Luis Cardenas
Encyclopedia
Luis Cárdenas
Luis Germán Cárdenas Amaya is a retired male road cyclist from Colombia.-Career:199119931995-References:...
Luis Cardenas is an iconic Latin-American drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
who achieved considerable popularity in the late 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
with both solo work and as a member of the rock band Renegade
Renegade (band)
Renegade is an American rock n' roll band composed of Luis Cardenas, Kenny Marquez and Tony De La Rosa. Although each member hails from the United States, the band is widely recognized as being the first Hispanic or "Chicano rock" band to gain acceptance in the United States. Throughout Latin...
.
Luis/Renegade History
Cardenas "jammed" with his first band at the age of six in East Los AngelesEast Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
, replicating War
War (band)
War is an American funk band from California, known for the hit songs "Low Rider", "Spill the Wine", "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?". Formed in 1969, War was a musical crossover band which fused elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues, and reggae...
's "Low Rider" with uncanny accuracy. A drive-by shooting
Drive-by shooting
A drive-by shooting is a form of hit-and-run tactic, a personal attack carried out by an individual or individuals from a moving or momentarily stopped vehicle without use of headlights to avoid being noticed. It often results in bystanders being shot instead of, or as well as, the intended target...
is rumored to have ended the jam, a fact Cardenas has neither confirmed nor denied. He could be found at family owned clubs sitting in with bands thrice his age, stunning audiences with amazing talent for such a young boy. Cardenas was the highlight of several talent shows through his elementary and junior high school years.
Luis later played with a local band called The Bit at parties and school dances.
Renegade was formed by Cardenas and the band's manager/producer Kim Richards and were unusual in being ethnic Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
s playing rock music. Deney Terrio
Deney Terrio
Denis George Mahan , better known as Deney Terrio, is an American choreographer, former film actor and one-time host of the television musical variety series Dance Fever from 1979 to 1985...
, host of Dance Fever
Dance Fever
Dance Fever is an American musical variety series that aired weekly in syndication from January 1979 to September 1987. The series was created and produced by Merv Griffin and written by Tony Garofalo....
introduced Renegade in what is believed to be their first national television appearance as being from "Whittier
Whittier
Whittier may refer to:*John Greenleaf Whittier, an American poet and abolitionist*Whittier, Alaska**Whittier Airport*Whittier, California, named for John Greenleaf Whittier**Whittier College**Whittier High School*Whittier, Iowa...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
". Building a local following and subsequently winning a record contract, the band released the albums "Rock n' Roll Crazy", "Renegade II - On The Run", "Nuns On Wheels" and "Renegade Live". The band sold well in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and locally in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, but did not enjoy the same level of success throughout the USA as they did internationally. In the United States, the band was widely viewed as teen idols, appearing in Tiger Beat
Tiger Beat
Tiger Beat is an American fan magazine marketed primarily to adolescent girls. It is currently published by Laufer Media, Inc. of Los Angeles, California, which also produces its sister publication, Bop....
, 16 Magazine
16 magazine
16 Magazine was a fan magazine based out of New York City. It was the first magazine marketed to adolescents that focused exclusively on celebrities...
, BOP Magazine and television programs, such as Dance Fever
Dance Fever
Dance Fever is an American musical variety series that aired weekly in syndication from January 1979 to September 1987. The series was created and produced by Merv Griffin and written by Tony Garofalo....
, which often overshadowed their musical prowess. The band was successful enough in the United States, to headline music festivals with bands such as 38 Special, Foreigner
Foreigner (band)
Foreigner is a British-American rock band, originally formed in 1976 by veteran English musicians Mick Jones and ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald along with American vocalist Lou Gramm...
, Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
and Night Ranger
Night Ranger
Night Ranger is an American rock band from San Francisco that gained popularity during the 1980s with a series of albums and singles. The band's first five albums sold more than 10 million copies worldwide...
. Renegade toured throughout the world in their own Learjet, and was popular enough in the late 1980s to be asked by Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
to appear on the Texas-New Mexico Border with Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
and Lee Greenwood
Lee Greenwood
Melvin Lee Greenwood is an American country music artist. Active since the early 1980s, he has released more than twenty major-label albums and has charted more than 35 singles on the Billboard country music charts....
to support Rogers' Hands Across America
Hands Across America
Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States...
effort. Renegade was the Saturday night headline attraction for the Los Angeles Street Scene Festival in both 1985 and 1986, with audiences of 150,000 in attendance. In 1990, the band was featured in a 98 minute television special aired on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
internationally, entitled "Renegade MTV Special." Cardenas reprises his original Let It Out drum solo during the MTV Special, finally committing his masterful performance to a visual experience. The band was honored in August 2001 at a David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff
David Michael Hasselhoff is an American actor, singer, producer and businessman. He is best known for his lead roles as Michael Knight in the popular 1980s US series Knight Rider and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the series Baywatch...
hosted event at the Conga Room
Conga Room
The Conga Room is a Los Angeles, California, nightclub that focuses on salsa and Latin music.-History:Early on, it broadened its musical repertoire beyond salsa to spotlight popular artists in other genres: rock en Español , world beat The Conga Room is a Los Angeles, California, nightclub that...
, in Los Angeles for record sales in excess of 30 million units worldwide.
Luis Cardenas Solo Projects
Cardenas personally achieved additional fame in the U.S., JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and especially throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where he participated in a TV show resulting from his having broken the world record for having the world's largest drumkit, which had previously landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records. Ironically, Cardenas's solo efforts have helped overcome Renegade's original teen idol image in the U.S. for that of a highly regarded musical unit. Unlike many drummers of the 1980s, Cardenas proved his drumming ability with the band's debut live track "Let It Out" in which he performs an intricate drum solo that comprises nearly a quarter of the song, ala Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly is a US psychedelic rock band best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".Their heyday was the late 1960s, but the band has been reincarnated with various members. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is the 31st best-selling album in the world, selling more than 25 million copies.-History:The...
's In Gadda Da Vida. After being inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records, Cardenas intentionally reduced the size of his drum kit to avoid being known for its size, rather than his personal skills as a drummer.
Cardenas however released a solo album entitled "Animal Instinct," and the first single "Runaway
Runaway (Del Shannon song)
"Runaway" was a number-one Billboard Hot 100 song made famous by Del Shannon in 1961. It was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook, and became a major international hit...
," a cover of a Del Shannon
Del Shannon
Del Shannon was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961.- Biography :...
original, became a worldwide hit. This was mainly due to a video that included cameos by Del Shannon
Del Shannon
Del Shannon was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961.- Biography :...
and Donny Osmond
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...
, which received heavy rotation on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
for many weeks, and ultimately became the most added video in history, with rotation as diverse as BET
Bet
Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...
. Cardenas won a National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...
(NARAS) Best Rock Video Grammy Nomination for his Runaway Video and it's documentary, The Making of Runaway. The Runaway video was an instant MTV favorite, propelling Cardenas into the Top Ten worldwide and added to the international cache of Renegade as a result of Cardenas's personal success. Further singles and unique videos followed, such as the Cardenas penned Hungry For Your Love, which included another captivating video with Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...
and Cardenas's pet tiger, Bundi. Although Hungry For Your Love shot up the charts worldwide, it did not match the initial success enjoyed by Runaway. Cardenas took time off from personal appearances between 1990 and 1993, but recorded two albums during that time that have not yet been released.
Renegade Hits The Studio Again
In 2000 Cardenas was once again with Renegade and the band was hopeful of regaining past glories. Renegade's past success, caused Ritmo Beat Magazine to refer to the band as the first Latin rock band, hailing them as Chicano rock-gods. However, the effort to rekindle the Renegade machine was hampered by differences between band members, ultimately sidelining Danny David Flores and moving Tony De La Rosa back to bass guitar. The band went on to perform as a three piece, now consisting of the original three core members. Activity on the band's official website appears to point to yet another re-emergence, announcing the release of a brand new DVD concert, entitled Renegade Live @ The House of Blues, that contains some older material, brand new material and a jam session with legendary guitarist Mike PineraMike Pinera
Mike Pinera is an American guitarist who started professionally in the late 1960s with the group Blues Image, which had a #4 hit in 1970 with their song "Ride Captain Ride". After the breakup of that group, he joined Iron Butterfly, and later formed the group Ramatam...
. According to the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
(IMDb), Allied Artists Pictures, a sister company of their record label, Allied Artists Music Group, scheduled release of Renegade Live @ The House of Blues for September 2009 in the United States, with worldwide distribution occurring later in the year.
New Solo Projects for Luis Cardenas
Luis Cardenas has signed a new recording contract and is now working on a new album to be completed in 2011. Whether a Renegade album will precede or follow the new Cardenas album is unknown at this time. Luis also recorded with Latter Reign and has three albums that will probably be released in the near future. Being well regarded as a singer, musician and drummer, Cardenas is a sought after studio musician and has produced several local bands, as well as writing material for various artists.Luis Cardenas Endorsements
Cardenas is an avowed Ludwig Drums endorser, having played Ludwig Drums since he received his first Ludwig Black Beauty snare drum at the age of two. In addition to Ludwig, Cardenas plays and endorses Paiste CymbalsPaiste
Paiste, a Swiss manufacturer and designer, is the world's third largest manufacturer of cymbals, gongs, and metal percussion. Paiste is an Estonian/Finnish word which means "shine"...
and Pro-Mark Drum Sticks.