The beginning of our journey......

I would like to welcome you to "El Paso's Musicians (Past and Present)" My intent with this site is to bring information about musicians I have known in El Paso from the 60's to present day. Many of the musicians that you will be reading about were either in groups that I played in while living in El Paso, as well as, the ones that I befriended all throughout high school and college. I graduated from UTEP in 1972 and in 1973 my wife and I left El Paso with a vocal show group called The Sounds Royale. The group started out with Sam Stephenson (guitar-vocals), Gayle Hageman (bass-vocals), Tedd McKeever (keyboards-vocals), Debbie Wilson (flute-vocals) and myself, Rick Kern (drums-vocals) The group was based out of Newport Beach, CA. We performed at mainly Orange County venues such as The Disneyland Hotel, Charley Browns in Huntington Beach, The Newporter Inn, Del Webb's Townhouse and the San Francisco Hyatt Regency. For many years all the members of our group were scattered all over the place. Sam, has retired as the Dir. of Safety for Union Pacific Railroad and moved back to his hometown of El Paso, Tx. Gayle, Tedd and Wayne have all passed away. Sam and I are still trying to find Debbie. I am sure she is warming many hearts out there somewhere with her fabulous voice. In 1978 my wife and I moved back to El Paso to be with our respective families and to start our own family. Both of our kids, Ricky and Nicole are musicians both living in Austin. Nicole use to play electric cello with an Austin band called Alex Dupree and the TrapDoor Band. She also played and toured with a popular Austin band called "Balmorhea". Both of our kids went to UT Austin. Ricky graduated in May, 2007 and Nicole graduated in May, 2008. They both love photography and film. The YouTube videos on this site were produced by my son to show our capability to show videos of performers on this site. Unfortunately when the Blogger site enabled encryption it deleted my videos. Hopefully we'll be able to retrieve them again in the future. He also did my colorful splash page that you see when you first log on to the site. There were two other groups that I played with while on the road. When the Sounds Royale disbanded I advertised my profile at the Local Musicians Union that I belonged to in Los Angeles. Two guys were looking for a drummer/vocalist and that was the beginning of "Tapestry". The members were Curt Hespe (keyboard-bass-horn-vocals) Dan Evans (guitar-bass horn-vocals) and myself (drums-horn-vocals) This was the group that travelled the most. We played many show rooms from one corner of the U.S. to the other, including two tours of Canada. Our very first job, after only being rehearsed for two weeks, was the Sahara in Lake Tahoe. During that time we appeared on the same billboard with Elvis, Diana Ross, Isaac Hayes, The Fifth Dimension and the Jackson 5. We were suppose to be there for one week and they held us over for 5. The only bad part of that booking was when we all came down with the flu at the same time. Remember the saying "the show must go on" well, it did with the grace of God and alot of liquids. This group continued travelling all over the country. We even took a three day break to cut an album in Cincinatti, Ohio at Queen City Studios. We sold the album mainly to people that saw our shows. This group lasted about three years. My last group on the road was also called "Tapestry" It consisted of Dan Evans from the first Tapestry, Jerry Johnson (bass-guitar-steel guitar-vocals), Danny Miller (guitar-vocals) and myself on drums and vocals. This group came together as a result of my old friendship with Jerry Johnson. He was a Chaplains Assistant at Ft. Bliss in El Paso in 1969. We played in a group called the Basic Sound at the Knights Club. That club was in the old Rodeway Inn at Bassett Center. Jerry was living in Long Beach, CA. when I asked him if he would like to form a new group. Out of my three groups on the road, this one was the group that was more destined for a recording contract and opportunity to break out of the club scene. We will never forget the night that we were playing at the Reubens in West Covina, CA. when our agent came in and told us that we were going to be on the Captain and Tennile TV Special with Neil Diamond. Dick Clark was the producer of the show. We signed the contract and had our original songs ready to showcase. There was only one small problem - none of the networks picked up the contract. How do you say "that's show biz" It was not too long after that I left the group and came back to my home town of El Paso where I still live. This is the rest of the story....

Friday, November 9, 2007

The Quintikis - 1968

Remember The Quintikis?
Kevin Rongonui (keyboards & sax) was one
of the members I remember the most. I saw
them perform at the Jet Set (Rodeway Inn)
on Dyer street around 1968. I don't think the
girl in this picture was with them then.
Kevin use to play at the Cinders Steakhouse for
several years and was at Dominics Italian
Restaurant on Montana two years ago. He now
lives in San Antonio. I am currently trying to
get hold of him.
Submitted by Rick Kern
Posted by at
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a brief note. I worked with the then "kari and the quintiki's" in 1975. We were playing in Alamogordo,Nm...The Backdoor Saloon I think. Me(Dan Norwood aka Beau,) keyboards, Steve Edwards-guitar, Kari and I think Kevin was still with us.
Good times back then.
Dan

February 24, 2008 at 8:51 PM
Anonymous said...

RICK KERN,
KEVIN RONGONUI IS IN SAN ANTONIO...FRED SUMMERS IS IN ALBEQUERQUE AND PHIL RIVERS IS IN EL PASO...KARI RIVERS/SUGAMOSTO IS SOMEWHERE IN MIDDLE NEW MEXICO, WEZ TAIROA HAS PASSED...KEVIN IS MY DAD...IWILL ASK ABOUT DAN(BEAU) STEVE, ETC...

E-MAIL...M_RONGONUI@YAHOO.COM LOWER CAPS ONLY

May 3, 2008 at 2:45 AM
Anonymous said...

I also played with the Quin Tikis and played in Las Cruces. I was a green keyboard player who was horrified that they expected me to wear a grass skirt and do the "haka." I did learn a few things from the experience and thankfully have never repeated the mistakes I made when I played with this group. Since that experience I thankfully have grown far beyond the impression that Keri and Weazel had of me.

robertwbrown.com

February 16, 2009 at 1:27 PM
Karri Parrett said...

I worked at the Backdoor as a waitress back in the early 70's and remember the Quintikis well. They were so popular that they were brought back many times. There was Keri and Fred Summers, Gary W. , Weasel, Wes, that I remembered. Every time I hear "Shaft", I think of them.
Karri Parrett (facebook)

August 17, 2010 at 8:05 PM
Justice said...

Kevin was also my Choir Director at St Raphael where he taught music. Also sang many times at Cinders where he hosted Karaoke nights. Didn't know he was in San Antonio, could have contacted him when I was there last week doing a presentation and visiting with my son.

Justice
08/22/10

August 22, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Anonymous said...

Sadly, Weazel Taiaroa passed away in a car accident in recent years. He was still doing it on his own between Lubbock and Ruidoso.

May 10, 2012 at 5:22 PM

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