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David Trevino: Grammy Winner

June 23, 2008

ASU sophomore David Treviño has been able to tell people that he won a Grammy Award for more than three months, but now he can finally show them.

The San Angelo native played saxophone for the band Little Joe y La Familia that won the Best Tejano Album Grammy for “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, Treviño’s class schedule kept him from attending the ceremony, but he was promised that his hardware was coming in the mail. It finally showed up toward the end of May and he took the box straight over to open it with his parents.

“That is when it hit me that it was real,” Treviño said. “Actually seeing the statue and being able to hold it was an experience all its own. I handed it to my parents and they couldn’t believe it themselves.”

“They couldn’t stop saying how proud of me they were,” he added. “They were just ecstatic about it and called all my family to let them know. It was definitely a memorable experience.”

Treviño initially learned of his award in February while he was working his part-time job at E-Z Pawn.

“It was our busiest time of the day,” he said. “I was really happy, but it was kind of hard to celebrate at work. I had a chance to go to the Grammys, but I stayed in school. I couldn’t afford to miss that many days.”

“My dad is probably my biggest musical influence, so I wanted to share it with him and my mom,” he said. “My dad is the reason I started playing music in the first place.” 

Treviño got his big break after joining Los Hot Horns, a five-horn ensemble put together by former ASU student John Ontiveros. They played with several local bands before being picked up by Grammy-winning artist Chente Barrera. Little Joe heard them play a few times and when his horn section left him in January 2007, he signed up Los Hot Horns to help record his next album in San Antonio.

“That was really cool,” Treviño said. “I have pictures on my MySpace of us playing in the studio. It was a really great experience to get in the studio and just do what I love, just play and have them record it for the CD. It was great.”

Treviño also toured with Little Joe y La Familia last year, including gigs in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, Alaska, Las Vegas and Chicago. But, when the year ended, he decided his time on tour was over, at least for now.

“I talked to Little Joe on New Year’s night and told him I was thinking about going back to school,” Treviño said. “He said ‘school is the best thing and you need to go and finish because this will always be here.’ So, I plan on going back and playing, but not until I’m done with school.”

Treviño has also played gigs with well-known Tejano artists Sonny Ozuna, Augustine Ramirez and Carlos Miranda, who together make up “The Legends.” At ASU, he plays baritone saxophone for the Wind Ensemble and tenor sax in the Jazz Band.