A music teacher at C.E. Rose Elementary School discouraged little Hector Paz from taking up the guitar. She told him his hands were too small to play the instrument.
Little did she know that she was speaking to a self-taught musician. Paz began playing the guitar when he was 8 years old, and he was performing professionally by the time he was 13.
"The teacher told him he couldn't play because his fingers were too short and stubby," said Pat Paz, his high school sweetheart and wife of 29 years. "The teacher was in awe" when Hector picked up the guitar and began playing.
The electric guitarist played in Tucson-area bands for 35 years, until his death Aug. 7 in a hospital. The cause of death still is unknown. He was 48.
"He was excellent. Probably the best guitar player in Tucson," musician Frank Aguilar said.
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"Not only was he one of the greatest guitar players," said musician David Membrila, "he looked cool playing."
Onstage, Paz, a showman, always had three cigarettes lighted — one lying atop a speaker, one tucked into the tuning pegs at the head of his Fender Stratocaster and one in his mouth.
Paz could play any type of music and often melded chords and riffs from one genre into another. But it was with the Tejano sound — influenced by the music of Mexico and other Latin American countries plus rock, blues, funk and country — that he found the most satisfaction.
"He told me in order to be a good musician, you have to feel it from the heart," his wife said.
Paz performed with myriad Tucson groups, including a 16-year stint with Double Shot.
"We were a five-piece band, but when he arranged the music, we sounded like an orchestra." said band member Steve Madrigal, who now performs with Triple Expression.
"He was a genius on the guitar. He would come up with chords that weren't chords, but that sounded right. He would play really heavy jazz chords and put them in Tex-Mex. A lot of us have to work to be good musicians. He just was a good musician," Madrigal said.
Paz taught himself to play the guitar after his brother, Raul Paz, began playing.
"It didn't hold my interest," Raul said. "I didn't have the heart for it, but he (Hector) did. It was a pleasure watching him grow into the music. Pretty soon, he was outplaying me.
"Before I knew it, he was playing in some guy's garage. I was jealous, but I didn't have the hunger for it that he did," Raul said.
As a teen, Hector Paz was an inspiration for other would-be musicians, including Jorge Gonzalez. They met at Pueblo High School and played in bands together.
"He was so young and so talented. That's what got me motivated," Gonzalez said.
Louie Ramirez, of the group Ritmo Suave, has performed with Paz on occasion. "He was a perfectionist with guitar. He could make any band sound good."
And, his friends added, Paz always was willing to play in benefit concerts, whether they were for musicians in need, children's charities or anyone requiring financial assistance.
"Whenever I called him, he was always ready to play," said Joe Ahumada, who met Paz at Pueblo High.
Paz played with Ahumada's group, Love Ltd., for a few years, and in the mid-1980s, he sang and played electric guitar on the group's album, "El Mundo Nuevo."
"He was happy-go-lucky," Ahumada said. "Always a smile on his face. He was like a brother to me."
Paz has one son, Hector Jr., with his wife, Pat, and the couple took in and raised Pat's sister, Cathy Rendon, when she was 10. Paz worked for the county to support his family and played gigs on nights and weekends.
"Hector was the best. No matter who he played with, he always spiced it up; he brought life to it," said bartender Debra Goggins-Brown, who knew Paz for 20 years.
Ralph Martinez, with the band Relente, knew Paz from their days performing with Love Ltd.
"He was such a teddy bear," Martinez said. "A big guy, and he sang with angels coming out of his mouth. We became brothers in the music, practicing every day."
On Wednesday night, dozens of musicians gathered at one of Paz's South Side hangouts to pay tribute to their friend. They wrote farewell messages to Paz on cardboard cutouts of guitars; those will be placed in his casket. An electric guitar, on which his family members will write their thoughts and prayers, also will be placed in Paz's casket.
"He can take it with him to his next gig," said Alex Valencia, who organized the gathering and is putting together a concert at the end of the month to benefit the Paz family.
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