Percussionist Rudy Regalado passed away last Thursday. He was 67 years old. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, he is best known as a member of the 1970s rock band El Chicano.

Of note to Zawinul fans, Regalado performed on Joe’s 1988 album The Immigrants, earning co-composer credit for the tune “Criollo,” on which Regalado sang a chant based on the life of the nineteenth century revolutionary Simon Bolivar. “I put on a chord structure and made a hymn out of it,” Joe said in a 1988 interview, “because of the significance of the song. I played a real hip bass line on it. I think it’s going to scare most bass players.” (Nearly 20 years later you could still find a bass player or two trying to figure that line out.) Regalado also performed on 1996’s My People — with another writing credit for “My Gente” — as well as 2002’s Faces and Places.

A biography can be viewed here.