ERIC BOBO: A BEAT FOR HIS FATHER

Eric Bobo turned 20 on Thursday. The official celebration will take place Sunday at 6 p.m. when his six-man group takes to the stand at Birdland West in Long Beach, where he will be working the next several weekends.

Bobo’s life has been busy, turbulent and challenging since, only weeks after his 16th birthday, he inherited leadership of the band led by his father, the late William Coriea, a.k.a. Willie Bobo, long a giant of Latin jazz.

“I promised myself that I’d keep on playing my dad’s music for a year,” young Bobo says. “But at the end of that year I was still in high school, struggling with grades, dealing with the pressures of getting older men in the band to accept me as leader. So I gave it up. I reorganized the group last summer, using two men from the old band and three younger cats.

“I had on-the-job training from the age of 5, when my dad would bring me on stage now and then at the Roxy, the Chandler Pavilion, Donte’s. By my early teens I was working with him quite often; meanwhile I learned by listening to him--not only playing but talking. He’d play me all these fantastic records from his collection until late at night, and tell me about his experiences. We had a great rapport, and I’m so glad I was able to hear all those stories from him before he passed.”

Willie Bobo, who could not read or write music, instilled in his son the importance of learning. Eric began studying at age 8; soon, he could play traps and all percussion, studied classical guitar and piano for a while, and boned up on theory and history.

Thurman Green, the trombonist who had long been Willie Bobo’s musical director, was supportive of the heir to the Latin beat, but Eric soon found “it was too early. I was too inexperienced and scared stiff.”

By the time he reorganized, Bobo had entered Cal State L.A. His experience there, playing both in the jazz band and the symphony orchestra, equipped him better for the responsibilities of leadership. He now writes many of the band’s arrangements.

“We still play a medley of my dad’s hits--things like ‘Spanish Grease,’ ‘Evil Ways’ and ‘Fried Neck Bones.’ The one number we won’t do is ‘Dindi,’ which of course was his great vocal hit. That one is sacred, and we’re not going to destroy his memory by trying to re-create it.”

Eric Bobo (who still retains the legal name Coriea) tries as his father did to avoid the salsa stereotype. “We like to play things such as Miles Davis’ ‘Milestones,’ John Coltrane’s ‘Impressions,’ adding that Latin flavor to get just the right blend,” he says.

“Right now, I’m more at ease than I’ve ever been. I’m really happy about the direction the band is taking, and I kind of think my father would be, too.”