Javier Batiz

Javier Bátiz, stage name of Javier Isaac Medina Núñez (Tijuana, Mexico, June 3, 1944), is a Mexican guitarist from Tijuana, Baja California, and precursor of rock in Mexico.

History

Bátiz was born in Tijuana, on Fourth Street, a block and a half from Teniente Guerrero Park. In 1957 he founded a group called Los TJ's with which he collected musical influences that were received in the Mexican border cities of black music, blues and R&B from people like T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, among others.

In 1963, Bátiz moved to Mexico City. Three of the members of Los Rebeldes del Rock, the Tena brothers (Waldo, Américo and Polo), hired Javier to replace the singer Johnny Laboriel, since he wanted to continue his career as a soloist. The Tena brothers had seen Medina perform at a Tijuana club called the Convoy Club. The purpose of Bátiz becoming the singer of the Rock Rebels was not possible, due to the difference in his style and attitude; Javier was influenced by rock and roll born from black music, and Los Rebeldes de Rock already had a defined style and market.

Already as a soloist he performed at "La Fusa", one of the first cafés cantantes of the sixties in Mexico City, there, Javier invited two members of the TJ's from Tijuana to accompany him; Later, he spent a season in legendary Harlem with great success, even influencing famous and fearsome motorcycle gangs of that time, such as & # 34; The Nazis & # 34; from the Portales neighborhood.

By 1968 Javier Bátiz became a famous figure in the world of blues in Mexico and was hired to play at the Terraza Casino bar, which was a successful season for him. Personalities from all walks of life met every night to accuse impressive crowds in that place, including politicians, artists and intellectuals. That popularity led him to perform in 1969 the first massive open-air concert in Mexico held by authorities of the then Department of the Federal District in the Alameda Central and where, according to eyewitness calculations, Javier played before an audience of at least 18,000. people.

Both for Javier Bátiz and for most rock exponents, the 1970s became critical after the Festival de Avándaro was held in 1971, an event in which Bátiz did not participate, because his performance at the Terraza Casino did not allow him to travel to the festival on time, by road.

In 1969, Jim Morrison and The Doors performed 4 times in Mexico. At the end of the concerts, the lonely Morrison fled to other bars in Mexico City. The "Casino Terrace" was one of them. Javier Bátiz played there every night. "We were friends, we had known each other since 1967, at a place called "Whiskey a Go-Go," in Hollywood Ca.", recalls Bátiz. It was not strange then that he visited him at the Terraza Casino, where Bátiz played every night from 12 at night until 5 in the morning.

"Morrison would arrive after his show, at 1 or 1:30 in the morning, he would walk two or three blocks, all over Insurgentes –the two places were on the same avenue–, to see me play", says Bátiz. "He would get very drunk and I would play". For Bátiz, Morrison's presence meant nothing more than a visit from a friend. "In that time we were all the same, the super stars were others, and the musicians were musicians and nothing more". For this reason, he says, being friends with great artists, great and good musicians, was not an extraordinary thing.

Known as a teacher to people like: Carlos Santana, Álex Lora, Abraham Laboriel, Fito de la Parra (Canned Heat), and Guillermo Briseño. Carlos Santana has always been recognized as the creator of the Javier Bátiz sound.

In the year 2000 he participated in Canned Heat's Disco Boogie 2000, with the theme ¨The world of make believe¨ a song that took the first places in Europe, which earned him to travel with Canned Heat on tour in Milan, Ceseña, Terramo and Naples, in Italy. He presented his Metromental Recording that the seventies genius appeared with a current treatment in arrangements and production by Tony and Beto Méndez and special collaborations by Álex Lora, Lalo Toral (Los Locos de Ritmo), Guillermo Briseño, Nando Estévane and Fernando Vahaux among others.

In 2001, he presented unpublished material that was recorded in the 60's, called El Rock de los 60 con Javier Bátiz, and which was recognized in different shows.

Because of his musical career, he is commemorated in an artistic figure in the Wax Museum of the city of Tijuana.

Between 2003 and 2004 he presented six volumes of the album Baúl del Brujo. In 2005 he presented a selection of 3 albums called Alas Sesiones de Bátiz where unpublished songs of his authorship are found. Artists such as Macaria, Valerie Jodorowski and Baby Bátiz, among others, collaborate in it.

In 2008 he presented the album El Brujo USA as well as the presentation of the documentary Hecho en México by Fito de la Parra, in the United States and presentations in Santa Ana, CA, at El Whiskey a Go-Go in Hollywood, as well as at the Blues Fest Festival, also in his book El Vuelo del Ángel.

In 2015 Bátiz returns with a new, previously unreleased album, titled "El laberinto del Brujo", under the production of producer and composer Guillermo Sánchez Guzmán. The first single from the album is titled "La flor del Sans Souci" and it is inspired by a dancer named Flor who worked at the Sans Souci bar on Avenida Revolución in Tijuana, and who protected the, at that time, local adolescent musicians Carlos Santana and Javier Bátiz.

Discography

• Javier Bátiz and the Famous Finks (Peerless/Eco, 1963)
• Javier Batiz USA (Brunswick, 1968)
• Bátiz and hair(Orphan, 1968)
• Coming home (Atom/star, 1969)
• Rockin' with the king (Atom/star, 1970)
• Love you girl (Atom/star, 1971)
• Bátiz and its wave (Orphan, 1973)
• Say if you remember me (Sonart, 1971)
• Pacific garden (Sonart, 1971)
• She was. (Orphan, 1976)
• This time (Foton, 1984)
• Radio complacency (Foton, 1985)
• This time, second time (R.H., 1989)
• Say if you remember me (Denver, 1994)
• I like Rock (Denver, 1996)
• The house of the rising sun (Denver, 1997)
• Land of no one (Denver, 1998)
• Metromental (Denver, 2000)
• The Rock of the 1960s (Orphan, 2001)
• Live from the Vol Zócalo. 1 and 2 (Denver, 2002)
• The Baoul of the Witch Vol. 1, 2,3 and 4 (Denver, 2003)
• Javier Bátiz The USA Sessions Canned Heat Records (Denver, 2004)
• The trunk of the Witch Vol. 5 and 6 Denver (Denver, 2005)
• 16 hits by Javier Bátiz (Denver, 2006)
• Meetings 1 (Denver 2007)
• Meetings 2 (Denver 2007)
• Meetings 3 (Denver 2007)
• El Brujo en USA Denver 2008)
• The Labyrinth of the Witch (2015)
• Tino Contreras & Javier Bátiz Live Session (Cecut 2017)

Simple

• Sad nights / Nocturnal (Xec 1959, engraved at 78 rpm)
• Twist slow / Puré de papas (RCA Victor 1960)
• Lonely man / Come and surf (Astro 1963)
• Inventing what dream / Sad nights (Peerles/Eco 1964)
• Summer time / Don't criticize me. (Peerles/Eco 1964)
• Lonely streets / Jimbalaya (Peerles/Eco 1964)
• I don't have a home. / The hanged (Peerless/Eco 1965)

Videos

• The Live Witch from the Vol Zócalo. 1 (Discs and tapes Denver, 2003)
• The Live Witch from the Vol Zócalo. 2 (Discs and tapes Denver, 2003)
• The Live Witch from the Zocalo (Discs and tapes Denver, 2003)
• Adams Street Ave in San Diego CA (Batiz Entertainment)