Musical Footsteps and Roman Ways

Any follower of a rock group can visibly attest to the tremendous mental and physical energy expended in a single performance, even a single song. Imagine the pressure on one person actually managing, performing, arranging and composing the music for a very popular and hard working Midwest band. Such a person is Mike Roman, a charismatic musician and multi-talented entertainer whose insatiable ambition has contributed to his tremendous success, both as leader/founder of The Tellstars and as an Immigration/criminal lawyer on the Southeast side of Chicago.

In the 1970’s, Mike’s Latin style and melodic lead guitar caught the ear of Latin legend and Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame member, Jose “Chepito” Areas, at a college concert at Northern Illinois University. Soon thereafter, “Chepito,” best known throughout the world as the original timbale player and composer for the internationally known Santana band, invited Mike to perform with Santana in a New Year’s Eve jam session in San Francisco, California.

Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco-Mexico, to Dr. Miguèl Román and Marìa Román, Mike was educated at the prestigious Colegio Cervantes Centro, a Marist Brothers elementary religious institution where he received his share of scholastic awards and belonged to the Boy Scouts. Although Dr. Román had passed away when Mike was only a year old, Mike followed in his father’s and paternal aunt’s musical footsteps taking up the guitar and the piano at the age of twelve. (His father played the violin and his aunt, Maria de Jèsus Román, played the piano.)

In 1963, a few weeks before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Mike and his mother immigrated to America to join his sister Delia who was living in Chicago with her maternal aunt, Pachita Martinez and her husband, Jimmy Martinez. Aunt Pachita, who was like a second mother to Delia and Mike, worked at the South Shore Country Club and Uncle Jimmy, as he was affectiously known to everyone, was a steelworker and an accomplished musician who had played drums with a Latin combo called “The Hungry Five” back in the ‘50’s. Uncle Jimmy’s compassionate and kind heart made him everyone’s favorite and was always “the life of the party”. He loved and treated Mike like the son he never had, and young Mike loved him more than the father he never knew. Uncle Jimmy cultivated and influenced Mike’s early interest in the history of WWII and introduced him to Latin Jazz music greats, including Mambo King, Armando Peraza, the famous Cuban percussionist whom Mike one day would perform with on stage along with Santana. Unfortunately, in the fall of 1964, a tragic car accident took the lives of Uncle Jimmy, Uncle Jose, and Uncle Louie, which caused devastating economic and emotional consequences for the entire family, particularly on young Mike who felt the terrible loss of his surrogate father had made him an orphan all over again.

Mike, a product of the Chicago Catholic School system, attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Elementary School where he learned English, became an eagle scout and bought an electric guitar with the money he earned working a paper route. He graduated from Saints Peter and Paul Grammar School where he served as captain of the patrol boys in 8th grade, formed The Tellstars and won the talent show. He worked part-time as a dishwasher and a bus boy during the summer while attending Saint Francis De Sales H.S., where he is still actively involved, both as a guest speaker on career days and as chairperson for his high school class reunions. In 1996, he was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame.

Mike went on to graduate from the University of Illinois with a double major in History and Political Science where he was elected during his senior year to the Student Government Assembly and served as chairperson of the Appropriations and Chancellors’ Disciplinary Committees. In his senior year, he served as college student coordinator and campaign manager of his attorney mentor, 10th ward Alderman and Cook County Party Chairman, Edward Vrdolyak, in a political race for Cook County Assessor. He also worked part time as a union representative for United Retail Workers Union in the Chicagoland area to pay for college tuition.

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts Degree, he enrolled at DePaul University College of Law where he was elected to the Dean’s Advisory Committee and was chairperson of the Latino Law Student Association’s Public Relations Committee. He appeared on numerous Chicago radio and television talk shows along with the late Dean Richard Groll, the late Professor Richard Turkington and several other faculty members. The media exposure helped raise thousands of Dollars for future Hispanic law student scholarships. He has continued to serve his alma mater as chairperson for his law school class reunions and remains active in the recruitment of Latino law students.

Having performed with The Tellstars throughout his high school and college years, Mike simultaneously pursued scholastic and musical careers. As an enterprising freshman law student, he organized and developed Tellstar Productions, Inc., a musical endeavor engineered to provide high quality rock groups to the Southeast side of Chicago, which sponsored and promoted a long string of big name acts at Alderman Vrdolyak’s concert hall, “The Club”, on Commercial Avenue.

During his second year in law school, Mike took aim to uncover the specific causes behind the drop-out problem at local high schools and decided to use music and comedy as the vehicle to convey the message, during a series of free rock concerts, that the only future for drop-outs was becoming “The Mayor of Drop-Out City.” He arranged for “Two on Two,” a CBS TV program, to profile Bowen High School’s high attrition rate. The concert performance by The Tellstars provided the background theme for “The Mayor and Drop-Out City.” Its sequel, “Operation Over-Drug-Lord,” an innovative drug awareness music video program, created and produced by Mike Roman and Tellstar Productions, Inc. was broadcast on cable T.V. and shown to Chicago high school students.

Mike, the first South Chicago Latino to receive a Juris Doctor Degree from DePaul Law School, worked for Mayor Daley’s budgetary division and later for Chicago’s Office of Professional Standards. Mike then founded Tellstar Records, Inc., to serve as the label for his group to record their first album titled, “The Tellstars featuring Mike Roman play Santana,” which received great response and was nothing short of fantastic, especially after “Chepito” took the time out to fly from “the hills of San Francisco to the streets of South Chicago” to play with The Tellstars and officially endorse the album which contained an superb interpretation of Santana’s music, not just simply an imitation or cover as other groups have attempted to do, but actually underscoring the differences between the output of a tribute band-and that of an interpretive ensemble sure of its own identity. The sold out concert and a WGN T.V. appearance received uniformed positive reviews, which secured the album’s success. (The album is now a collector’s item in Europe.)

After leaving the government sector, Mike married Mexican-American beauty queen, Rose Casanova, and raised a daughter, Vanessa Marie, a college student and musician and two sons, Michael Angelo, a law student and musician and Brandon Anthony, a junior high school student and musician.

In order to support his family and widowed mother, now deceased, he founded Michael Roman & Associates, a successful general practice law firm on the Southeast side of Chicago serving the large Hispanic community and other ethnic groups as well. Two of his many high profile courtroom victories include a civil rights case in federal court which involved a young Hispanic charged with kidnapping, rape, and robbery, despite an ironclad alibi that he was attending his own wedding reception and another case in the Illinois Supreme Court, where he successfully challenged the “No Social Security, No Divorce” domestic relations court rule, which required the disclosure of social security numbers before a divorce decree could be granted contrary to the 1974 Federal Privacy Act. Both cases received national and local media coverage.

In 1983, he served as chairperson for Hispanic Attorneys for the late Mayor Harold Washington’s Mayoral Campaign and also served for Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 1989 and 1991 mayoral campaigns. After a successful run as a Walter Mondale delegate to the Democratic National Convention, he was offered a Cook County judgeship, but decided to decline the prestigious offer. Instead, he concentrated on his musical passion and still found the time to write a monthly local newspapper column on different areas of the law and to also participate in community affairs by volunteering to serve on the East Side Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the East Side Labor Day Parade music committee, and donating his legal services to represent the parents of children attending over-crowded schools on the Southeast side of Chicago, successfully bringing about the construction by the Illinois State Board of Education of a much needed Sullivan-Coles Elementary School. He also managed to obtain a donation pledge for the new school from the Spirit Foundation, one of John Lennon’s charitable organizations, and almost succeeded in naming the school after the late Beatle.

In 1985, Mike, along with Tellstar Productions, Inc., produced and arranged a concept album titled, “Rock N’ Roll, Yesterday, Today, and Forever!” which featured a tribute to the 50’s music of Elvis Presley (Rick Saucedo), 60’s music of the Beatles (Rubber Soul), 70’s music of Santana (Tellstars) and the 80’s music of Michael Jackson (The Jasons). The last cut on the album united all four tribute acts in a Rock N’ Roll medley arranged by Mike Roman. The album, an ambitious and difficult project, was dedicated to the memory of Elvis Presley and John Lennon, and was released on the East Side of Chicago to a standing-room only crowd at a popular music venue. Many other sold out concerts throughout the Midwest followed, along with numerous radio and television appearances.

In the 1990’s, as his law practice prospered, Mike kept busy in the legal profession doing pro bono work on behalf of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and successfully lobbied the Illinois State Legislature in opposition of “CAPS,” a bill which imposed limits on economic damages resulting from medical malpractice cases. Mike’s involvement in community affairs led to his participation in organizing the 1996 Hispanic March on Washington D.C. Meanwhile, he continued to excel in the field of professional music appearing on stage with the legendary Jose Feliciano, and the late phenomenal George “Buddy” Miles whom Attorney Roman successfully represented pro bono in a criminal case at 26th and California’s Cook County courthouse. “Buddy” Miles returned the favor by introducing Mike to Sir Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda along with Eric Clapton during a backstage concert reception party at Soldiers Field.

As a member of the American, Illinois and Chicago Bar Associations, Mike has served on various committees where he met the late super lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who recommended Mike join “Lawyers without Borders” to assist indigent defendants and immigration clients. Mike and the Hispanic Bar Association’s picture appears on a book titled, “Mexican Chicago.” (“From Immigrant to Immigration Lawyer.”) DePaul's Dialogue law magazine also featured Mike in the spring of 2001. He has also participated in the Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs, attending a fundraiser given by Physicians Against Landmines and the late Princess Diana at the Hilton Towers Hotel where he met the Prince of Camelot, the late John F. Kennedy, Jr.

In 1997, as a founding member of the American Air Museum in Britain, Mike was invited to the opening ceremony hosted by Queen Elizabeth II and the late actor Charlton Heston in Duxford, England. In 2004, as a charter member of the New Orleans WWII Museum and the Washington D.C. National WWII Memorial Monument, he attended the 60th Anniversary Celebration of D-Day hosted by the French President in Normandy, France. Not surprisingly, the European trips inspired him to embark on a new project to build a diorama of the allied beach landings, which has become his favorite hobby.

Upon Santana’s release of the mega hit “Supernatural” album, Mike once again met backstage with Carlos Santana, where he introduced his son Michael Angelo to the rock super star. This meeting led to production and recording of “The Sounds of Santana” CD, by Mike Roman and The Tellstars, featuring Jose “Chepito” Areas, and Richard Bean, the original lead singer with Jorge Santana’s Malo Band, which contained twelve medleys of Santana’s greatest hits arranged by Mike and was released in August 2003 to a very enthusiastic crowd, followed the next evening by another popular “Don’t Rock the Boat!” celebration cruise on Lake Michigan. Indeed, with Chepito’s participation on the recording, the CD had official validation and an authentic touch of Santana and thousands of copies were sold at several Midwest summer festivals, including the famous Taste of Chicago.

In 2007, The Tellstars recorded an original album titled, "Cha Cha Time!" "Chepito" is featured on "Cha Cha Time!" and "Runaround" and Michael Shrieve, the original drummer of Santana and Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame member whom is best known for his fantastic and unforgettable drum solo at Woodstock, is featured on "Tsunami 911" which he also produced. Mike’s two sons, whom he hopes will continue to follow in his musical footsteps and carry on the legal torch, also play on the album. Michael Angelo, leader-bassist with his group "Transition", plays lead guitar and tenor sax on most of the songs. Brandon Anthony, leader-bassist with his group "Subversion", plays the vibraphone and recites a poem on "D-Day in Normandy", which Mike wrote and dedicated to the allied soldiers of World War II, whom without them and for the grace of God, as Mike puts it, he would be speaking German with a Spanish accent and living a nightmare instead of the American dream. In gratitude and appreciation, Mike provides pro bono work for WWII Veterans at Illiana Post #220 on the Southeast side of Chicago and has also provided shelter for homeless Vietnam Vets.

Five preoccupations have guided Mike’s life; family, music, history, law and politics, and although his long journey from eagle scout to legal eagle and from musical arranger to song writer has brought wide recognition and monetary rewards, Mike has never forgotten that his accomplishments also belong to his family, friends, fans, and the Hispanic community.