POP BEAT : LATINO CONCERT PROMOTER’S HIGH-PITCHED CAREER

The walls of the small one-room office in downtown Santa Ana are decorated with snapshots and posters of hundreds of musicians that Cruz Frias has worked with during his 12 years as a concert promoter.

But even though Frias promotes as many as 300 events a year throughout Southern California and the rest of the country, his company doesn’t have the widespread name recognition of such music industry giants as Avalon Attractions or the Nederlander Organization.

At least, not in the English-speaking community. But within the local Latino community, his “Empresa Frias” (or Impresario Frias) company is readily identifiable as the promotion firm that has brought many of the biggest names in Spanish music to the Southland.

On Sunday, Frias has booked Mexico’s reigning pop idol, Jose Jose, at Anaheim Convention Center, and in the fall, Frias hopes to take the next step up the concert promotion ladder by bringing international Latin superstar Julio Iglesias back to Orange County for multiple shows at the convention center.

Sitting in a coffee shop around the corner from his office, the Mexico-born Frias explained how he graduated from washing cars in Santa Ana to promoting dances and concerts for the Southland’s Spanish-speaking population.

“I was doing some acting and I decided to try to promote groups and singers,” Frias, 36, said. “My first show (in 1973) was at the Laborer’s Hall in Santa Ana. It wasn’t very big and we only had about 300 people. In 1975, I did my first one at Anaheim Convention Center for about 1,700 people. I just kept working harder and harder until I finally got to the point where I have to close the doors on every event.”

For Jose Jose’s concert, Frias is expecting a sellout at the 9,000-seat convention center. If there is enough overflow at the 7 p.m. performance, he said he will put on a second show.

Estimating that he works on 200 to 300 shows per year in the various states he covers, Frias said that in Orange County alone, he averages 12 or 13 major concerts per year at the Anaheim Convention Center plus another 20 dances at smaller 00halls.

In addition to his Southern California events, Frias said he frequently coordinates artists’ tours into other regions of the country. The most popular areas for Spanish-language music outside California are Texas, Arizona, Chicago and Washington, Frias said.

To promote his concerts and “Gran Bailes,” or “big dances,” Frias generally bypasses the English-language media and advertises exclusively with Spanish-language periodicals, radio and television stations.

Word-of-mouth advertising is also highly effective in building audiences for these shows, he said, so he also relies heavily upon flyers and posters that are distributed by local Latino youths he hires out of the barrios.

“I do all my own television and radio commercials, and I do the flyers and posters,” Frias said. “Sometimes I work 15 or 16 hours a day on these shows. I’ve seen a lot of promoters who don’t want to do any of that. They just want to hire people to do it for them. But I do my own work. I think that’s the best way to make people satisfied when you put a show together.”

Even with typical ticket prices of $15 to $18 for dances that feature four or five acts, Frias said he generally has capacity crowds because he draws from a large base audience of local Latino residents as well as recent immigrants from Mexico.

Although Frias estimates that there are 60 to 70 Latino groups from California that he regularly books, he said that an equal portion of his business comes from importing popular acts from Mexico such as singer Rigo Tovar (who will play the convention center July 27).

Frias said there are no Orange County Latino groups with large enough followings to headline shows but added that he regularly books local bands as supporting acts.

“I always use Orange County talent in all my shows,” he said. “There’s a lot of local talent here, but they haven’t gotten to the top yet.”

He also said he tries to assist local musicians in expanding their audiences by setting up tours to Mexico.

“In Orange County, there are about 50 to 60 groups playing in local bars. Most already have records, so I try to help. A lot of times, I don’t make any money when I send them to Mexico. They don’t get paid much, so they keep the money. But I like to do the favor for them.”

While the group Los Lobos from East Los Angeles has cracked the rock market by blending elements of traditional Mexican music with rock ‘n’ roll, Frias said few of the bands he works with incorporate rock music. Some groups, however, are updating their sounds by replacing Mexican instruments like accordions and bajo sextos with electric guitars and synthesizers.

Although Frias said there are six or seven other Latino concert promoters working in Orange County, he doesn’t complain about the competition.

“If there wasn’t anybody else, I might not do my work,” he said. “Competition keeps me acting all the time to get the best people.”

Business has been good enough, however, to permit Frias and his family to move from Santa Ana to Laguna Hills, where they have lived for seven years.

“I haven’t made much money yet, but one of these days, I’m going to make the big money and buy my Rolls-Royce,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t have a big house. But I’m happy right now just being able to support my family. As long as I’m happy and I make other people happy, that is my main concern.”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets for seven new Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre shows go on sale this weekend, including Iron Maiden and W.A.S.P. on July 5 (on sale Saturday); Accept/Queensryche/Keel show on July 13, R.E.M. July 28 and Hank Williams Jr. on Aug. 30 (all on sale Sunday). On Monday, tickets will be available for America on July 12, Dan Fogelberg/Chris Hillman Band on July 14 and John Denver on July 18. . . . Social Distortion and Shattered Faith will perform today at Mugsy Malone’s in Anaheim. . . . A second Kris Kristofferson show at the Crazy Horse Steak House has been added June 23. . . . The Jim Riley Experience with the Barrett Brothers (formerly of Bob Marley’s Wailers) will play the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach June 22. . . . Cathedral of Tears returns to Spatz in Huntington Harbour on June 22.