Raymond Roque

Drums

Born in East Chicago, Indiana, Raymond Roque grew up in a house of music. Hip Hop influences from his older brother, and latin/rock music from his father, who was a founding member of the Santana tribute band “Soundz of Santana”. At the age of 15, he began taking stage along side his father as their permanent drummer for the next several years. Aside from performing latin music from the 70s and 80s, Ray also plays with bands in the Metal genre. All his music influences are combined to give an open style of drumming to RICO.

Jesse Tobias

Bass & Vocals

I was born in San Luis Potosi Mexico on April 7, 1959, I came to the United States with my parents in 1960 where we lived on the near west side of Chicago. I began playing guitar when one of my cousins left his guitar at our house, I must have been around 10 years old, I played that guitar till I had blisters on my fingers. I began to listen to WLS radio where you could hear rock, soul, r-n-b, Motown, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Who. Wesley Coleman was my neighbor and he inspired me to play the bass guitar along with my cousin Esteban Tobias. Both of them were in a band called The Meditations. I remember hearing them play at block parties and standing next to my cousins bass amp. That was it for me I was hooked.

My parents bought me my first bass guitar when I was 12. It was my cousins Gibson EBO. From there Wesley thought me how to play my first bass line which was Sam & Dave’s “Hold on I’m coming”. At the time I didn’t have a bass amp so I plugged it in into anything that was amplified like my parents brand new Zenith stereo. Boom goes the speakers. Eventually I got a bass amp and started playing with friends from the neighborhood. My first band was The Little Meditations (of course) and we played music from Santana, Jackson Five, James Brown and what we call now oldies, we played at block parties, local school talent shows. I also played in the Precious Blood Church choir with Father Michael Pfleger. My second band was Natural Sound made up of friends from high school. We were, yes, a disco band. We enjoyed marginal success opening up for Tierra at the Congress Hotel in 1980 but eventually disco was dead and I moved on to play with Abraxas, Amigos, Contraband, Chicago Skyway, Riley, Zeus, Charmer, The Core, Galileo, Ground Control, Tony Alvarez Band, Nobody’s Business. Where as of today I’ve been playing with Rico! and The Lizard Kings. Is that enough ? Yes, that’s enough ! Hey Joe did I miss anybody ? I would like to say thanks to my Mom ‘n Dad for letting me and my friends jam at our house. They never said no.

Devin Thompson

Vocals

Devin Thompson was born in Joliet, Illinois. Growing up in a family steeped in gospel, rhythm and blues and jazz, Devin took to music at an early age. Devin sang his first solo in church at the age of five. At 12 years of age, he joined his older brother’s band, Mezzo Forte, honing his skills of singing and playing the trumpet. Devin went on to do backup work for R. Kelly, Steve Cole, Chante Savage and Martha Walsh of the Weather Girls fame. To date, Devin has recorded numerous jingles, a CD entitled, Club Zero, and was featured on the soundtrack for the Disney movie, Holes.