Winding up their near decade and a half as Tres Souls, Los Angeles-based musicians Rocio Mendoza, Roberto Carlos, and Jesus Martinez will start to bring their storied career as a group to a close with performances in Northern California this month, followed by a farewell bash at Santa Monica’s BroadStage on Dec. 21.
The trio members, who specialize in the genre of Mexican bolero and have wowed audiences with their authentic but modern take on tunes made popular during the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema (1932–1969), will go their separate ways come 2025.
“We’ve been together 14 years,” explained the Oaxacan-born Carlos, who plays guitar and was raised in L.A. “And our goals have been changing for the past few years. We all are musicians, creators, and are constantly trying to innovate. We were at that point to disband.”
In its time together, the group has performed everywhere from Maine and New York to Florida and Indiana and also attracted a following across all ages. Carlos explained how the name he came up with for the trio helped capture the ensemble’s mission.
“When we were thinking of names, we wanted to bring young people into this [bolero] genre and thought that Trío Muertos might be a little too dark,” he said with a laugh. “We were actually three different souls that love the music, and we wanted to let people know we’re bilingual.”
Bolero, a type of slow-tempo music and dance that originated in Cuba in the late 19th century and later gained popularity throughout Latin America, was proclaimed an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in December of last year.
“Bolero could be considered the most romantic [music] of Latin America,” Carlos acknowledged. “It’s poetic and rhythmic, [and] everyone in different parts of the world is keeping this music alive. And it starts in the living room because a lot of it is shared through our parents. My music came through my dad.”
Carlos, 31, began guitar lessons at 10 and recalled that when he was 15, his father took him and his older brother to Olvera Street in downtown L.A., where the boys busked outside and in restaurants. In 2015, the guitarist began producing a show in Los Angeles, Boleros de Noche. “I kid you not,” he exclaimed, “it’s been successful since its inception. There was no point where I said that this was a failure. People have shown up, and it’s been a family affair.”
With Tres Souls — where Mendoza is lead singer and Martinez plays requinto (or lead guitar) —everyone sings, and Carlos said that his role is mostly harmonizing and doing the arrangements. The trio has a self-titled album with several original tunes, including “La Luna Eres Tu” (You are the moon). And because this is the holiday season, the group, in addition to playing bolero and a bit of cumbia and ranchera — the former characterized by fast dance rhythms, the latter known for its emotive storytelling — will also perform some Christmas tunes on tour and at BroadStage.
“We’ll play ‘White Christmas’/‘Blanca Navidad,’ ‘Silent Night’/‘Noche de paz,’ and ‘Feliz Navidad,’ which was made famous by José Feliciano,” Carlos said. “We’ve prepared a cool show for people to be entertained by and for people to celebrate.”
While the disbanding of Tres Souls may be the end of the trio, it’s decidedly not the end of Carlos’s music career. “We’ve all started new projects. I started Los Rebeldes Romanticos six months ago. There are four of us — three men and a woman. Bolero music is thriving,” he said. “I feel like it’s passing through generations. It never ends. It’s not commercial music, but a lot of contemporary artists are rethinking the genre — changing it to make it more modern or fresher. This keeps the music alive, and I’m continuing to preserve it.”
