Louis Frausto Pérez, Jr. (born January 29, 1953) is an American

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

for

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") are an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cumbia, ...

and

Latin Playboys Latin Playboys was a musical group formed by David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, active in the 1990s. History The band began with a series of demo recordings made by Hidalgo on a home cassette tape four-track machine. T ...

. Pérez started with Los Lobos playing primarily

jarana A jarana is a guitar-like string instrument from Mexico. There are different regional versions of the jarana, notably: * Jarana huasteca, string instrument of the Huastec region, Mexico * Jarana jarocha, string instrument of Veracruz, Mexico * Ja ...

(a small Mexican guitar) and

singing Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

. He is one of the founding members of Los Lobos, established in 1973. As Los Lobos ventured into

Norteño music Norteño (Spanish: "northerner") may refer to: * Norteño (music) is a style of Mexican music related to polka and corridos * Norteño refers to the people originally from Northern Mexico and Southwestern U.S. * Norteño (band) is a ''tango nuevo ...

and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, Pérez became the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

, first with just a

snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...

. In 1990, Victor Bisetti was hired to be a combination drum tech, drum coach and percussionist. As time went on, Bisetti took a more active role as drummer, allowing Pérez to move back to the front of the stage and start playing guitar. Bisetti was replaced in 2003 by Ruben (Cougar) Estrada. Estrada was replaced by Enrique "Bugs" Gonzalez in 2013. Pérez continues to be Los Lobos' primary

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

. He also

paints Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

in his free time and has been the art director and artistic supervisor on many of Los Lobos' albums.

References

American Sephardic Jews 1953 births Living people American percussionists Songwriters from California Musicians from Los Angeles Los Lobos members 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 20th-century American guitarists Latin Playboys members American male guitarists Guitarists from California 20th-century American male musicians American male songwriters {{US-songwriter-stub