Feliciano and friends fire up Mariachi festival

Melissa Schorr

Friday, Sept. 12, 1997 | 9:52 a.m.

The calls start rolling in months ahead of time.

Familiar voices, asking what weekend el mariachis will be this year. Some want to hold wedding celebrations, family reunions, or 100th birthday parties. Others simply want plan their annual vacation.

Then each September, in honor of Mexican Independence Day, 7,000 people descend upon Las Vegas to see the "world's finest mariachis" in the Seventh Annual Las Vegas International Mariachi Festival.

"All the hotels put out the red carpet for the Hispanics on this weekend" says Juan Elias, president of Elias Entertainment Group, the show's production company. "I'm expecting to sell out."

The show will start tonight with Vicente Fernandez and his "Mariachi Chapala" and continues Saturday night with headliners Jose Feliciano, a six-time Grammy winner, singer Ana Barbara and Miguel Acevas Mejia, an 82-year-old mariachi "living legend."

Young dancers from the Ballet Folklorico will perform in costumes representing different regions of Mexico.

There will be three mariachi groups playing and accompanying each headliner, including America's Mariachi Sol de Mexico, led by Jose Hernandez, the festival's musical director, Mexico City's Mariachi de America de Jesus Rodriguez de Hijar, and Mariachi Los Gavilanes.

"Imagine 50 to 60 musicians on stage," says Elias of the group production numbers where all the musicians -- violinists, guitar players -- perform together. "It's like a symphony."

Afterwards, the party continues with dancing until dawn and a Mexican breakfast served in the Aladdin's Imperial Ballroom.

"These people are really energized by the music," says Elias. "They asked 'Why don't you have a dance after the show so we can dance?' "

So he did.

"It allows the mariachi lover form Indiana to meet the mariachi lover from California," he says.

Landing Feliciano was a special coup for the festival.

"We're exceptionally proud of having Jose," says Elias. "He's known as one of the greatest guitarists. He's popular for his pop music, so it'll be interesting to listen to his singing with mariachis. To see how he performs some special arrangements, integrating his guitar playing with theirs -- I think that's worth the price of the ticket alone."

Born blind, Feliciano, 52, now lives in Connecticut with his three children and his wife Susan, whom he met when she was the 17-year old head of his fan club.

Feliciano has had pop hits in no less than three different languages -- his No. 1 1968 version of "Light My Fire," a remake of The Doors hit, "Che Sera" a hit Italian song, and, of course, his "Feliz Navidad," a Spanish and worldwide standard. He's also dabbled in other fields, including television, writing the theme for the '70s sitcom "Chico & the Man."

However, before last year, Feliciano had never sung mariachi before.

"Mariachi is not the normal music for Puerto Rico," explains Feliciano, referring to his native land.

But when he appeared at the Christmas Mariachi festival held in Phoenix and performed "Feliz Navidad," the crowd went wild, said Elias.

This time, Feliciano plans to do a smattering of all his work.

"I will also do some songs in English," he said. "It is not totally a Latino show."

That's not to downplay his pride in his heritage.

"Being a Latin, I'm proud of that," he said. "I've never tried to hide it, like some performers who have anglicized their names. I had offers from record companies to change my name and I said no. My name is Jose Feliciano, and that's the way it always will be, whether I make it big or not. I'm proud to carry my father's name."

Just like the Mariachi Festival is proud to carry his.