressive arrangements and none
of the tracks have anything that could be considered
a traditional chorus. There is plenty of hard rock
riffs, complex, fast and proggy riffs, sections with
spanish guitar, keyboard and electric guitar solos, and
passionate vocals. I
recommend the entire album but I think the first track
and the slower and emotional song Suicidio are likely
my favorites. Another highlight is an intrigueing love
song that uses lots of animal metaphores and features
a string section. Jose Rafa Garcia Rosa and Randy Lopez
maintained a Lennon/McCartney type relationship and
were the band’s main song writers and would switch off
on lead vocals.
Many people look back at this as a masterpiece in
Spanish Progressive Rock and in the ’90s it was issued
in South Korea and Japan.
The group released their second album in 1981.
“Califas Del Rock” is a much more straight forward rock
album and though a lot of the elements that made the
band great are here, it just doesn’t have the unique
impact that it’s predecor does. However, the more
typical arrangements are understandably easier for some
people to get into
and I don’t blame anyone for thoroughly enjoying this
hard rock album that still incorporates Arabic, Spanish,
and prog rock influences.
By 1983, the general public’s interest had moved further
away from these Andalusian Rock sounds so Mezquita
didn’t necessarily break up, but they said “Hasta Pronto”
to each other for the time being. Jose Rafa and Randy
attempted a new duo backed with a programmable drum
machine but after several performances, they chose to
abandon this project as well. Randy joined Medina Azahar
for their next 9 years performing on 2 studio albums and
a live double album. Jose Rafa Garcia released a
solo album under the name Adan Garcia in 1987.
Unfortunately we lost drummer, Rafael “Pelucas” Zorrilla
in 2002 but Mezquita regrouped for some shows 6 years
later with Eduardo Viñolo who had previously played
drums for these guys at times in the past as well.
In 2010 they contributed to a tribute to Ronnie James
Dio, 2011 saw the release of a live album with songs
from both albums as well as two previously unrleased
songs and since 2013 Randy Lopez has
put out 4 solo albums. I have a link to his brand
new album, “Apocalipsis” in the description below, so
check that out.
Of course if you’ve never heard this band before, I
very much recommend checking out their 1979 release,
“Recuerdos de mi Tierra” and I have links to
songs from both albums in the description below.
Muchisimas gracias a Randy Lopez para todo, te aprecio
mucho. I’d
really appreciate it if you can give this video a Like,
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more Andalusian Rock in the future and leave a comment
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session.
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