Rain Dance is a new live CD taken from the same performance filmed for a potential DVD release (which has hit some technical buffers at present). The live CD is available to buy and download from Amazon.com and from the soon-to-be-revamped Gregg Rolie web space and also at Rolie Band gigs. There are some minor backing vocals overdubs but apart from that it’s the raw deal, as was played at the concert.
It is an independently produced item and Gregg’s son Sean Rolie handled the remixing chores. As Gregg states” I hired him because he’s good at what he does, not because he’s my son??” The CD was given the final production by Gregg and Ron Wikso.

It is initially released as a limited edition run of around 2000 copies. The CD is a document of a 2007 performance at the Sturgis Motorbike Rally concert. It features many of the old Santana favourites from the first three recordings. And there is one cut from the Abraxas Pool CD and which was re-imagined again on the Roots CD, which is Going Home. Give It To Me is also culled from the Roots CD recording. There are two newer songs Bailamos El Son and Across The Water.

The Santana back catalogue is well represented by Jingo, Soul Sacrifice, Black Magic Woman, Gypsy Queen, No One To Depend On, Oye Como Va and Evil Ways. The early band’s version of Albert King blues favourite As The Years Go Passing By with its Latinised double tempo burnout is also included. The CD timing totals around the seventy minutes of music mark.

Talking to Gregg on a blazing hot Texas morning found him reflective of the current state of the music and wider markets and wanting to represent the Rolie Band sound to fans at gigs as well thru the dwindling outlets now present for recorded music. “ We are doing around ten gigs this year and we are actively looking for more. The recent gig at the Hard Rock Café was great, they showed the original Santana band at Woodstock doing Soul Sacrifice from the film, projected on a screen in front of the stage and during the conga solos, the screen lifted and we went straight in picking the song up, where they had left it.”

He also reflected on the Gregg Rolie Band, “The band are great, because we all really enjoy each other and I think the sound reflects the fun we are having. We subtitle the band; “Santana- the way you remember it” And at that gig in New York recently, we had half of the original Santana, that’s about the closest you’re ever gonna’ get, to seeing that band together again!
Michael Shrieve came down and sat in and it was fantastic!
He is such a lyrical player and he makes me smile when he would do a certain thing or a fill and I’d remember his playing style, very on the jazzier end but just so stylish. Ron Wikso my regular drummer is heavier and a real solid player too.”

He remembered the recent remixing and augmenting of the Woodstock film re-mastering by Eddie Kramer. “Carlos redid his rhythm guitar parts as they was a lot of leakage in the sound. And there was a lot of tuning problems that day- the guitar was out of tune and the tuning stuff was difficult for everybody. Carlos’ solos were great and there was no problem there. Mike Carabello and Adrian Areas did some fine tuning on guiro and the timbale cowbell patterns as well, due to the leakage during the original set.”

Rain Dance is out now and a must for Gregg Rolie fans, Hammond B3 enthusiasts, Latin rockers and Santana completists.

Tags: Gregg Rolie, Michael Shrieve, Rain Dance, Ron Wikso, Santana

You’ve heard his voice and keyboards on such classic Santana hits as “Black Magic Woman”, “Evil Ways”, “No One To Depend On”, “Everybody’s Everything” and “Oye Como Va”, now legendary Santana / Journey founding member, and Rock n Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Gregg Rolie is preparing to release a DVD of his band in concert at the Sturgis Motorcycle Ralley in 2007. Shot with 17 cameras, the Gregg Rolie Band whip up an exciting memorable performance featuring all the beloved Santana hits, as well as tracks from his 2001 critically acclaimed solo CD ‘Roots’.

Along with preparations for the new DVD release, Gregg Rolie will be featured on the PBS special Trini Lopez Presents The Legends of Latin Music. Filmed at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles last October, the program will be aired in March 2009. Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, this year Warner Home Videos will be releasing a Blu-ray and DVD Ultimate Collector’s Edition with high definition picture and sound of ‘Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music’, which will also feature two hours of bonus material, some of it newly-discovered. Much to the elation of fans worldwide, extra footage of Santana’s historic Woodstock performance will be included. Held at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas on Saturday March 23, along with Santana alumni Michael Shrieve, Gregg will reside on a discussion panel of performers, film-makers and key technicians who helped create the timeless music classic and Oscar winning ‘Best Documentary’ Woodstock.

“The first time I played with Gregg everything just clicked. In a humble way, it was very much like McCartney and Lennon. You know when there’s chemistry there. Drummers came and went; congeros came and went, but his feeling and my feeling…sometimes it was hard to tell who was the needle and who was the thread.” Carlos Santana

Gregg Rolie is responsible for co-founding two phenomenally popular, multi-platinum super groups – Santana and Journey. In 1998, the world-class keyboardist/vocalist/producer was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame as part of the original Santana band. Formed in San Francisco in 1969, the multi-cultural ensemble produced three groundbreaking hit albums which yeilded several FM staples. “There’s one unique ability of the band, ” Gregg told music critic Ben Fong-Torres, “and that was that it created music that there is no name for… Santana’s music is such a jell of different material that there just is no name for it, and there’s no one that plays it like Santana does.” Departing after the pioneering jazz fusion offering ‘Caravansarai’ in 1972, both band members Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon went on to form quintessential 1980s hit-makers Journey. After co-writing and producing the band’s first 7 albums, along with constant touring, Gregg decided to leave Journey once the hugely successful 1981 live double LP ‘Captured’ was issued. During the ’80s Rolie wrote, produced and played on the Santana albums ‘Shango’ and ‘Freedom’, and released his debut, self-titled 1985 solo album and its 1987 follow-up ‘Gringo’, before co-founding the all-new Journey-esque rock group The Storm at the tail end of the decade. The Storm released two albums: 1992’s eponymous disc that yeilded the #13 Billboard Hot 100 hit “I’ve Got A Lot To Learn About Love” and 1996’s ‘Eye Of The Storm’. That same year, Rolie, along with five other original Santana members, formed Abraxis Pool, a spirited collaboration that resulted in the 1997 critically acclaimed album of the same name.

Thirty-five years after Gregg and Carlos met in San Francisco, 2001 marked the release of Rolie’s third solo album ‘Roots’. The first-ever release on Bay-Area based Tower Records’ new proprietary label 33rd Street, ‘Roots’ finds Gregg revisiting the incredible brew of sounds he helped conjure up in the late ’60s. Rolie calls ‘Roots’ twelve original selections “Latin rock plus; instrumentation is Latin percussion, with organ, guitar, horns, and lots of great solo work and songwriting, ” adding that “I really wanted to go all the way back to my Santana roots.”

The Gregg Rolie Band consists of founding Santana member Michael Carabello on Congas, Adrian Areas (son of original Santana percussionist Jose Chepito Areas) on Timbales, drummer Ron Wikso (who was also in The Storm), Kurt Griffey on guitars, internationally acclaimed bassist, Chapman Stick artist and Santana alumni Alphonso Johnson and former Jean Luc Ponty keyboardist Wally Minko. “If you are having a good time at anything you do, you are going to do a good job at what you do, ” Gregg recently told music critic Jim Harrington. “That’s really where the key to this band is. We really just enjoy each other a tremendous amount and have a lot of fun with this. We will get up to playing about 50 dates a year, and really that’s all I want to do.” The Gregg Rolie Band will be performing throughout 2009 with tour dates listed on his official website.

Tags: Carlos Santana, Gregg Rollie, Michael Shrieve, Mike Carabelo

Santana 3 or the Third Album, as it is also known, is a primal masterpiece, filled with some of Santana’s best music. The ensemble playing is freer and more fluid and the band embarked on darker, deeper, more mysterious grooves.

Santana’s San Franciscan Mission District based music, had no parallels, it wasn’t salsa, it wasn’t bugaloo, and it wasn’t straight ahead blues or rock. It contained elements of all this music but totally existed in it’s own universe, both re-defining Latino music that had gone before (Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, Richie Valens, Cal Tjader etc) and creating a totally contemporary definition of what it meant to be the vanguard for a new, emerging Latino culture.
Santana 3 is the final part of the effortless trilogy, the original band brought to the international music scene.
Their meteoric rise to fame, with their stunning appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, and the subsequent release of their first recording Santana, galvanized not only the festival audience, putting Latin rhythms on the world map, but significantly, Santana also positioned themselves in the arc of USA music history, as a potent, representing, first wave musical force for young, aspiring Latinos in the USA.

The group’s core lineup remained with Carlos Santana (Guitar, Vocals) Gregg Rolie (Keyboards, Vocals) David Brown (Bass) Mike Carabello (Congas) Jose Chepito Areas (Timbales, Congas) and Michael Shrieve (Drums). Santana’s openness to guests and allowing others to share the spotlight brought in two important additions.
Most importantly, the fifteen-year-old guitar whiz Neal Schon. Shrieve and Rolie discovered the fiery Schon, playing in a band called Old Davis at the Poppycock Club in Palo Alto. Carlos, although established as a guitar phenomenon, had no anxiety about the young Schon coming in. In fact, the two together pushed each other to new heights. Remembers Shrieve, “ God knows how Neal felt, coming into the Santana band with Carlos. Neal brought a young fire into the mix and he also picked up on Carlos’ melodicism. Neal was a burner and he could take things really high. Carlos and Neal shared a lot of the same gifts.”

The other newcomer to the ensemble, Thomas “Coke” Escovedo, was another Mission based percussionist (originally playing with Pete Escovedo, as The Escovedo Brothers). Coke was asked to tour with the band in early 1971, due to Chepito Areas, their dynamic, and impossibly talented Nicaraguan timbalero, suffering a sudden and almost fatal brain aneurysm. Coke was brought in to the band, after they had tried out Willie Bobo, (A percussionist and band leader, from New York’s Spanish Harlem, who was a major influence on the Santana group, supplying their first smash hit “Evil Ways”) for the February 1971, Soul To Soul Independence Day Concerts in Accra, Ghana, in Africa.

The recording began mostly at night at the newly opened Columbia Studios on San Francisco’s Folsom Street. Santana were ensconced in Studio B and the recording took shape, partly from long jamming sessions and also songs that had been formulated thru more structured means. Chepito Areas made the sessions, he had made a miraculous recovery; re-appearing with his astonishing musical chops intact. As the band ascended the heights of super stardom, the excesses associated with the music scene in those riotous times had increased as well. The fact that this record is so coherent, and musically cohesive, speaks volumes for the group’s unique musical chemistry.

“Batuka” is the funky opening cut, showing off the feral side of Neal Schon’s guitar work. Behind a backdrop of Carlos, Gregg and David’s ensemble parrying, the percolating rhythm section sets up a cowbell-led pattern that introduces Schon’s wild guitar work.

Gregg Rolie recalls, “We played “Batuka” with Zubin Mehta and the L.A. Philharmonic, for the Bell Telephone TV Hour. They had sent us a taped piece from Leonard Bernstein to learn”.
Coke and Carabello brought in part of the tune “No One To Depend On”, which was in some elements related to an earlier Willie Bobo tune called “Spanish Grease”. They collaborated with Rolie at his Mill Valley home. Rolie wrote the thunderous middle section, and replete with it’s rolling funk-rock riffs this became an instant crowd favourite. This was the second single and demonstrated Santana’s unique take on cha-cha-cha.
“Taboo” was a song Gregg Rolie played frequently at rehearsals until the band developed the sultry piece into the atmospheric ambient finished recording. Carlos’ guitar and Rolie’s vocals intertwine in an ethereal mix until the outro builds to a scorching climax courtesy of Neal Schon’s piercing fretwork.
Here we see Santana using the studio more as an aural instrument itself. “No One to Depend On” finishes with delayed backwards echo and “Taboo” punches its way thru its climax, with a forceful big sound. The sound is enhanced, more open, with studio effects used in an integrated setting. Eddie Kramer, who worked closely as Jimi Hendrix’s producer was on hand to engineer some of the songs but the finished credits went to Glen Kolotkin and the Santana musicians.
“Toussaint L’Ouverture” (named for the Haitian revolutionary by the radical Mission based pianist Alberto Gianquinto) is a pinnacle in Santana’s recorded history. A towering piece that had been jammed from the first album days, Toussaint smokes furiously and features ecstatic soloing from Carlos on it’s fervent intro followed by hot percussion breaks by Carabello and Chepito. The finale is an intense build with wailing breaks by Rolie, Schon and Santana until it’s abrupt end. Deafening silence remains, echoing musical magnitude.

“Everybody’s Everything” was the first single release and has a soul-based vibe with added texture by the East Bay’s Tower of Power’s horn section it is also notable for a crazed wah-wah pedal driven solo by Schon pushing Chepito’s bubbling drum track even further.
“Guajira” is a Santana classic, Shrieve loved Carlos’ beautiful piercing guitar on this cut.
“This is some of my all-time favourite playing by Carlos, starting with Chepito’s bass intro, Carlos’ playing is exquisite, the way he plays over the time change from 4/4 to 6/8, it’s still my favorite music”. Rico Reyes from the neighbourhood supplied a memorable soul filled Spanish vocal and co-wrote the song with David Brown and Chepito in Hawaii.
On “Guajira,” Gregg Rolie was open to a salsa piano solo proffered by Mario Ochoa, another seasoned Latino musician from the earlier generation. “Jungle Strut “was a hip Gene Ammons saxophone soul-jazz instrumental, on which Bernard Purdie, the hip funk drummer of that time originally played. Shrieve was exploring the outer edges of funk with David Garibaldi (the sensational drummer from Tower Of Power) and Santana used it as another vehicle for multi soloing, over a boiling percussion section.
The penultimate track rounding out the recording was “Everything Is Coming Our Way”, a sensitive Carlos song, in contrast to, but also complimentary to all the preceding music. Gregg Rolie with guidance from Carlos supplies a swirling Hammond organ solo that helps resolve the aching vocal by Carlos himself. Coke Escovedo brought in Tito Puente’s “Para Los Rumberos” to the sessions and the furiously driven performance features Luis Gasca on hot trompeta flourishes, ending the album on a high note.

The bonus tracks are a further snapshot of the experimental Santana band, “Gumbo” is a ferocious crowd pleaser, complete with a dual guitar funk interlude, which allowed Carabello and David Brown to do some tambourine propelled dancing onstage.
Mike Carabello attests to “Gumbo”, being influenced by both Sly Stone and Dr John’s Gris Gris album. “We were dedicated to being different, “Gumbo” was a soup of each person’s musical flavours”

“Folsom Street”, named for the new Columbia Studios at Number 1, was never played live and is a rarity with a loping rhythm and a solid band performance. “Bambele Bambeyo” is pure Santana trance music. Aided by Rico Reyes on vocals and Victor Pantoja on congas, the percussion is sublime. With it’s chants, the band takes us all the way back to Africa. Carlos provides free-floating guitar atmospherics, at least eight minutes into the session.

The second bonus disc sees the original Santana captured as the last act on the last night at the Fillmore West, as Bill Graham so aptly puts it, ‘What better way, than to close with the sounds from the streets, Santana!”
The third album was given it’s first airing here and as the sun set on a generation with the Fillmore’s closing, the Santana band closed the auditorium with a powerful, ragged and passionate show. Most of the above is here, the band slams thru their set but with a one-off version of “In A Silent Way”, written by Joe Zawinul and made famous by Miles Davis. Their version heats the song up and Carlos and Neal snarl and maul with Brown’s bass rumbling throughout. Chepito’s metallic timbales slice thru the frenzied haze with the precision he was famous for. Santana ran into problems shortly after, constant touring, plus mismanagement, with subsequent disagreements on musical direction crippled one of the truly great music acts.
Times changed for these musical revolutionaries, caught up in a roller-coaster ride lasting just three or so years. However, the years have been good to the original Santana’s legacy, with their inspired music standing the test of time by remaining timeless.

Jim McCarthy
San Francisco
November 2005

Jim McCarthy (with Ron Sansoe) is the author of Voices Of Latin Rock,
an in-depth look at Santana and the Latin Rock revolution.
(Published by Hal Leonard Corp).

This piece originally was the CD liner noted for the
2 x CD Sony/Legacy Extended Edition
Of Santana 3 or the Third album. (2005)

Tags: Carlos Santana, David Brown, Gregg Rolie, Jose Chepito Area, Michael Shrieve, Mike Carabello, Mission District

CD Review:
Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder- Live at ToST.

Music ripples from one musician to another, like jungle drums, the architecture of music is disseminated against the current and the music passed on but not over. The true musician is a servant of all he has been and heard and seeks to develop his craft within these walls and also to break down these walls.
Within a drummer like Michael Shrieve, lies a host of influences, the personalities and names are revelatory, Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Chico Hamilton, Papa Jo Jones, Buddy Rich, on the funkier tip, see Mike Clark, Bernard Purdie, David Garibaldi, Dennis Chambers, Stubblefield, Jabo Starks and others who have played in James Brown‘s bands and for Latino there is Mike Carabello, Chepito Areas, Armando Peraza, the list is endless, a veritable who’s-who of American and world drummers, that all serve to become a melting pot, upon which Shrieve has modelled and built his craft.

For pointers to “Spellbinder” and musical cross-referencing, seek out the mystical “Sangam” by saxophonist Charles Lloyd (released on ECM in 2006 and meaning flowing union or confluence). It is a live dedication to the late drummer Billy Higgins. It features the tasteful hand percussion and drumming of Zakir Hussein and Eric Harland and on some of the tom-tom work, both Harland and Shrieve could be calling to each other across different recordings. Drummers as “sound seekers” as Charles Lloyd would put it. Dreaming dreams that are far more uplifting than the world’s problems.

Michael Shrieve has been a totemic presence in modern American music for nearly four decades. From his early groundbreaking work with the Santana band, with whom he worked up until the Borboletta recording in 1974, to further projects encapsulating the commercial (Automatic Man, Novo Combo, Mick Jagger solo, Abraxas Pool) to more below-the-radar work both live and in the studio.

Since then his work has been plentiful, both mainstream and the more difficult to find. Perhaps, of all the original Santana members he has dedicated himself to a more esoteric search for musical meaning and exploration. His latest release is culled from a live recording made in February 2008, during his group Spellbinder’s, Monday night residency at ToST in Seattle, Washington, nearby to where Michael resides currently. Spellbinder is the second combo Shrieve has formed since his residence in Seattle. Tangletown was the other group, which had (although unreleased) great potential, if the recordings “African Woman, “Baila Mi Cha Cha,” “Natasha,” and “One” are anything to go by. Tangletown were the nearest thing to a Santana world band style, Shrieve has attempted outside of Abraxas Pool.

The Spellbinder CD itself is missing the “title” track, which gives the group its name and inspiration, simply called “Spellbinder.” From the same-titled recording by Gabor Szabo, who was based in San Francisco’s Bay Area at the time and released in 1966 on the Verve label, it featured the Hungarian Szabo’s brilliant guitar flurries, over the percussion team of Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja on drums/timbales and congas respectively.
This recording also featured “Gypsy Queen,” which was an integral part of Santana’s Abraxas first side suite, as a coda to “Black Magic Woman.” This live cut has been up on You Tube from Shrieve’s band but doesn’t appear on the live recording.

Shrieve tells of Gabor’s influence on the young Santana, “We all loved those great Gabor Szabo records. Carlos was very influenced by Gabor, and I was very influenced by Chico Hamilton on those recordings as well. A lot of the cymbal work I did on the Santana records was derived from Chico’s playing on Gabor’s records like “Spellbinder.” Michael Carabello was very influenced by Victor Pantoja, who played congas on that record. Well, obviously, I named my new group Spellbinder and we play that song too!”

Shrieve comments, “If there is Santana material that I had something to do with that neither Carlos and Gregg are doing in their bands, and I liked the song and the way I played on it, then I will consider doing it in Spellbinder. I want to get back to playing drums the way I played on those songs. More like the jazz side of Santana, if you will. We’ve changed the arrangement of “Every Step of the Way”… right now we are doing it pretty much without the whole first section.”

The CD is served by a rich and ambient sound. It is I feel, a piece that works best listened to and not accompanied by the live video shots that have appeared on You Tube. It is an atmospheric collection of seven tracks, which starts with Shrieve looking to his Santana back catalogue for the opening cut, “Every Step Of The Way”. Every Step features the sweeping Hammond B3 organ vamps from Joe Doria that Gregg Rolie previously added to the first version on Caravanserai but also features strong, delirious and keening playing by the guitarist Danny Godinez who follows some of Carlos’ earlier licks but also introduces new and fresh playing of his own. Shrieve plays ride cymbal with the deftness and fluency, he is renowned for but here his playing is softer and with less attack than his “Two Doors” or “Octave Of The Holy Innocents” with Jonas Hellborg recordings of fifteen years ago. “Every Step Of the Way” is extremely atmospheric with superb playing and organ washes from Doria. Shrieve starts the piece with brushes and moves to sticks during the intro section before the main theme. The band take their time to hit the theme with Doria supplying a pumping solo and taking the music further into the ozone is trumpeter John Fricke. All this music is underpinned by the group’s bassist who hails from Uzbekistan, yet another Seattle resident, Farko Dosumov. Spellbinder completists, please note this is a different take to the postings on You Tube.

The CD recording is rich, warm and fans of Shrieve’s drums will not be disappointed at the depth of sound on the kit and the clarity of the cymbal work.

The tune “Flamingo” composed by Danny Godinez appears next and opens with tasty melodic runs from Godinez, before breaking into a funky vamp from the guitarist. The tune is notable for a powerful main theme, which is very catchy, punchy and rousing, really hitting home.
Mike Shrieve plays in a Latinesque vibe, starting out with a crisp hi-hat rhythm before breaking into a rolling cymbal and snare beat. It also features some creamy cliff-hanging Shrieve double stroke rolls on the snare, which are a Shrieve trademark! Doria’s Hammond organ stabs and waves of sound ably punctuate Godinez’s excellent guitar solo. This piece also features out-there trumpet by Fricke who here, brings his solo down into a heavily swinging, muted wah-wah excursion.

Shrieve shows off his deftness as a drum roll player at the beginning of the next piece before leading with a crisp drum roll into the main body of “Moon Over You,” taken from Shrieve’s excellent Stiletto recording, originally released on Novus Records in 1989. Shrieve’s clattering, assured and confident drum poly-pattern with the snares off is a hypnotic and enticing romp through a spacey, Miles Davis-like refrain with a retro Wild Western feel. The piece explodes into a double time part with a manic guitar solo from Godinez, in which he almost goes off the highest register on his instrument. Here the music is a call to Shrieve’s Santana past. Shrieve amplifies this connection by indulging in some razor sharp snare and tom fills that slice through the music and threaten to pull everything apart until Shrieve resolves the time by coming back on the one.

Of further interest here to Santana fans, is a new version of “Jungle Strut,” the Gene Ammons penned vehicle that Shrieve brought to the Santana 3 sessions. It follows the Third album version fairly closely,
both in tempo, arrangement and feel. Shrieve also played this live a few years back with old band mate Jose “Chepito” Areas at a New Monsoon gig at Martyrs, Chicago. Godinez blazes here both adopting both the Neal Schon wah-wah and Carlos guitar parts. Added trumpet flourishes make this a live pressure cooker.

Opening with Shrieve drumming in thunderous tom-tom cascades, with a fugue-like organ from Doria, “Gole Sangem” is a sombre, meditative piece of this set that feels close to the aforementioned “Sangam” by Charles Lloyd. Shrieve started to develop this style of cascading tom-tom fills as far back as Welcome and Borboletta, where tracks like “Life Is Anew” ended with Shrieve using this technique to full dramatic effect, before segueing into the 6/8 funk of “Give And Take” on the Borboletta recording. “Gole Sangem” is a stately walk through lyrical trumpet and guitar flourishes over a deep, penetrating almost funereal rhythm.

“Inside Four Walls’ follows, again featuring a dramatic intro
and chanted vocals or voicing with no lyrics, before moving into “They Love Me from Fifteen Feet Away.” A beautiful fretless bass intro ensues from Farko Dosumov, this is further taken up by Fricke’s trumpet and Godinez’s benevolent, tasteful, bluesy, soaring guitar. This is a superb, electrifying solo from Danny Godinez.
One is waiting for Shrieve to pile on the pressure on the drum kit but he pulls back with his open use of space, creating further tension by keeping the rhythm open and allowing a large soundscape to emerge by not bringing in further backbeat. As drummer with Santana etc, Shrieve always let the music breathe and other soloists or percussionists always had plenty of room to manoeuvre with Shrieve at the drum helm. An impressive Spanish style number to round out this live recording that enjoys clarity of both sound and group dynamics.
From Go, through to Automatic Man, Tangletown, Novo Combo, Abraxas Pool and the Stiletto, Two Doors, Fascination recordings, Shrieve always seems to have the ability to pursue a completely original take on new bands. He also changed or adapted his drum styles accordingly and this CD is no exception.

Total CD Time = 54.80

To round out this review, I asked Michael Shrieve some further Spellbinder related questions……..

(1) At your ToST residency, do you play the same set every week, or is their lots of other material??
Basically we play the same set, but are adding new tunes now. We play “Knives Out” by Radiohead and this works extremely well in our band context. Rhythmically it’s right up my alley and the melody adapts beautifully on the trumpet. We are also working up a few tunes from some of my other solo CD’s as well, right now one each from Two Doors, Fascination, and Stiletto as well.

(2) Why no Spellbinder cut on the CD??
We recorded “Spellbinder” several times but it was always too fast, which is of course my fault! If it’s too fast it sounds hokey and corny musically. The rhythm sounds good fast, but not the music.

(3) It’s a fairly “short” recording, with say 20 minutes left of CD space – why not more music??
It is what it is. I also happen to believe that just because there’s more time available on the CD format, it doesn’t mean you have to fill it. Keep in mind that most of the classic records were around 44:00 minutes. The reason for this is that while cutting vinyl, the most time that you could have on each side of the record was about 22:00 minutes because after that the sound quality suffered. The actual grooves that were cut in the vinyl became not as deep after that amount of time and the sound became thinner.

(4) What is the track “Gole Sangem” about??
Who did it originally??
Gole Sangem or Sangam, there is some question as to the right spelling, is a traditional Persian song that I first encountered while producing a group called The Brothers Baladi. On that recording we used a soprano saxophone for the melody and presented in a way that sounded like Ennio Morricone. I always loved the melody and wanted to do it if the right situation presented itself. With Spellbinder I really wanted to present beautiful melodies as well as “spellbinding” grooves. Ironically, and you can imagine my surprise, when I found out just before the CD was released, Gole Sangem translates to “The Stone Flower” or “the flower that can only bloom from the stone”, because I wrote lyrics to Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Stone Flower” and we recorded that song on Santana’s “Caravanserai” 35 years earlier!

(5) “Inside 4 Walls,” who is doing the wailing singing??
Again- why this choice??
“Inside Four Walls” was written by the jazz bass player Marc Johnson and was included on his CD called “Right Brain Patrol”. Again, I’ve always enjoyed this song and the vocal is done in a similar fashion on Marc’s recording and I believe the percussionist on the recording, Arto Tunçboyaciyan, sang that section. The song that comes after it, “They Love Me Fifteen Feet Away” was also on that same recording and was written by Arto as well. I just always liked them and wanted to play them. I’m a big believer in just playing music that you just really like, no matter where it comes from.

(6) They Love me” why this choice by Marc Johnson??
Who is he???
See above.

(7) What would you like to achieve with Spellbinder and what are the future plans??
I want to take Spellbinder on the road and play for as many people as possible, and continue making records with the group. That’s the plan.

You are directed here to an excellent and extensive article by Michael Shrieve himself on the Moonflower Café website, which is both in-depth and entertaining.

http://www.moonflowercafe.com/mcshrieve.html

Tags: Jim Mc Carthy, latin muisc, Live at ToST, Michael Shrieve, Santana, Spellbinder

CD Review:
Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder- Live at ToST.

Music ripples from one musician to another, like jungle drums, the architecture of music is disseminated against the current and the music passed on but not over. The true musician is a servant of all he has been and heard and seeks to develop his craft within these walls and also to break down these walls.
Within a drummer like Michael Shrieve, lies a host of influences, the personalities and names are revelatory, Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Chico Hamilton, Papa Jo Jones, Buddy Rich, on the funkier tip, see Mike Clark, Bernard Purdie, David Garibaldi, Dennis Chambers, Stubblefield, Jabo Starks and others who have played in James Brown‘s bands and for Latino there is Mike Carabello, Chepito Areas, Armando Peraza, the list is endless, a veritable who’s-who of American and world drummers, that all serve to become a melting pot, upon which Shrieve has modelled and built his craft.

For pointers to “Spellbinder” and musical cross-referencing, seek out the mystical “Sangam” by saxophonist Charles Lloyd (released on ECM in 2006 and meaning flowing union or confluence). It is a live dedication to the late drummer Billy Higgins. It features the tasteful hand percussion and drumming of Zakir Hussein and Eric Harland and on some of the tom-tom work, both Harland and Shrieve could be calling to each other across different recordings. Drummers as “sound seekers” as Charles Lloyd would put it. Dreaming dreams that are far more uplifting than the world’s problems.

Michael Shrieve has been a totemic presence in modern American music for nearly four decades. From his early groundbreaking work with the Santana band, with whom he worked up until the Borboletta recording in 1974, to further projects encapsulating the commercial (Automatic Man, Novo Combo, Mick Jagger solo, Abraxas Pool) to more below-the-radar work both live and in the studio.

Since then his work has been plentiful, both mainstream and the more difficult to find. Perhaps, of all the original Santana members he has dedicated himself to a more esoteric search for musical meaning and exploration. His latest release is culled from a live recording made in February 2008, during his group Spellbinder’s, Monday night residency at ToST in Seattle, Washington, nearby to where Michael resides currently. Spellbinder is the second combo Shrieve has formed since his residence in Seattle. Tangletown was the other group, which had (although unreleased) great potential, if the recordings “African Woman, “Baila Mi Cha Cha,” “Natasha,” and “One” are anything to go by. Tangletown were the nearest thing to a Santana world band style, Shrieve has attempted outside of Abraxas Pool.

The Spellbinder CD itself is missing the “title” track, which gives the group its name and inspiration, simply called “Spellbinder.” From the same-titled recording by Gabor Szabo, who was based in San Francisco’s Bay Area at the time and released in 1966 on the Verve label, it featured the Hungarian Szabo’s brilliant guitar flurries, over the percussion team of Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja on drums/timbales and congas respectively.
This recording also featured “Gypsy Queen,” which was an integral part of Santana’s Abraxas first side suite, as a coda to “Black Magic Woman.” This live cut has been up on You Tube from Shrieve’s band but doesn’t appear on the live recording.

Shrieve tells of Gabor’s influence on the young Santana, “We all loved those great Gabor Szabo records. Carlos was very influenced by Gabor, and I was very influenced by Chico Hamilton on those recordings as well. A lot of the cymbal work I did on the Santana records was derived from Chico’s playing on Gabor’s records like “Spellbinder.” Michael Carabello was very influenced by Victor Pantoja, who played congas on that record. Well, obviously, I named my new group Spellbinder and we play that song too!”

Shrieve comments, “If there is Santana material that I had something to do with that neither Carlos and Gregg are doing in their bands, and I liked the song and the way I played on it, then I will consider doing it in Spellbinder. I want to get back to playing drums the way I played on those songs. More like the jazz side of Santana, if you will. We’ve changed the arrangement of “Every Step of the Way”… right now we are doing it pretty much without the whole first section.”

The CD is served by a rich and ambient sound. It is I feel, a piece that works best listened to and not accompanied by the live video shots that have appeared on You Tube. It is an atmospheric collection of seven tracks, which starts with Shrieve looking to his Santana back catalogue for the opening cut, “Every Step Of The Way”. Every Step features the sweeping Hammond B3 organ vamps from Joe Doria that Gregg Rolie previously added to the first version on Caravanserai but also features strong, delirious and keening playing by the guitarist Danny Godinez who follows some of Carlos’ earlier licks but also introduces new and fresh playing of his own. Shrieve plays ride cymbal with the deftness and fluency, he is renowned for but here his playing is softer and with less attack than his “Two Doors” or “Octave Of The Holy Innocents” with Jonas Hellborg recordings of fifteen years ago. “Every Step Of the Way” is extremely atmospheric with superb playing and organ washes from Doria. Shrieve starts the piece with brushes and moves to sticks during the intro section before the main theme. The band take their time to hit the theme with Doria supplying a pumping solo and taking the music further into the ozone is trumpeter John Fricke. All this music is underpinned by the group’s bassist who hails from Uzbekistan, yet another Seattle resident, Farko Dosumov. Spellbinder completists, please note this is a different take to the postings on You Tube.

The CD recording is rich, warm and fans of Shrieve’s drums will not be disappointed at the depth of sound on the kit and the clarity of the cymbal work.

The tune “Flamingo” composed by Danny Godinez appears next and opens with tasty melodic runs from Godinez, before breaking into a funky vamp from the guitarist. The tune is notable for a powerful main theme, which is very catchy, punchy and rousing, really hitting home.
Mike Shrieve plays in a Latinesque vibe, starting out with a crisp hi-hat rhythm before breaking into a rolling cymbal and snare beat. It also features some creamy cliff-hanging Shrieve double stroke rolls on the snare, which are a Shrieve trademark! Doria’s Hammond organ stabs and waves of sound ably punctuate Godinez’s excellent guitar solo. This piece also features out-there trumpet by Fricke who here, brings his solo down into a heavily swinging, muted wah-wah excursion.

Shrieve shows off his deftness as a drum roll player at the beginning of the next piece before leading with a crisp drum roll into the main body of “Moon Over You,” taken from Shrieve’s excellent Stiletto recording, originally released on Novus Records in 1989. Shrieve’s clattering, assured and confident drum poly-pattern with the snares off is a hypnotic and enticing romp through a spacey, Miles Davis-like refrain with a retro Wild Western feel. The piece explodes into a double time part with a manic guitar solo from Godinez, in which he almost goes off the highest register on his instrument. Here the music is a call to Shrieve’s Santana past. Shrieve amplifies this connection by indulging in some razor sharp snare and tom fills that slice through the music and threaten to pull everything apart until Shrieve resolves the time by coming back on the one.

Of further interest here to Santana fans, is a new version of “Jungle Strut,” the Gene Ammons penned vehicle that Shrieve brought to the Santana 3 sessions. It follows the Third album version fairly closely,
both in tempo, arrangement and feel. Shrieve also played this live a few years back with old band mate Jose “Chepito” Areas at a New Monsoon gig at Martyrs, Chicago. Godinez blazes here both adopting both the Neal Schon wah-wah and Carlos guitar parts. Added trumpet flourishes make this a live pressure cooker.

Opening with Shrieve drumming in thunderous tom-tom cascades, with a fugue-like organ from Doria, “Gole Sangem” is a sombre, meditative piece of this set that feels close to the aforementioned “Sangam” by Charles Lloyd. Shrieve started to develop this style of cascading tom-tom fills as far back as Welcome and Borboletta, where tracks like “Life Is Anew” ended with Shrieve using this technique to full dramatic effect, before segueing into the 6/8 funk of “Give And Take” on the Borboletta recording. “Gole Sangem” is a stately walk through lyrical trumpet and guitar flourishes over a deep, penetrating almost funereal rhythm.

“Inside Four Walls’ follows, again featuring a dramatic intro
and chanted vocals or voicing with no lyrics, before moving into “They Love Me from Fifteen Feet Away.” A beautiful fretless bass intro ensues from Farko Dosumov, this is further taken up by Fricke’s trumpet and Godinez’s benevolent, tasteful, bluesy, soaring guitar. This is a superb, electrifying solo from Danny Godinez.
One is waiting for Shrieve to pile on the pressure on the drum kit but he pulls back with his open use of space, creating further tension by keeping the rhythm open and allowing a large soundscape to emerge by not bringing in further backbeat. As drummer with Santana etc, Shrieve always let the music breathe and other soloists or percussionists always had plenty of room to manoeuvre with Shrieve at the drum helm. An impressive Spanish style number to round out this live recording that enjoys clarity of both sound and group dynamics.
From Go, through to Automatic Man, Tangletown, Novo Combo, Abraxas Pool and the Stiletto, Two Doors, Fascination recordings, Shrieve always seems to have the ability to pursue a completely original take on new bands. He also changed or adapted his drum styles accordingly and this CD is no exception.

Total CD Time = 54.80

To round out this review, I asked Michael Shrieve some further Spellbinder related questions……..

(1) At your ToST residency, do you play the same set every week, or is their lots of other material??
Basically we play the same set, but are adding new tunes now. We play “Knives Out” by Radiohead and this works extremely well in our band context. Rhythmically it’s right up my alley and the melody adapts beautifully on the trumpet. We are also working up a few tunes from some of my other solo CD’s as well, right now one each from Two Doors, Fascination, and Stiletto as well.

(2) Why no Spellbinder cut on the CD??
We recorded “Spellbinder” several times but it was always too fast, which is of course my fault! If it’s too fast it sounds hokey and corny musically. The rhythm sounds good fast, but not the music.

(3) It’s a fairly “short” recording, with say 20 minutes left of CD space – why not more music??
It is what it is. I also happen to believe that just because there’s more time available on the CD format, it doesn’t mean you have to fill it. Keep in mind that most of the classic records were around 44:00 minutes. The reason for this is that while cutting vinyl, the most time that you could have on each side of the record was about 22:00 minutes because after that the sound quality suffered. The actual grooves that were cut in the vinyl became not as deep after that amount of time and the sound became thinner.

(4) What is the track “Gole Sangem” about??
Who did it originally??
Gole Sangem or Sangam, there is some question as to the right spelling, is a traditional Persian song that I first encountered while producing a group called The Brothers Baladi. On that recording we used a soprano saxophone for the melody and presented in a way that sounded like Ennio Morricone. I always loved the melody and wanted to do it if the right situation presented itself. With Spellbinder I really wanted to present beautiful melodies as well as “spellbinding” grooves. Ironically, and you can imagine my surprise, when I found out just before the CD was released, Gole Sangem translates to “The Stone Flower” or “the flower that can only bloom from the stone”, because I wrote lyrics to Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Stone Flower” and we recorded that song on Santana’s “Caravanserai” 35 years earlier!

(5) “Inside 4 Walls,” who is doing the wailing singing??
Again- why this choice??
“Inside Four Walls” was written by the jazz bass player Marc Johnson and was included on his CD called “Right Brain Patrol”. Again, I’ve always enjoyed this song and the vocal is done in a similar fashion on Marc’s recording and I believe the percussionist on the recording, Arto Tunçboyaciyan, sang that section. The song that comes after it, “They Love Me Fifteen Feet Away” was also on that same recording and was written by Arto as well. I just always liked them and wanted to play them. I’m a big believer in just playing music that you just really like, no matter where it comes from.

(6) They Love me” why this choice by Marc Johnson??
Who is he???
See above.

(7) What would you like to achieve with Spellbinder and what are the future plans??
I want to take Spellbinder on the road and play for as many people as possible, and continue making records with the group. That’s the plan.

You are directed here to an excellent and extensive article by Michael Shrieve himself on the Moonflower Café website, which is both in-depth and entertaining.

http://www.moonflowercafe.com/mcshrieve.html

Tags: Chepito Areas, Jim Mc Carthy, latin muisc, Michael Shrieve, Santana, Seattle, Spellbinder, Victor Pantoja, Voices of Latin Rock, Willie Bobo