Luis Angel "El Flaco"

Luis Angel, aka “El Flaco,” is a singer of musica Mexicana, and banda in particular. Formerly frontman for Banda Los Recoditos (2003-2018), he’s amassed a sizeable catalog of live and studio albums, and dozens of singles and EPS since going solo. Possessed of a lilting baritone, Angel distills romanticas, rancheras, and other styles into emotional and lyrical essences. His first solo offerings were the live albums Desde Casa and Pa’ Las Viejos, while Viva Mexico was recorded in concert with other artists. 2021’s La Textilera was a collaboration with El Mimoso Luis Antonio Lopez and registered more than 60 million streams. Later that year, his solo set La Ley de la Vida landed inside the Top Ten at Mexican Regional streaming and stayed there for 14 weeks. In 2022, he and Luis Alfonso Partida "El Yako" issued the charting duo set La Gran Fiesta. Following several more live recordings and a covers album, Angel returned with Yo Te Extrañaré in 2024 on Sony Music. Angel was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, in 1987 to working-class parents, Marisida Rivera Chavez and Ramón Franco Pérez. “El Flaco” was a nickname given him by his father referencing his slight build. Addicted to the radio as a young boy, Angel decided at age eight to be a professional singer. His primary influences were Vicente Fernández​, Javier Solís, Lalo Mora, and Pedro Infante. As a young teen he sang with locals Banda Gallo and Banda San Marcos. He studied singing and opera at Escuela de Artes José Limón in Culiacán. In 2003, at 16, he was recruited as lead vocalist for Banda los Recoditos, spending 15 years with them. During his tenure with the band, they issued dozens of hit singles including “Ando Bien Pedo,” “Sueno XXX,” and “Me Esta Gustando” among them. In fact, though founded in 1989, it wasn’t until 2004 — after Angel joined — that they netted their first radio hits in “Amores Fingidos,” “Besos Falsos,” and “Si Supieras.” They toured Mexico and Central and North America incessantly. As the years passed and the band soldiered on, Angel began to question his role. His creative persona was restless. He told the band he was leaving in 2014, but touring and recording commitments kept him in Banda Los Recoditos until nearly 2018. Angel then assembled his own band and began playing well-attended shows (no doubt based on his reputation with Los Recoditos). He issued his debut single, “Reflexion,” in 2020, the same year he collaborated with Grupo Firme on “Acabame de Matar” and “Quiero Pistear.” He released the live album Desde Casa in October and followed it two weeks later with the concert EP Pa’ Los Viejos. Two weeks after that, he released the collaborative, 37-track live set Viva Mexico with Grupo Firme, Grupo Codiciado, El Mimoso Luis Antonio Lopez, and others. In April 2021, Angel and Lopez teamed up for the covers and ballads set La Textilera, delivering rancheras, bandas, and mariachis by Joan Sebastian and other prominent Mexican composers. In September, following more than a dozen singles and EPs, Angel released the dramatic La Lay de la Vida, performing 21st century bandas written by Ruben Esli Castellanos, Alejandro Rios, and Gussy Lau and Luciano Luna — the latter duo penned the smash cumbia-cum-banda set closer “El Que Te Amo.” The live De Alcurnia followed in October. La Gran Fiesta was released in July 2022 as a collaboration between angel and Luis Alfonso Partida El Yaki. In December, the concert offering En Vivo Desda San Pedro Sula Honduras arrived, as did the studio EP La Collection de Covers, Vol. 1, where Angel performed songs by Marc Antonio Solis and others. He kicked off 2023 with the six-song Y Si Se Quiere lr EP. Its title track, penned by Lau, Max Cantu, and Jose Esparza, garnered more than 150 million streams and charted inside the Mexican Regional Top Ten. Working at an unprecedented pace, Angel released and/or collaborated on a total of 21 singles between January and August. Tragedy struck Angel’s family in August when his 21-year-old daughter Maria Fernanda drowned in an accident at Culiacan’s Cerritos Beach. The intensity of his work that year resulted in a backlog of singles, allowing Angel and his family time and space to mourn. A couple of months before the incident, Angel had signed to Sony Music Latin and recorded several singles –“Asi las Coas por Aca” and “Por Si Me Adelanto” appeared at the end of the year, while “Que Se Siente” arrived in January. In February, Angel released his debut Sony Latin long-player Yo Te Extrañaré. ~ Thom Jurek