Before sushi restaurants, country bars and the construction of Coors Field itself, Andrew Hudson was a 14-year-old boy who sat outside of El Chapultepec to listen to music flowing from inside the legendary jazz club. In those days, Hudson said it was nothing else but The Pec for about 10 blocks.
"Every once in a while Freddy [Rodriguez Sr.] would come out and say, "Hey kids, it's kind of slow tonight, why don't you guys come on in and you can sit in on a few numbers?" Hudson said. "There were a couple times when I got off beat and I felt a drumstick hit me on the head to get me back on beat. Freddy would take people under his wing."
This Sunday, Hudson and other musicians from El Chapultepec's glory days will play a tribute concert honoring the legacy of Denver jazz icon Freddy Rodriguez Sr. and Denver's Latino Jazz Heritage.
It will be the first time that Hudson, Freddy's son, Freddy Rodriguez Jr. and Tony Black perform together since the passing of Freddy Rodriguez Sr. in 2020. The show will also feature a lineup of jazz musicians who will share memories of Freddy and the El Chapultepec legacy.
The concert will be this Sunday, Sept. 24 from 4-7 p.m. Click here for tickets.
On top of playing five nights a week at the Pec, the tenor saxophonist Freddy Rodriguez Sr. was known for mentoring hundreds of jazz musicians and hosting many whom traveled through Denver.
He died of COVID complications at the age of 89 in March 2020. The legendary jazz venue would close its doors later that same year.
"Freddy was family to us," said Anna Diaz, co-owner of El Chapultepec. "He was one of the first musicians to play jazz at El Chapultepec and he played the last gig before we closed down in 2020. He really was a bookend to the entirety of El Chapultepec-era jazz."
Hudson said the club brought together a room full of diverse characters under the sound of pure American jazz.
"You'd see guys in Armani suits sitting next to a homeless guy," Hudson said. "Cops and politicians sitting next to crooks. That place was just amazing but the whole area changed when Coors Field was built."
Dazzle Denver most recently celebrated a move into its new location at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. The space features a lineup of art installations honoring Denver's jazz scene, one in particular dedicated to Freddy Rodriguez Sr.
Its reopening also came with news of El Chapultepec Piano Lounge, a partnership with the El Chapultepec Legacy Project to help preserve the legacy of The Pec in Denver. The project was founded by Diaz and Angela Guerrero, daughters of Jerry Krantz and now co-owners of The Pec.
"I'm just most excited to reconnect with the Pec family," Diaz said leading up to the tribute concert. "The second half of the performance is going to be a lot of sit-ins and impromptu jam-session-vibe of The Pec. We are really excited to reenact that in the name of Freddy."
The concert will also honor other local jazz figures such as KUVO's Flo Hernandez-Ramo, Carlos Landou, Tina Cartagena, Arturo Gomez, Diaz and Guerrero.
"I'll tell you some funny things about Freddy," Hudson said. "He always drank his Coors Light with ice cubes and he always had these funny sayings. He'd always look back at the band and say, "Hey, on this next song let's not take it too slow, let's not take it too fast. Let's take it half-assed."
