Professor by day, Dr. Loco by night: Bay Area bandleader Jose Cuellar dies at 84 | By Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle | During his lectures in the Raza Studies Department at San Francisco State University in the 1990s, professor Jose Cuellar would mention that students could experience the pride and joy of being Latino by checking out the local Tex-Mex outfit Dr. Loco and His Rockin’ Jalapeno Band.
Students who followed this advice to a club or festival in the city’s Mission District would see their professor as his alter ego, Dr. Loco, wailing on the sax or squeezing an accordion while he sang in a blend of English and Spanish. Cuellar took the stage after making a Clark Kent transformation from his academic attire of subtle Pendleton shirt and Ben Davis jeans to his bright and shiny performance zoot suit. He was known universally as Dr. Loco, or just Loco, and he cultivated that image with his signature Ray-Bans and braided ponytail and beard.
“He was a proud Tejano (Texan of Mexican descent), and because he was a professor he brought in a young audience,” said Bay Area radio host and Latin music historian Jesse “Chuy” Varela. “In his 40 years in the Bay Area performing and teaching, he touched generations with a style that was distinctly his own.”
Exuberant and charismatic, Cuellar kept his musical act going after he taught his last class and retired in 2020. He was still blowing on that sax and singing last July when he was diagnosed with incurable small cell lung cancer. Cuellar died at his home in the Bayview on Jan. 21, at age 84. But Dr. Loco was not the kind to go quietly.
His life was honored by a free public memorial and concert April 8 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco. The event was hosted by his wife of 36 years, Stacie Powers Cuellar.
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Read more of Dr. Cuellar’s bio here. Lots of information:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/professor-by-day-dr-loco-by-night-bay-area-bandleader-jose-cuellar-dies-at-84/
OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
From Care2 via Jock Bartley on Facebook: Trump shut down our LGBTQ+ suicide and mental health hotline, but CANADA opened a US toll-free number to theirs… so our citizens can get help anytime, at no cost: 1-877-330-6366
Kindness & empathy have no borders.
Posting for my Veteran/singer/songwriter/musician friend Troy Hoss: Heavy on my heart so here goes: This is a very real problem … 22 Veterans a day surrender to their demons. #SuicideAwareness | Call Veteran’s Hotline: 988 #1 or 844-647-1354
Warning Signs of Suicide – National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or if you want to discuss, call the old numbers at 800-273-TALK or 800-273-8255 for English and 888-628-9454 for Spanish. Learn the signs of someone who may be contemplating suicide.
If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
April 2026
6: Michail Belchev, 79, Bulgarian singer, songwriter and poet; Álvaro Cassuto, 87, Portuguese composer and conductor.
5: Alvin L, 67, Brazilian singer-songwriter, heart attack; Donn Landee, 79, American record producer (5150) and recording engineer (Minute by Minute, 1984); Albert Mazibuko, 77, South African choral singer (Ladysmith Black Mambazo); David Wiffen, 84, English–Canadian folk singer-songwriter (“Driving Wheel”).
4: Sajida Obaed, 68, Iraqi folk singer.
3: Wojciech Morawski, 76, Polish drummer (Breakout); Fred Simon, 74, American singer (The Lost Generation, The Chi-Lites).
2: James Gadson, 86, American drummer (Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band) and session musician; Bo Lueders, 39, American guitarist (Harm’s Way); Fernando Ríos Palacio [es], 87, Argentine singer.
1: Kiril Ampov, 77, Bulgarian composer and pop singer; Fuze, 46, Russian rapper (KREC), traffic collision; Suki Lahav, 74, Israeli violinist (E Street Band), singer, and lyricist; Dalia Nausheen, 71, Bangladeshi Nazrul Sangeet singer, cancer.
March 2026
31: Tony Rivers, 85, English singer (Harmony Grass).
