Page 20 - BiTS_12_DECEMBER_2023

me, and he offered me a contract for five years, five albums. I didn't know that he got
a label, so I was like, oh, my God. Sure, I'll do it.

BiTS: I saw Calvin when he was playing with B.B. King, and of course, he was the

musical director for B.B. King as well. Absolutely fabulous trumpet player.

ER: Oh, wow. Yes, yes. And arranger. He
just was great. Plus one of the extra or the

plus with him is that he was open, open to
do different things with the blues like that.

You know, he wanted to explore the
Spanish language with the blues. Some
people, you know, just they just can't
handle it still. I think I'm still dealing with

that. When they see my last name, they
have their doubts.

BiTS: Evelyn, tell me about making

“Hombres” because that seems to have
been a tremendous venture. I mean, doing

it in both languages must have taken
hours, days, months.

ER: Well, yeah, the desire for Calvin
was to make it in Spanish. And then

I acquired the rights of the album,
so then I decided I wanted to have
this album in both languages –

Spanish and English. So I finished
the album and then worked on the
translation from Spanish to English.

Not an easy thing. I had some help,
you know, of course, and we made
it, and I'm very proud of it.

BiTS: It's a terrific album. I love it.
I don't understand any of the
Spanish. I speak no Spanish at all,

but I do have a friend in Texas who
is Hispanic, and he translates for me
occasionally.

ER: Oh, okay. Cool.