SAN ANTONIO – Louis Escalante, an original member of the historic San Antonio band the Royal Jesters, died Thursday. He was 86.
“Today, the world lost a music legend whose talent and heart will never be forgotten,” artist and Escalante’s daughter-in-law, Laura Linda, said in a press release.
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In the mid-1950s, Escalante attended Sidney Lanier High School on the West Side, where he met his future Royal Jesters bandmates, Mike Pedraza and Oscar Lawson.
In 1958, the teens formed the Royal Jesters, a San Antonio band that bridged the rock ’n’ roll style and music of the ’50s with Mexican-American culture and harmonies.
The vocal group was a part of the youth that brought a new kind of English rhythm and blues to the stages and airwaves of San Antonio.
Music historian Chuco Garcia told KSAT that the Royal Jesters performed in San Antonio venues such as Patio Andaluz, La Salle, Plaza Juarez, Municipal Auditorium and La Villita.
The band’s placement in the “Chicano Soul” movement of the 1960s has been cataloged and remembered by UTSA’s “West Side Sound Oral History Project.”
The Royal Jesters have connected with wider audiences in recent years partly due to archival record labels compiling reissues such as “English Oldies.”
Escalante was known for his work as a lead vocalist in many of the band’s hit songs.
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