Here is a CD essay for Sony-Legacy on the fabled Jose Feliciano-
it also includes transcribed comments from Gregg Rolie of Santana,
who met, played and jammed with Jose in 1970 and 1971.
It contains an overview of many memorable Feliciano
music moments plus an encapsulated history.

Jose Feliciano

INTRO
Jose Feliciano is a Hispanic superstar and a forerunner of the current mega-popularity of Latino music in all styles across the contemporary world. His unique and universal interpretations of other stellar musicians’ styles, plus his own self-penned material, make him pre-eminent among equals.

Feliciano although born blind, at an early age developed a passion for both singing and playing the guitar. His extraordinary, soaring, soul-drenched vocals and his inspired acoustic and electric guitar playing, has won him fans in the rock, jazz, folk and Latin world music genres.

Included in this package, is his ground breaking version of Light My Fire, which Feliciano made his own. His own compositions Destiny, Rain and Chico And The Man, stand alongside radical re-workings of California Dreamin’, Hi-Heel Sneakers and In My Life the Beatles favourite, among others.

This package is notable for including his controversial version of the US National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, to which Feliciano was the first artist to seriously deconstruct the song for the 1968 World Series in Detroit. His heartfelt rendition was a chart success but also brought him much controversy, with many people feeling he disrespected the anthem. This of course is not true; he was simply the first to explore and interpret the deep feelings inherent in the piece.

Jose Feliciano is a musical pioneer, a legend who has maintained his prolific output to this day. He is ever evolving on his own terms and continually making music of quality and distinction.

Jose Feliciano

Jose Feliciano is a modern Latino superstar, a uniquely talented singer and guitarist who has written many superb songs but is also greatly revered as an interpreter of other artists’ material. He is one the forerunners of today’s massive Latino music market and recognised as the first solo Latin artist to “crossover” into the English market. (Other notable early Latin crossover acts were Trini ‘If I Had A Hammer’ Lopez and Richie ‘La Bamba’ Valens).

Feliciano’s melisma (meaning his vocal tones, clustering of notes, and singing techniques) is beyond compare. His
voice manages to soar freely above his accompaniments but is also tinged with a melancholy that inflects his music with his own brand of Latino soul. His voice aches and seems to cry out the lyrics, deeply touching the listener’s emotions. Perhaps, much like his contemporaries Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, Feliciano’s blindness gives him an extra aural sensitivity, allowing him to transmit a song’s inner meaning.

Jose Feliciano was born in Lares, Puerto Rico, on September 10th 1945. By the time the family immigrated to New York City the young Jose (one of eleven children) was becoming versed in playing first the concertina and then, his real passion, the guitar. He practised constantly with a fierce dedication and developed his singing style and phrasing, playing along to 50’s rock and roll records. His fluent and fiery guitar was a perfect foil to his amazing vocal range and frenzied bursts of staccato acoustic guitar. This, and his ease with the electric guitar idiom, won him many fans in the rock, jazz, and Hispanic music markets.

Feliciano began playing professional dates at the age of nineteen and soon his mesmerising stage presence was attracting a lot of attention. Recording mainly in Spanish, he still managed to create an early but significant stir at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. At this stage he was recording boleros for the RCA label, resulting in hits for the Latin market.
By 1968, his first ‘English’ album for RCA ‘Feliciano’ was a breakthrough smash, just missing the Number 1 spot in the US charts. One standout from that set was his inspired re-working of The Doors’ Light My Fire. Although already a huge hit twice (US Number 1 and later charting at Number 83) with a sultry vocal from Doors’ singer Jim Morrison, Feliciano gave the song a distinctly Latin flavor, adding a plucked acoustic guitar middle section, tumbao conga rhythm, superb string arrangement, Jose’s soaring tenor vocal, and finally an audacious jazzed-up outro.

Feliciano’s smash version charted at Number 3 and he subsequently won two Grammies in 1969 for Best Pop Song of the Year and Best New Artist of the Year. With the release of Hi-Heel Sneakers (charting at US Number 28), his career gained a seemingly unstoppable momentum. Hi-Heel Sneakers is a sexy lope thru this R&B inflected piece (originally by Tommy Tucker) with sensational, psychedelic, dreamy strings and a sly, syncopated groove with Jose doing a great vocal percussion piece. Feliciano went down a storm in England too, on a heavy/progressive music bill (including Free, Traffic, Black Sabbath and more) at The “Hollywood” Festival in Staffordshire in 1970. He wowed the late night audience, who were huddled around bonfires, with versions of California Dreamin’, Windmills of Your Mind, Sunny and Hi-Heel Sneakers and encored with Light My Fire, all included in this set.
California Dreamin’ is a melancholy, imploring reworking of The Mamas And The Papas classic. Here Feliciano is almost praying to God for his redemption. Hear how he stretches notes, bending his voice along with his scat singing and unison, grooving guitar plus gorgeous Spanish vocals added for la gente! His self-penned song Rain is another string-drenched piece, complete with swirling flute work. Sunny is simply and starkly beautiful. Windmills Of Your Mind – featured in the film The Thomas Crown Affair – is a 60’s curio, again with impassioned vocal and stunning guitar. Hitchcock Railway and Susie-Q are sturdy takes on Joe Cocker’s version and Dale Hawkins’ original. They appeared on the Souled and Fireworks albums respectively.

Gregg Rolie, keyboardist and singer who also reinterpreted such hits as Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va and Evil Ways, fronting the young Santana band (another up-and-coming group of Latin music superstars) jammed with Feliciano in Hawaii later in 1971 and recalled the young Feliciano’s attitudes, “He jammed with us in Hawaii and played a few dates with Santana and he was just so gracious to us, so honest and that is exactly what his music and voice is like, honest! He was really unaffected by his fame and he was a really big star. His version of Light My Fire was incredible, you imagine he did a song that was a hit twice by The Doors. There’s only one way to make that happen, make it so different or make it like brand new and he did that. He made it happen in such a different realm, it could have been the first one!”

In My Life was one of many significant Beatles covers that Jose gave fresh life to — John Lennon is on record as saying he enjoyed Feliciano’s versions of Day Tripper and Help. Jose retains the song’s poignancy and gives a beautiful feel to one of John Lennon’s finest compositions. She’s A Woman is another Beatles classic, this time from the pen of Paul McCartney, and here Jose adds a joyful Brazilian samba feel, complete with agogo bells, and guiro percussion. McCartney’s classic, Yesterday, receives a masterful instrumental Latin treatment.

Also included here are The Bee Gees’ song Marley Purt Drive, a gospel driven performance. Destiny is another flavourful Feliciano original. He wrings out every drop of soul from Hey! Baby. Chico And The Man was another Feliciano original and the theme for the highly successful TV show, starring the ill-fated Freddie Prinze, in which Feliciano appeared regularly.

The last cut on this collection is perhaps one of the most significant and controversial for Jose: his version of The Star Spangled Banner. Since then has been not unusual for a major music artist to treat the US National Anthem with a different twist. Names spring to mind such as Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969 and Marvin Gaye in 1983. However, prior to these two eminent versions, Feliciano brought his own achingly soulful rendition to the 1968 (the year of Vietnam and the assassinations of both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy) World Series in Detroit before 54,000 and it brought an immediate firestorm of controversy down on him. He was the first artist to explore the song’s inner compassionate beauty. For many years after, he felt his brave, heartfelt version had dogged and stalled his career in the USA.

This collection is just the tip of the Feliciano iceberg, so chill out and savour this tremendous artist’s repertoire.
Look further afield and check out You Tube for some great video clips. Long live the master, the one and only Jose Feliciano!!

Jim McCarthy
Sussex, England
February 2007

(Jim McCarthy is the author of
Voices of Latin Rock-
Foreword by Carlos Santana)
Published by Hal Leonard.

By Rich Freedman/Times-Herald staff writer

Posted: 06/22/2009 12:59:01 AM PDT

Malo” is Spanish for “bad.” And that’s often the bottom line when record companies distributed profits to its artists. Or didn’t. Fact is, said Ron Sansoe, entertainers are often neglected when it comes time to paying up. It happened to the Latin rock band, “Malo,” said Sansoe, and that’s why he fought off lawyers and eventually recouped thousands of dollars for the band known mostly for its 1972 hit, “Suavecito.”

Sansoe, who relocated in April from San Francisco to Vallejo, remains actively responsible for the publishing rights for “Malo,” and heavily involved in the annual “Voices of Latin Rock” benefit in San Francisco that’s featured Carlos Santana, Pete Escovedo, Lenny Williams, Sheila E., Lydia Pense, Linda Tillery, Neal Schon, Jackie Greene, WAR and, of course, Malo.

Sitting at Napoli’s pizza with Green Valley promoter and long-time pal Jeff Trager, the animated Sansoe shared some eye-opening rock ‘n’ roll stories, many included in “Voices of Latin Rock,” a 300-page paperback he co-authored with Jim McCarthy. Santana wrote the foreword.

The book was going to be a Malo media guide celebrating the group’s 30 years, Sansoe said. But after a handful of interviews, the writers knew they were on to something bigger.

“We realized this was a piece of musical history, but American history tied to the Black Panthers, the United Farm Workers and other vital organizations of their time and we saw it as something special,” Sansoe said. More than 120 interviews were conducted for the book, released in 2004 and still selling well, Sansoe said. “It was a 61/2 year project,” he said. “Needless to say, you don’t make a lot of money in the book business.”

Sansoe and McCarthy’s devoted interest in Latin Rock “was the heartbeat of this whole project,” said Sansoe..

The book is now used in more than 40 colleges and universities as part of ethnic studies programs, Sanose said.

Little did the born-and-raised San Franciscan know he would ever have any part in a book. Though his brothers teach high school, Sansoe said his grades were never great.

“I wasn’t much in the education field,” he said.

Sansoe was in the bar business for about 12 years when, in 1985, he helped promote a concert. In 1990, he was asked to help resurrect some royalties for “Malo,” handling administration. Sansoe laughed that while “Sauvecito was a good song, I hated it.” Still, he joined the “Malo” team, helping promote a show with the group, Escovedo and Tower of Power at Fort Mason in The City. Though promoter Bill Graham was approached, he declined to do the show, Sansoe said. The show sold out. “Graham shows up and the security guy — an off-duty SFPD officer — didn’t recognize him and Graham couldn’t get back stage,” grinned Sansoe. “We made a chunk of dough that night.”

Sansoe said he only met the legendary Graham a few times before Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991 near Vallejo. “I had nothing but respect for him,” Sansoe said. “I didn’t want to become a concert promoter. Nobody did with Bill around. If there was a show and it wasn’t his and he didn’t want it to happen, he would make it not happen. At the height of his career, he could stop anything from happening in Northern California.”

Sansoe got into the publishing end of the business as CDs emerged in the late 1980s.

“One smart thing Malo did was to keep their publishing rights,” Sansoe said. “That’s where the money is for the artist. And now, with the Internet, the artists are getting a better share than he ever got.”

Sansoe got into the ring battling lawyers in 1999 when “the heart” of “Suavecito” was used by another band. When Sansoe eventually got a nice check on behalf of the band, he doled out the money at a Christmas party.

“None of the guys knew this was happening,” Sansoe said, still gratified that “I beat an attorney. I told him, ‘I’m not getting off the Ferris wheel until we get our checks.”

Sansoe wasn’t done.

“I started seeing that artists were being taken advantage of,” Sansoe said, sifting through paperwork and realizing “where the bones are buried.”

Most entertainers are more creative musically than astute businessmen, said Sansoe.

“You get kids who are passionate about something and they’re thinking about the songs,” Sansoe said. “Then they get screwed and that’s when they lose their passion.”

Sansoe shakes his head.

“In what other business is the person who creates the product and the ability to create money the last one to get paid and never gets a fair share,” Sansoe said, blasting record companies. “That’s why the Internet is the best thing that ever happened. For an artist to make the same money selling 10,000 units independently, he’d have to sell 700,000 records by the record company. So you get your name out there and play.”

Because of Sansoe, Malo continues to accrue royalty payments.

“It’s like an old horse,” Sansoe said. “You keep riding it. It doesn’t always win, but it comes in place and show a lot.”

“The Voices of Latin Rock” benefit concerts were originally a book release party at Bimbo’s in San Francisco. It was so successful, Sansoe and the other promoters kept it going. Last year’s event included a letter from Mayor Gavin Newsom, praising Sansoe and McCarthy for “The Voices of Latin Rock” as “a dazzling document of modern American history.”

The shows, said Sansoe, “are never about the money. It’s about the feel of the ’70s. That’s a hard thing to recreate in today’s atmosphere. There’s something special here you don’t get in other cities.”

The same artists who initially feel they’re doing Sansoe a favor by doing the show, “are the ones who thank you at the end of the night,” he said.

The sixth annual concert, produced by Sansoe, Trager and Dr. Bernie Gonzalez, is set for January.

Armand Peraza

Join an all-star band to dance and celebrate legendary percussionst Armand Peraza’s brithday with Yoshi’s Oakland wirh John Santos and Orestes Vilato on Friday, May 29th and Saturday, May 20th with sets at 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm. Through his long associations with jazz pianist George Shearing, vibraphonist Cal Tjader and guitarist Carlos Santana, Armando Peraza has been internationally known from the 1950s through to the 1990s. Although primarily known as a bongocero and conguero, Peraza is also an innovative and accomplished dancer and composer. Peraza has been featured on classic recordings by Perez Prado, Machito, George Shearing, Charlie Parker, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader and Carlos Santana.

Significantly, and uniquely amongst the great Cuban percussionists, Peraza has for many years been an important socio-political figure, a symbol of Afro-Cuban achievement through his virtuoso musicianship and his refusal to be defeated by racism. His work with Shearing, Tjader and Santana brought him international fame. He has been inducted into the Smithsonian Institution’s Hall of Jazz Legends and has had three official “Armando Peraza Days” by the City of San Francisco.

Armand Perazaleft Cuba for Mexico in 1948 to tend to his sick friend, conga drummer Mongo Santamaria. They subsequently moved to New York City in 1949, where after sitting in with Machito’s big band, Peraza was personally requested by the great Charlie Parker to participate on a record date with Parker, Buddy Rich and many others. He also recorded with Slim Gaillard in New York in November 1949, a session that produced an exemplary virtuoso performance from Peraza on “Bongo City”. He toured the entire U.S. with Slim Gaillard’s band and ended up in San Francisco, where Gaillard owned the famous San Francisco nightclub, Bop City. After a period in Mexico, where he recorded with Perez Prado and also recorded many soundtracks for the Mexican movie industry, he returned to the U.S. and settled in San Francisco, a city of such charm and beauty and where he still lives to this day. While located on the West Coast, he worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Gaillard, toured extensively with Charles Mingus and Dexter Gordon and performed up and down California for the Mexican farm workers with Puerto Rican actor and musician Tony Martinez (who played “Pepino” on the TV show The Real McCoys). Armando also headed up an Afro-Cuban dance review at the Cable Car Village club in San Francisco, attracting a clientele from Hollywood that included Errol Flynn, Marlon Brando and Rita Hayworth.

In 1954, while performing in San Francisco with pianist Dave Brubeck, Peraza met Cal Tjader, who was Brubeck’s drummer at the time. Legendary jazz writer Leonard Feather recommended Armando to Fantasy Records, along with Tjader to record an Afro-Cuban album, which was titled “Ritmo Caliente” and was groundbreaking in its use of Afro-Cuban rhythms with a Jazz sensibility and was followed up in 1957 with “Mas Ritmos Caliente”. During this period, Peraza was introduced to British pianist George Shearing by bassist Al McKibbon. Peraza joined Shearing’s band for the next 12 years and was a collaboration that found Peraza at the forefront of a new wave of popularity for Afro-Cuban music. Shearing’s music is now regarded as “light” in jazz terms, but the rhythms and harmonic structures Peraza introduced to the pianist’s music were unerringly authentic. It was during his time with Shearing that Peraza emerged as a composer, writing and recording twenty-one songs for Shearing, such as “Mambo in Chimes”, “Mambo In Miami”,”Ritmo Africano”, “Armando’s Hideaway”, “This is Africa”, “Estampa Cubana” and many others. These recordings were at the heart of the “mambo craze”, which swept the U.S. and the world and Peraza became highly visible, which was a major achievement for an Afro-Cuban at that time.

Peraza’s extraordinary technique and expressive power as a hand drummer became a feature of Shearing’s performances. He toured the world over with Shearing but it was in America where he experienced persistent and institutionalized racism. An example of this was an incident in Miami during dates with Shearing and Peggy Lee in 1959, Peraza and the other black members of the band were not allowed to stay at the same hotel as the white musicians. Shearing and Lee resolved the situation by threatening to pull out of the performance unless Peraza and the others were “allowed” to stay at their hotel. Shearing was one of the first racially integrated jazz groups, which was groundbreaking in its own right. While with Shearing, Peraza had the distinct opportunity to play with the classical symphonies of Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Oklahoma City. He also participated in two command performances for Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. In 1959, Peraza joined Mongo Santamaria for the classic Mongo album, one of the most important recordings of Afro-Cuban “folklore” music ever. It included conga drummer Francisco Aguabella, another contemporary and friend of Peraza, and “Afro-Blue”, a song that became a jazz standard once John Coltrane had recorded it.

In the early 1960s, Peraza joined Cal Tjader’s band for the next six years. He also was encouraged to perform and record in Southern California by his friend, jazz drummer Shelley Manne. Peraza performed throughout the area at such venues as Shelley’s Manhole (owned by Shelley Manne) and The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. A highlight was performing with the Stan Kenton Band for the opening of the Hollywood Bowl. Through his friendship with Manne, he was introduced to Judy Garland, who immediately signed Peraza to play in her orchestra for the The Judy Garland Show, a television series that ran from 1963 to 1964. In the fall of 1964, he recorded the seminal LP Soul Sauce with Tjader. The single “Guachi Guaro” won a Grammy Award in 1965 and has recently enjoyed renewed popularity in both the London and Madrid Acid Jazz club scenes.

Although Peraza’s never had a desire, nor welcomed the headache of being a bandleader in his own right and much preferring to be a featured performer, he did record one solo album in 1968. His Wild Thing LP on the Skye label, which was co-owned by Tjader, Gary McFarland and Gábor Szabó, features performances from pianist Chick Corea and Japanese saxophonist Sadao Watanabe and flautist Johnny Pacheco. He had previously been featured as a solo artist on the 1959 album ‘More Drums On Fire’. His performance on conga and bongos on the piece “Artistry In Rhythm” was widely lauded as a standard-setting masterpiece.

Adaptability and an open mind are the hallmarks of Peraza’s approach, so that when Rock music took hold of the business in the late 60s, Armando was the first Afro-Cuban percussionist to add conga drums to a rock track, notably on Harvey Mandel’s Cristo Redentor album in 1968.

In 1972, at the age of 48, Peraza joined the Santana group, which was embarking on its most creative period and helped influence the band in melding the genres of Afro-Cuban, Jazz, Rock and Blues. Peraza remained with Carlos Santana for nearly twenty years and played to millions around the globe, partnering with other outstanding percussionists like Chepito Areas, Mingo Lewis, Raul Rekow and Orestes Vilató. The profile of Afro-Cuban percussion had never been higher. While with the Santana band, Armando wrote and co-authored a total of 16 songs which were recorded by Santana. The best known is probably “Gitano” from the album Amigos and has Peraza singing the lyrics he wrote himself. His jazz-inflected piece “Mandela” was recorded on the ‘Freedom’ album. Santana’s recordings featured many outstanding performances from Peraza, notably his conga solos on “Hannibal” (‘Zebop!’), “Bambele” and “Bambara” (both ‘Viva Santana’), and “Mother Africa” (’Welcome’). John Santos says that Peraza is “perhaps the greatest bongocero in the history of that instrument.”

Now in semi-retirement and living and enjoying life in the San Francisco Bay Area with Josephine, his beloved wife and business partner of over 30 years, Peraza continues to hold workshops and play selective gigs and Jazz festivals around the world. Now in his 80s in 2005 he appeared on a recording by Bay Area musician John Santos. Santos’ “20th Anniversary” set included the piece ‘El Changüí De Peraza’, which highlighted Peraza’s superb bongo playing. He returned to his native Cuba in 2002, his first trip to the island in more than 50 years and plans to return as many times as possible. Armando has a daughter Traci and three grandchildren: Adriel, Jalil and Jehireh.

In July 2006, Peraza, at 82 years of age, made a rare appearance with the Santana Band for a very special three show performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. This was the first of a number of summer live appearances. Later, in August 2006, Peraza appeared at the San José jazz festival in California, sitting in with the Julius Melendez Latin Jazz Ensemble, as well as giving a drum clinics throughout California with Raul Rekow and Karl Perazzo, both currently with Santana. Also in 2006, Peraza recorded with Bay Area pianist Rebeca Mauleon’s album “Descarga en California” (Universal/Pimienta). He also co-wrote a tune on the album titled “Cepeda Forever”, honoring his longtime friend and baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda.

In January 2007, Peraza received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Voices of Latin Rock. The fabulous tribute show was held at the historic Bimbo’s nightclub in San Francisco, CA and was attended by Carlos Santana, who presented Peraza with a beautiful award. Also attending and performing were members of the group Malo and a reunion of the original Santana band, with Chepito Areas, Mike Carabello,Gregg Rolie and Michael Shrieve.

Biographic information adapted from Wikipedia.org

Yoshi’s is located at Jack London Square in Oakland. Visit www.yoshis.com for ticket information.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival in 1969, The Gregg Rolie Band will be performing at the Hard Rock Café in New York City on June 4th 2009.

Making this an extra special attendance will be original Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, who will join Gregg and original conga player Mike Carabello. Thus, 50% of the original Santana band will be performing that night. Original timbales player Jose “Chepito” Areas’ son Adrian will also be part of the ensemble, following in his father’s footsteps on timbales, drawing the Santana links even closer. The Woodstock film has been re-mastered by Edie Kramer, among others, in a new stunning 5.1 stereo print. The Santana band are among the artists re-presented with entirely new footage and will be featured in the extra filming with a song from their hour long set, Evil Ways.

Apparently there were rumours of the Persuasion song’s inclusion in this Woodstock edition’s extras but the powers that be at Sony allegedly have held this back.

Gregg Rolie and Michael Shrieve have also been the focus of the renowned documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple (who has done incisive and weighty documentaries on The Dixie Chicks and Gregory Peck, amongst others). Kopple has interviewed them both for an upcoming film (in tandem with Michael Lang)
on Woodstock and its significance. This film is for the VH1/History Channel. Apparently Matt Cameron, the Seattle based drummer, who has played with Soundgarden, has also done an interview with Shrieve and Michael’s current band Spellbinder has been filmed also.

Michael Shrieve noted that Woodstock “changed the course of my life. To this day not a day goes by when someone doesn’t bring it up,” either in person or online. He and bandmate Greg Rolie also discussed whether guitarist Carlo Santana had taken acid or mescaline before the group went on – earlier, they noted, than expected.”

In a recent telephone conversation Gregg recalls the nascent Santana performance, “ At Woodstock, we really didn’t think it was a big deal. We were like jazz players. Carlos had his back to the audience a lot. I don’t remember that we really even talked about the gig that much afterward. We were essentially playing to each other. There just happened to be 50.000 people watching at the time!”