The Romeros Will Still Be a Family Affair at the Bowl : Music: Angel Romero may have struck out on his own, but three generations of virtuoso guitarists will be on stage tonight.

If you think the Romeros have an annual gig at the Hollywood Bowl, you’re almost right. The popular family, in various groupings, has been coming to the Bowl for over a quarter-century. The guitarists’ recital tonight, in fact, will be their seventh concert there in quartet form since their Bowl debut in 1966.

There is a twist to this appearance, however. The Royal Family of the Guitar--as the Romeros have long been billed--now spans three generations, a start on the kind of dynasty only a genealogist can unravel.

The current quartet enlists patriarch Celedonio Romero, 74; his sons Celin, 51, and Pepe, 48, and Celin’s son Celino, 23. Gone from the ensemble--and its program histories--is Celedonio’s youngest son, Angel Romero, 46, who now performs some of the time with his son Lito, 25, an accomplished guitarist who has also played with the quartet on several tours, substituting for his grandfather when Celedonio was ill.

“It was time,” Pepe Romero said of the departure of Angel. “He’s playing with his son Lito now. As the family grows, we’ve divided the family to give the younger ones a chance.”

Angel Romero sees it more as a matter of his own growth. In addition to his solo career and duo performances with his son, he is composing, conducting and even acting--purely for recreational release, he said. He plays a U.S. senator in director Taylor Hackford’s upcoming film “Blood In, Blood Out.”

“The main issue is that I have so many things going,” he said in a recent phone conversation the day before he left for Paris. “I’m very diversified, and it was just time to break loose.

“My solo schedule has become so hectic that I was having to come back all the way from Europe or the Orient to play just one performance with the quartet. My management is different from that of the quartet, and it became very difficult to schedule.”

Angel lays much of the blame for the frequently rumored family feuds with their competing managements and record companies.

“Managers and record companies started all this screwed-up competition (allegations) between me and Pepe. Since I’ve been away from (the quartet), I’m enjoying my relationships with my brothers better.

“I love everybody in the family, and I respect them all, but music to me is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship within yourself. I feel like a racehorse that wants to run in the Kentucky Derby, but is also pulling a wagon. I think teamwork is wonderful. It gives much strength, but it also restricts creativity.

“It’s nothing to do with ego,” said the most volatile of the famously emotional clan. “It has to do with contentment. The quartet had its time and place for me, but there is nothing like playing something such as the Bach Chaconne by myself. That is unmatched by any other feeling.”

The team now pulling that wagon full of audience-friendly guitar classics has been in harness together for a season, and was heard at Ambassador Auditorium last April. According to his uncle, the newest member is handily hauling his share of the load.

“(Celino’s) a wonderful young man and really a wonderful guitarist,” Pepe said. “I remember the first time we played together, in Dallas with the Dallas Symphony. My father was crying to see his grandson with him. When I see my father on one side, and then my nephew on the other, it is a very emotional experience.”

For Pepe Romero, the seasons at Hollywood Bowl also resonate richly.

“I think the feeling there still is the same,” he said. “It’s always easy to play there. The Bowl has a very nice sound on the stage.

“It holds many memories. That was where we gave the premiere of the ‘Concierto Madrigal.’ ”

Which just goes to show the tricks the summertime Bowl blandishments can play in retrospection. When Pepe and Angel gave the world premiere of the “Concierto Madrigal”--Rodrigo’s concerto for two guitars--in July, 1970, the sound system malfunctioned and half of it was played without amplification.

Even without electronic glitches, the Bowl would seem to be a tough venue for guitarists, particularly in an ensemble that relies on projecting the interplay of personality.

“That is always a challenge,” Pepe conceded, “but one of the many things magical about the guitar is that it can turn even the Bowl into an intimate place.”

For all practical purposes, the history of the guitar quartet begins with the Romeros. There may be similar ensembles now, but the family virtually created the form. Not surprisingly, Pepe locates the key element for the Romeros in collegiality.

“There’s the ability to play more voices, and make a bigger sound,” he said, “but the most special thing is to play with each other.

“The music for four guitars is very exciting and very beautiful. It presents special possibilities for composers. When we started, there was no repertory.”

So what can listeners at the Bowl expect this time?

“It will be mostly Spanish repertory,” Pepe said. “We will play Torroba’s ‘Estampas,’ with some other works and transcriptions. Then each of us will be playing solos too.”

Pepe Romero was reached by phone in Europe, after a concert in Germany. He had been touring and recording there, before returning to Southern California, where the family lives, prior to their Bowl performance. He has a recording of Vivaldi concertos with I Musici coming out, but has not neglected his quartet-mates. He had duo recordings of Granados with Celin and Mertz with Celedonio due out, and in the spring he will record 19th-Century opera fantasias from Giuliani to Tarrega with Celino.

The busy guitarist also has completed a video project devoted to works by Joaquin Rodrigo, a Spanish composer long championed by the Romeros collectively and individually.

“I just finished on this trip a video disc of the ‘Concierto de Aranjuez,’ ‘Fantasia para un gentilhombre’ and solo pieces,” Pepe said. “It will also be a documentary on the life of Rodrigo, showing us rehearsing together. Some of it was filmed in the Aranjuez palace, some in the Manzanares castle outside Madrid. The concertos are with (Neville) Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.”

From the Bowl the quartet goes on to Sevilla. There they will be doing Turina’s popular “Oracion del torero” in the original scoring for four Spanish lutes, or bandurrias. Pepe and Celin will be back Oct. 1 for a duo recital at Ambassador Auditorium.