Sheila E. On New Salsa Single, Bay Area Funk And ‘The Glamorous Life’

For drummer and percussionist Sheila E., “music is love and love is music.”

Making music goes beyond merely a career path, a way of life and shared familial experience that informs her worldview.

From a young age, Sheila and her three siblings were surrounded by sound, weaned on the music of Oakland, California and that of father Pete Escovedo, with whom she just received a lifetime achievement award from the Latin Grammys.

Following a stint in Santana, Pete and brother Coke founded the Latin rock ensemble Azteca and the Escovedo house became home to rehearsals, jam sessions and more.

The niece of roots rock punk Alejandro Escovedo and goddaughter of Tito Puente, Sheila E. describes an early moment performing on stage with her father and Azteca as an out of body experience equatable with heaven, a flash point which would guide her personally and professionally.

Early work in George Duke’s group led to a spot as a member of Marvin Gaye’s backing band during his final tour in 1983. Work with Prince followed and Sheila E. released her debut album The Glamorous Life in 1984, the first of two consecutive gold records.

On stage, Sheila E. remains a captivating presence. During a recent performance in Chicago, the final night of a sold out three show run at City Winery, the percussionist was backed by a four piece group, The E-Train, in a set which drew upon moments from her solo career as well as carefully chosen covers ranging anywhere from The Beatles to George Clinton, an inspirational, energetic affair which incorporated elements of funk, avant-garde jazz, Latin percussion and more.

Following the release of her latest single “Bailar,” Sheila E. remains hard at work on a pair of new projects as well as her YouTube series Sheila E. TV and a role in the recently renewed BET+ series The Family Business.

“The first single from my first salsa record that I’ve always wanted to do is out. It’s called ‘Bailar,’ which means ‘dance.’ There’s also a video. And it’s doing well. And I’m excited because it’s music I grew up listening to. I never thought I would be able to do a salsa record. It was on my bucket list. So we’re working on that,” she said. “I’m also going to do my first inspirational record. And I’m excited about that as well. The inspirational record is more on the spiritual/Gospel side, and somewhat will be uptempo songs – but also testimony. It’s being in a place where music, emotionally, is going to take you to a place that makes you feel great.”

I spoke with Sheila E. about the philanthropic work of her Elevate Oakland foundation, which seeks to connect students with musical opportunities in and outside the classroom, performing on stage again following a two year layoff, the power of connection as part of the live music experience and the importance of incorporating her influences within her first single “The Glamorous Life.” A transcript of our phone conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows below.

Your foundation, Elevate Oakland, works to help students and schools. I’m always struck by that idea of music in the classroom. I was lucky enough to have it when I was a child. When I was in grade school, we learned piano and we sang. But, today, you see that it’s always one of the first things cut from the American curriculum. I know you had music in your life at a young age but did you have it in school?

SHEILA E: That’s so interesting. Because I felt like my introduction to music was of course from my dad.

He would practice to LPs everyday. And then he would have jam sessions with his friends. Once in a while, his band would rehearse in the middle of the living room. Plus, he also introduced us to radio there – Motown and James Brown. And all of the local artists – Santana – and he ended up playing with Santana for many years – but also Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Tower of Power, Pointer Sisters. It goes on and on. So music was in the home every single day. 

One year – I think I was 9 – I was in school in the third grade and my dad said, “I think I want you to learn how to play violin – classical music.” And I was like, “Violin? Are you kidding me?” So that was really the only thing [musically] that I actually learned in school: how to play violin.

My ear was so quick to hear things that I ended up not really reading [sheet music] in school. I took it for five years, got scholarships and never really knew how to read [music]. Because if you played something one time, I could play it. 

But I loved being in the orchestra. And my dad wanted me to learn how to play music. But we were all self-taught as far as percussion, drums and things like that.

You mentioned Tower of Power. When you covered them in Chicago, you spoke quite eloquently on stage about Bay Area funk. When I discovered funk it was through George Clinton. Because the “Atomic Dog” video was on MTV, he was in movies. But Bay Area funk is so different from what I knew as funk at a young age. What makes it so unique to you?

SHEILA E: There’s something in our water in the Bay Area, I don’t know. 

It’s interesting. I think it’s very syncopated. George Clinton, Parliament Funkadelic, is all about the one. It’s about the one. But, for us, in the Bay Area, it’s a lot of upbeats. A lot of upbeats.

We play [Tower of Power’s] “Oakland Stroke.” We play that and it’s interesting because when I start taking the solo at the end, playing to that horn line, they never really play on the one. I’m playing all around it. And it’s interesting because it’s all upstrokes. And I think that’s our claim to fame: some of the funk is on the up. 

You said on stage that your father is Mexican-American and your mother has Creole roots, is that right? 

SHEILA E: My mom is Creole, yes. All of her brothers, except one, and her parents and my aunts and uncles, were all born in New Orleans. But my mom was born in Oakland.

You’ve spoken about the way your father surrounded you with music from an early age. But with those connections to New Orleans and those Creole roots, was your mother a music fan too? 

SHEILA E: Absolutely. Yeah. Her and her sisters loved the vaudeville type thing. They could tap dance a little bit. My mom plays a little bit of piano. My mom also plays a little percussion and sings a bit. So they did all of that – because they loved that kind of vaudeville thing.

And it’s crazy. Because, while being Creole, she just happened to be named Juanita. Which is so Spanish, Latin. And then marries my dad. Which is interesting.

But she loves music. And all kinds of music. And she is an incredible salsa dancer. Incredible.

You mentioned on stage in Chicago how you had waited two years to be there. You said you need that experience of performing live. What was it like this year finally getting back on stage a bit in front of actual fans after that forced layoff?

SHEILA E: Oh my god… I cried every single night for one thing. I’m such a baby. I get so emotional. 

And then I sometimes feel like I’m not doing enough… I feel like, “Well, I didn’t play timbales…” Or, “I didn’t play guitar. I didn’t play bass. I didn’t run around and sing. I couldn’t go out into the audience…” I start thinking of the things that were before this pandemic happened. And then I thought, “Well, I’m glad that we’re starting off the way that we are…” Because it is already a lot for me to do and we haven’t played in two years! I would just be a mess. I have to ease into this. And this is my way of easing in. It’s not easy!

But I’m over the moon with the love from the people coming out. Waiting two years! Some of them had tickets two years ago. And to come out in the cold? It’s just amazing. I don’t know how many people I would actually stand outside in the cold to go see.

But I had so much fun. I really did.

You cracked me up on stage in Chicago when you called your parents and shared that conversation via speaker phone…

SHEILA E: Oh, it was that night! I’ve never done that. That was a first.

I know you still play together which is amazing to have that after all these years. How important is that family connection to music to you? 

SHEILA E: Oh it’s so important to be able to play with my family still. My dad, bless him, he was wanting to retire a couple of years or so ago. And we told him that he couldn’t. Because if he does, he’ll grow old. And we don’t want that. His mind tells him that he can kind of play, his body cannot. So he’s not playing as much. He hasn’t played in so long. When he does play with his band, we all try to play with him in the band. And the four of us together with his band is just a feeling I’ve never felt before with any other artist. 

When I tell the story during the show about figuring it out that one time [at a young age] playing with my dad, that I know I went to heaven [in that moment] and that’s what heaven feels like – that’s what it feels like to play with my family. It’s just like heaven. It’s so inspiring. We make each other laugh. Then we tap on each other when we’re on stage and we’re making jokes. It’s straight up comedy. But the love of music and making people laugh, and laughing at ourselves, and then battling each other and competing? It’s crazy.

In Chicago, you played a beer bottle on stage. Does doing that kind of take you back a bit to childhood where you’re beginning to understand the ideas of percussion and rhythm long before you ever sit down at an actual drum kit and virtually anything is a musical instrument? 

SHEILA E: Oh absolutely. And sometimes we don’t have the beer bottle! Because most of the venues are using plastic. You can’t get a sound out of that. Then I had a big, gigantic water bottle in the back. The real big ones are too low. You can’t really start that high. But the five or ten gallon ones, I sometimes use those and play on them like buckets in a sense. I use them as like a shekere. But everything keeps changing. So those big bottles in the back, I picked it up to play it and was like, “Gosh, this sounds horrible…” I had never picked up a water bottle that sounded that bad. But the way that they’re making the plastic, these lines on the bottom change the sound. So I’m constantly picking things up going, “What can I use?” 

And that is part of growing up with my dad. Having his own percussion, he didn’t always want us touching his stuff. But it didn’t matter. Because we would find anything in the house and play it.

On stage at City Winery, you had everyone in the crowd turn and address someone they didn’t know and tell them they loved them. People connected. And that’s always a role music has played for me is connection, especially live. How important is that element to live music in particular? 

SHEILA E: It’s so important. 

It’s interesting… When we record an album [in the studio], we record an album thinking that we’re playing and it’s what we feel. Our eyes are closed and we’re in that moment – but we don’t feel the audience. Sometimes you have to pretend in a sense. Like, “The audience is there. I want them to love this as much as I love it and feel how I feel.” And when you get on stage and get that love that you feel back after all of the work that you put in – and that emotion of being loved – them loving the music whether they know the music or not… A lot of people don’t even know the songs were playing. And that’s OK. They’re still affected by it. Music is love, love is music. Everyone came there because of music. And that is a beautiful way to show love. It really is. 

To tell someone, a stranger, how we can change things… It’s uncomfortable to turn to someone you don’t know and address them and say, “I love you.” That’s breaking down barriers. And being transparent. And it’s OK to be that way. And that’s what we have to do when we’re recording, I feel. To be true and honest to what we’re doing, we have to open ourselves up and be transparent. 

You told a great story during your set about playing an extra beat on stage with Marvin Gaye, getting called out for it by Marvin and blaming your brother. But what did an early experience like that teach you? 

SHEILA E: It taught me when not to play! It definitely taught me when not to play. It taught me that all of the percussion that I had right there in front of me didn’t need to be played in one song.

It’s a painting. If you use too many colors, you look at it going, “What the heck is that?” Well, it’s going to sound the same. “What are you playing?” No. Stop and listen. And understand where that air is, where the breath is, where that space is. So that you can allow yourself to fit in where it should be.

With a song like “The Glamorous Life,” it’s a pop song but you really manage to incorporate your style and your influences in it. I can’t think of too many other places in the early 80s where a young pop fan in the midwest like myself was going to hear that kind of percussion on the radio right alongside something like a Madonna song. That’s kind of amazing. How important was it for you to make sure that side of you came through in that song? 

SHEILA E: It was very important. When we were done recording it and we turned the project in, the record company wanted to put out “The Belle of St. Mark” as the first single. And I absolutely said “no.” I didn’t have an A&R person and I didn’t really talk to many people at the record company. I just knew what I wanted to do. And with Prince, it was easy. Because it was like, “OK. Let’s just do whatever. Let’s go!” 

To tell the record company that you just signed with “no…” They were not happy. I said, “No, you don’t understand. I’m a woman who plays percussion, plays timbales.” And they were like, “What are timbales?” They didn’t know what timbales were. So they made me do a showcase in the little courtyard area so that everyone could understand what the heck I did – even though they signed me because of Prince.

But they wanted to see what I did. And I said, “Look, ‘Glamorous Life’ is the song that features me playing percussion and playing a solo in this song. Even though I’m signed as an R&B artist crossed over to pop, it showcases who I am as a musician and an artist. If you release ‘Belle of St. Mark’ because you really like that song, and it’s just me singing, then I’m in the category with everyone else that is just singing. What I do differently is I am a drummer and percussion player and there are not very many. So I think that’s important.”

But I had to really convince them! And once we did the showcase, they understood it. And we got our way to release “The Glamorous Life” first. Which I’m glad that we did.