January Birthdays 
The Rhythm Kings tended to get buried in my babbling about Exotic, so I thought I'd put this somewhere separarate. It appears that the Rhythm Kings - or at least Al Garcia and friends - are still in operation.
Here's a bassist, Robin Bramlett who refers to a Sept, 22, 2007 gig - a private event, "w/ Al Garcia and the Rhythm Kings." She's located in Bakersfield.
Here's a a reference to Al Garcia & the Rhythm Kings playing at the Cinco de Mayo festivities of 2007 in Bakersfield.
In fact, poking around at the Bakotopia site, here's a URL for a picture sequence widget on the Cinco de Mayo 2007 page. MSIE didn't quite like the link as it stood, but I've cleaned it up. (The bar, however, still looks pretty wild.) Anyway, in it there are several pictures of Al Garcia and The Rhythm Kings - mostly just Al.
pic 1
pic 2
pic 3
pic 4
pic 5
pic 6
pic 7
That's definitely the Al Garcia singing and playing trumpet. He hasn't changed all that much from the old pictures.
Blog reference from one of the other bands, Velorio, at the event.
February 3, 2007, the Bakersfield Hispanic Chamber honored Latino business accomplishments, with music by Al Garcia & the Rhythm Kings from 9-12. Damn, I missed this one, too. Maybe for the best. It was a posh affair and a bit expensive, and I'm pretty sure suits were required.
Yes, Virginia, there is still a Rhythm King!
Now the next thing is to find out when Mr. Garcia is playing sometime still in the future, but in public. It appears Mr. Garcia doesn't do MySpace or even the Web ... but the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Bakersfield knows how to find him, and so does Robin Bramlett.
Last edited: Aug 26, 2007 17:20:50
