Radical roots music!!
Santana doing Savor-Jingo in 1970.
This is a burner!

Tags: Carlos Santana, Jim McCarthy, latin muisc, Mission District, Santana

JORGE SANTANA “HERE I AM” CD REVIEW
© Jim McCarthy October 2009

Here I Am is the recently released “from the vaults” compilation put together by Jorge and released on his own Misha label. It follows on from his two earlier solo recordings originally recorded for Tomato Records in New York and also re-issued on CD and available on Misha and from his new website jorgesantana.com.

Here I Am is divided into five musical ventures and opens with five songs with a definite eighties feeling in production style and arrangements with big keyboard sounds and a solid band featuring Walter Afanasieff on keys/vocals plus Phil Anastasia on Lead vocals. It features Gary Brown on bass plus Yogi Newman and Rick Lawton on congas& percussion and drums respectively.

Once Is Not Enough/Para Ti opens the CD and the remastered sound quality is decent considering these are studio demos. The song has a lilting Latin cha-cha feel. In common with Jorge’s output at this time, it falls on the R&B and pop side of the musical fence. This song furthers the Latin cha-cha feel with a raspy, fluent and sharp guitarra solo by Jorge, over the refrain of “Para Ti, Para ti”. The next tune, Isolation has a jaunty funky and light summery feel, the band also managed to fit in a five-week tour around the New York area while these demos were being shopped. The “title” track Here I Am is a mid-tempo piece that didn’t lift me particularly but is competent and features an arrangement steeped in synth washes. Runaway Love has that AOR sound typical of that era with big backing chords by Jorge, It has a rousing chorus and a sound not unlike Carlos’ output around the Inner Secrets/Marathon recorded era. Tell Me Love is another up-tempo with a great vocal by Walter aka Dean Parrish, Jorge plays fifties style rhythm guitar licks on here.

For my money the jewels on this CD follow with Jorge’s collaboration with the Mission District group Puro Bandido. Casa Bandido is pure Latino magic! It starts with a three chord, slightly melancholic refrain with excellent guitar atmospherics by Jorge and Johnny Gunn, before breaking into a salsa inflected joyous song, featuring Richard Segovia (previously of the TNT band) on timbales and Rafael Ramirez on congas and Angel Orozco on drum kit!
This is truly a great cut, both fully steeped in the San Franciscan Latino-Mission tradition but with a fresh and uplifting vibe. The song kicks with excellent compressed vocals. Superb horns and arrangement see this song would not be out of place on one of Carlos’ recent stellar releases. They name check Puerto Rico, Salvador and the Mission thru this great
and very danceable song. Jorge plays a dreamy and soulful guitar break over the middle eight and is followed by a great trombone solo. One would really like to hear Puro Bandido releasing some more stuff- this is excellent. It fades with a guitar break by Johnny Gunn-top notch!!

Latin Lover follows with a Jose Santana  (Tony Santana, Jorge’s older brother is Jose’s father making him Jorge’s nephew) rap over another Puro Bandido arrangement. This is another smoking cut which strides confidently along with superb excellent ensemble playing, including backing vocals by Heather Lauren and The Herrera Sisters.
A cascara timbale rhythm by Richard Segovia propels this cut along with a supreme gusto and features another Jorge solo full of controlled fire, followed by a flourishing keyboard solo by Steve Salinas. Yet another musical high point on this CD.

Rainbows Of Love is notable for a closely recorded conga tumbao by Yogi Newman (apparently Newman had an even bigger afro-head than Mike Carabello or Arcelio Garcia and is these days living a hermetic life, out of the music scene) and it would be great to hear congas recorded with this “loudness’ more often. This also features a stirring Jorge solo over a double time vamp.

The fourth set of tunes feature old Malo running mate Richard Bean on chief vocals and song writing. It also features Ron DeMasi from the last two Malo albums on Warner (Evolution & Ascension)
Bar Of Five instrumental shows DeMasi playing some synth and other keyboard clavinet style solo funkiness over a driving beat, the is a real cooker and these recordings hail from 1977 and were demoed at San Francisco’s CBS Studios in Folsom Street. The drummer Jerry Marshall wrote this cut and these could be DeMasi’s last recorded performances.
Sandy and Darling I Love You, originally featured on the Jorge Santana solo release, are given a different dance mix airing here and shows Bean’s pop take on Latin, with an almost Neil Sedaka feel to proceedings, with an ample disco-style beat produced by Tony Bongiovi and Bob Clearmountain.

Of great interest to Malo fans are two cuts from Sesame Street, Bienvenidos (Welcome) and Show Me How You Feel (Como To Sientes) featuring the redoubtable Tony Smith on drums and Lead vocals along with Jorge. Welcome is great as it aims to teach a person listening basic Spanish. It has great (Ascension era-Malo) horns and a pumping Pablo Tellez bass aided and abetted by Jorge on a nice piercing solo. A cool way to round off this varied CD package.

For guitar followers Jorge has added information on the guitars and amps used thru-out these recordings.

I had a conversation with Jorge about the future and he aims to release at least two more CD’s of material next year. He informed me he had been listening to archive recorded with Richard Kermode and Pablo Tellez from 1981 and another piece (A Bit Of Spice) recorded with Karl Perazzo, both among others, which should find their way onto the next CD release in 2010.
Of great interest is the Malo “fifth” set of recordings demoed after Ascension in San Francisco (not to be confused with Malo 5 released in New York on Traq Records, under the name of Arcelio Garcia) and featuring Pablo, Ron De Masi, Butch Haynes on percussion. Further down the line Jorge is planning to release these rarities and I know all Mission Latino heads will be looking forward to hearing this historical material.

Tags: Arcelio Garcia, Carlos Santana, Jorge Santana, Latin Rock, Malo, Mission District, NEW YORK, Pablo Tellez, Puro Bandido, Richard Bean, Ron De Masi, San Francisco, Santana, Sesame Street, Tony Smith

Please find some mock-ups plus information on new Jorge Santana Webspace with forum and new CD release to follow.

Further review details will be posted, after we have had time to listen to the the upcoming CD. It features rare and unreleased material from his career, varying from 80’s and 90’s studio material Plus later stuff with Puro Bandidos etc……

We look forward to the possible release in the future of unreleased material that would have formed the recording of a follow- up to Malo’s Ascension, album,
which we believe was recorded in 1974 and 1975 period.
© Jim McCarthy- September 2009.

Tags: Ascension, Brothers, Jorge Santana, Love The Way, Malo, Pablo Tellez, Richard Bean, Sacred Fire, Santana, Suavecito, Tomato Records

How did the original horn player of Malo come from Philadelphia and wind up in the mission district and the Haight Ashbury of San Francisco in 1969? Then in 1971 help to give birth to one of the most influential groups in the history of Latin Rock only to vanish from that scene for over 35 years? But now with the advent and impact of VOLR some new dots can finally be connected.

It’s really pretty simple and starts back in Philadelphia where I went to a music school that was for the average kids, not the geniuses, Combs College of Music. But even so the Alumni included John Coltrane, Leopold Stokowski, Jan Peerce, Romeo Cascarino, Reinhardt, Casadesus, Mischa Elman and so many other giants in the field of music. Not being a “corporate” school, individual skills and quirks were readily honed. Roy Murray quickly fell in with that.

Steve Busfield had gone to Combs also. He left to go to San Francisco in 1968 to put a flower in his hair and the times were a changing – A new way of playing music had emerged. He right away was in the Loading Zone, then Azteca and later Buddy Miles for two years, plus many others.

In Philly we had played in a group together called the Motivations – a black soul review. Steve Busfield was on guitar, Alfonso Johnson on bass (Santana and Weather Report), Linda Creed on vocals (she co-wrote 10 top ten hits), Roy Murray on trumpet (Naked Lunch and Malo), Duane Hitchings on keyboard (Rod Stewart and Heart) plus several others. But it was Steve who greatly urged and influenced me and later Alfonso Johnson to come on out. “The scene” would well be worth the move.

I arrived as a multi horn player. This was going to serve me very well. My music teacher Len Pierro Jr. and Doc. Donald S. Reinhardt (from Combs & Curtis Institute of Music) all helped me to develop an embouchure that actually could switch between brass and reeds. That was rare… but it was my passion, and I was able to do it. Influenced by Coltrane, Miles, the brass men of Kenton, and many classical composers I was ready for “the scene.”

First band up I joined was the Western Addition – nope, not country music. That was the San Francisco version of a ghetto and Sly Stone territory. It was funk, R&B, soul groups. We did Sly Stone of course, but also James Brown and the just released album of Chicago, plus some originals. Future members of Elvin Bishop, Cold Blood, Boz Skaggs, Santana were all in this group and who sang lead?… Wendy Haas (Azteca, Santana etc.) What a time this was – my first San Francisco band. We performed a lot and did a lot of gigs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but it was really a learning process.

Wendy was awesome!! What a vocal talent… but it was hers and our stage presence. All of us – we were all kinetic – none of us could stop strutting. With Wendy leading the way, what we did lack in originally really didn’t seem to matter. Watching us was something everybody did. Need I say anything more? We were young and wild!!!

We gigged but the profit was low – hence I took a house band gig at the Nite Life with a wild acid Central American rock group called The Aliens (El Salvador and Nicaragua). Six nights a week: 5 hours a night. I replaced Chepito. Now how many horn players can say they replaced one of the world’s greatest timbale players? Here’s what happened.

Chepito was playing some trumpet as well as percussion, drums, etc. with the Aliens for many years. The Aliens liked the idea of replacing him with a full time trumpet player. There was already a sax player in the group, so I stayed on trumpet.

The music they played, unreal. Never saw anything like it. Straight up rock to top 40 hits to a slow ballad. Then onto a 20 minute jam on just one song, next into a cumbia, but then they would go into some real pulsating driving Latin Rock. Undoubtedly some of the very first of it’s kind!! Then onto a polka, well not really – but with that group who knows. The versatility was amazing – William (Guillermo) Coronado (founder with his brother Michael) even threw in some vibraphone Cal Tjader stuff. Meanwhile Carlos from the Santana Blues Band would come in to check out this timbalero Chepito and took him away as they shortly there afterwards became Santana.

The line up of personnel for this highly influential band was: Frank Zavala-lead vocal, Bernie Peoples-bass, Oscar Calderon-drums, Cliff Anderson-congas, Charlie Elks-flute and sax, Michael Coronado-guitar, and William Coronado-keyboards and vibraphone. (Also see previous VOLR post on this site “Memories of the Aliens”).

I started out great, very strong. My beautiful trompeta sound did them well. It was my first house band gig. But I didn’t know how to “pace” myself – I died. I couldn’t even hold my arms up to blow through my horn two months later. I didn’t do drugs or drink, but i also wasn’t eating right. I lost my strength. We had to part company. But also, I wasn’t a real Latin trumpet player – Very creative and inventive – but not the real Latin deal. That would show up again in the future when I was in Malo.

But we can’t leave this until we have at least one Jose (Chepito) Areas story. The whole world wants a Chepito story!!

One night we’re all playing at the Nite Life and this little guy with more hair on his head than Dougie Rauch walks in, and in one of those Latino languages starts yelling at the band telling ‘em what to do. Next thing I know, he’s onstage with us playing all kinds of percussion. I’m clueless. Finally he steps down. I think he’s still trying to tell the band how to do it all. Who was it??….It was the first time anyone ever saw Chepito with an Afro!! It was a learning curve for me!!

Next came several bands at once. Stuff, Stone Creation (I was the founder) and doing gigs with several guys who would become Azteca. Some were just pick up gigs and others just 2 or 3 weeks. In the band Stuff was future Tower of Power lead vocalist Rick Stevens. But more on him and much more on Him later.

But one night, yes, one night I walked into a jam at the Children of Mu’s commune in the Haight-Ashbury – And my life would never be the same. Abel Zarate and Naked Lunch. I found Myself!! Total dedication to it. Robert (Bob) Olivera on sax. We were the hippie, trippie, psychedelic horn section. No “tight stuff” for us. But on occasion we were. But we were unreal – The whole band amazed people – Bill Graham signed us – John Walker (It’s a Beautiful Day) became our manager. We played Fillmore and every other main venue in the Bay area. After a concert on 9/16/70 we did with Boz Skaggs, Elvin Bishop, Tower of Power and Victoria, Tom Campell wrote in the S.F.Examiner that “Naked Lunch isn’t a sandwich without bread. It’s a superior rock band – music scene habitués call the group heavy “– Finally, 40 years later some of our music got released this past Jan. See the VOLR review of it from 4/5/09 on this site. It is well worth it for anyone to listen to. Naked Lunch went on for a year and a half, but Malo was up next. Me (Roy Murray), Richard Spremich, and Abel Zarate joined up with Pablo, Jorge, R. Bean & Arcelio in their newly named group Malo (formerly the Malibus). It was electric – Not too many people ever heard this eclectic seven performers along with Coke, Kermode, Pantoja, and Gasca before it’s demise. It truly was one of a kind. In my opinion, it was one of the greatest bands in the world… if it would have stayed together. Abel Zarate & Jorge Santana…there’ll never be, and hasn’t been something like that in music again! And as to the personnel that followed the original recording Malo cast…unbelievable! Raul & Leo replaced Coke & Victor Pantoja. The horn players that followed me…unreal. Tom Harrell, Forrest Buchtel, Hadley Caliman, etc. etc.

So as not to repeat info and passages from the Voices of Latin Rock book I’ll just give some very specialized insights into the horn playing which me and Luis Gasca did on that first album.

I wrote all the horn parts before Luis Gasca arrived (but also had some help from Zarate and the rest of the guys). Luis came in and added the desperately needed and so obvious… the Latin Trompeta fire parts. That would never come from me, the hippie. But what did come out of me was unique and even stands to this day as some of their most enduring horn lines. Little did I or any of us know that would be the case.

But first I have to back up when Naked Lunch had raged through San Francisco and the greather Bay area. We were definitely on the “cutting edge” of the times. A cross between early Chicago and early Santana. (Santana had not yet released its first album when we wrote that music). We were on our way to the top (as the phrase goes) then one day I get a phone call. It was our new manager John Walker – Bill Graham and the Fillmore Corporation was dropping us (because of business, not music.) That devastated us!! We couldn’t recover from it. Soon the Malibus/Malo began talking to us. Chris Wong (Malo manager) had already been talking to Abel Zarate. But I was the first official Naked Lunch member in. Then Abel, then Richard Spremich. We all jelled very quickly and worked extremely hard and well together. The ideas were flying every which way and from everybody. Luis Gasca, Richard Kermode, Coke Escovedo and Victor Pantoja all got on board in time to record the first album.

Now, to the horns –
Because there was never a rehearsal between me and Luis, there were no harmony horn parts. I showed Luis all the parts I wrote. I did this in the recording studio and then he added his things on top of that. It was perfect. And I mean perfect! But Dave Rubinson (the producer) said we were going to double the horn parts to fatten them up, since there was no harmony, plus over dubbing other parts, plus all the original lines and solos and fills. That’s a lot of work and time. In the doubling of the parts suddenly 2 horns become 4 – throw in a dub or two and you’ve got 6 trumpets or so. Nobody knew this – except us doing it. That’s how Luis and I get this incredible fat and very lively sound for just two horns!! It worked out great. However, as people came and went in and out of the studio it appeared I (Murray) was screwing up causing extra takes as nobody, and I mean nobody understood what was going on in the studio at those times in regards to the recording of the horns. It all appeared like I needed extra takes on everything, when that wasn’t the case at all.

Suavecito:

I am the only horn player on that song. Luis Gasca does not even play on it. And as usual I did it all in one take. To my knowledge I’m one of the very few horn players, if any others, to have a trombone solo and trumpet solo in a top 20 hit. Abel Zarate wrote the trombone solo for me in the intro. I wrote and played the trumpet solos in the background which really helped to give a very distinctive push to the song and launch the Malo identity with horns ‘round the world. I couldn’t play the true Latin fills, but man I could play. And no horn player would write horn lines the way I did. Yes, Suavecito is kinda “bubble gum” – but you listen to what each musician brought to that song and you realize what a little masterpiece it is. It was truly a group effort with outstanding individual work!! Often called the Chicano National Anthem.

One quick footnote to the recording of my trumpet part. Fred Catero was the engineer – He was also the engineer for Santana, Janis Joplin, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, etc. – He already knew very well how to record horns – Thank God, because that really helped us. After recording my trombone solo intro line in the studio, Fred saw I wasn’t playing anything while the first verse was being recorded. So he turned my mic off. As I put the trumpet to my lips to get ready to do my part in verse two he knew my mic was off and literally dove across the room and sound board to get it on in the nick of time – thank God he got it on. I said to myself – everything is all right and proceeded to play my heart out as I followed Richard Bean’s fantastic perfect pop vocal. And the rest is history.

Nena:

I wrote all the horn lines on that too. I recorded trumpet, trombone, and flute on that song. Luis, of course, played trumpet.
All in all, I wrote about 15 parts on that first Malo album – but not enough to be a song writer of any. Such was the fate of many horn players.
On the album I play flute, trumpet, trombone and sax. Not many horn players can do that on their 1st major recording session in life. I did fantastic. But the “Malo musical-go-round” was already flying. And suddenly I’m on the outside and totally forgotten about while for 40 years everybody imitates and plays what I wrote. How did it happen??

As Chris Wong the manager said it took three horn players to replace me. A trumpet, sax and trombone. The one man or two man horn section of Malo suddenly became three because of me. They had to have all my sounds live on stage. So who were some of these horn players that took my place? The guy who literally took my place on a one to one basis was Tom Harrell. Voted by the critics of Down Beat Magazine as the greatest improvising trumpet player. Another guy quickly in was Forrest Buchtel – who has a mouthpiece named after him for hitting high notes. Hadily Caliman from Janis Joplin, and many others, on sax and various great trombone players.

Well, no wonder Arcelio and the boys never missed me. It was good riddance Murray. Those guys came in and changed the music dramatically and took the horns in a whole different direction. It was fantastic. Great stuff… but as the fame of Malo goes on for almost 40 years now, Murray’s horn lines (both the writing and playing of them) continues to be a strong contribution to that. Listen to the streamers of Pana, Suavecito and Nena – their three most popular songs – there I am over & over. I wish I could have gotten a chance to write some more horn lines for them. My radio friendly stuff and their serious jazz stuff combined… well in my opinion, it would have been one of the greatest combinations in pop music history!!

After Malo, Abel Zarate and I and Naked Lunch sax player Bob Olivera formed Banda de Jesus also with Hutch Hutchinson on bass (played with Bonne Rait for 30 years and many, many others), Roger Alves on drums (from Abel & the Prophets ..see VOLR book p.50 & 161) and Ron Freitas on Hammond B3 organ. Dave Rubinson and Fred Catero did our demo. Big time was coming up once again – But once again, it didn’t come. (See the Naked Lunch CD for a few tracks.) We didn’t gig – We never made the scene – Just continually wrote new music with a very forward sounding set up. We went in a totally different direction from Malo. Really combining pop & progressive in a new way. Though inking several deals came close, but close doesn’t count. We all splintered off into bands that were touring, regardless of what their recording potential was. I went with Andy Kandanes and the Mendocino All-Stars. I left San Francisco never knowing I was never to return.

The All-Stars gave me what I needed bad. Paying gigs for 3 ½ years. Plus fabulous on the road experiences. I loved it!! I brought Abel Zarate, Hutch Hutchison, Robert Olivera and a few others on for a couple of tours every now and then. Other members of the band were from the Sons of Champlin, Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, The Byrds, Naked Lunch, Malo, War, B.B. King, Janis Joplin, Elvin Bishop, Lenny (Monster Mash) Capizzi – The members came from all over. Even Joe Satriani himself played in it for awhile. I really enjoyed the Redwood forest of Mendocino immensely. But after one long Candian tour Andy wanted to take a break. I went back East to visit family. And this time, I never knew I was never coming back to California.
These were the days of no cell phones or e-mail and 100% living on the road as I did, no place to even get mail. I lost 100% total contact with Naked Lunch & Malo. Plus my non-ending musical career would take me in many new directions, and it is still going very strong today (but in the form of music ministry).

Thirty-five years would go by before ever seeing anyone from that San Francisco experience. Finally, I briefly visited a VOLR (the first book launch party- Jim) in 2005 and saw everyone for a few good moments and laughs & smiles. But several of us have passed on. Time marches on. I really treasured seeing everyone one more time!!

Music is all that I do. It is the only thing I will do. I am a classically trained Rock n’ Roller who now plays in church. I don’t play in bands anymore, but I perform or teach music in some way everyday.

Coke Escovedo, Victor Pantoja, Abel Zarate, Alfonso Johnson, Malo was #1, and Rick Stevens. A few lines on each:

1. Coke & Victor – How could anybody be in a band that had both Coke & Victor in it? (Malo & Azteca) And they’re replaced in Malo by Raul & Leo. Is such a thing possible? Yes, what good fortune that brought to

Malo. I will never, ever forget watching Coke & Victor record their parts on that first album.

Coke played like he knew everything about our music, but he never heard it before!!

Victor was busy playing away – got up, left… got a drink of water, returned – never missed a beat. While the tapes were rolling. These guys were like supernatural.

2) Abel Zarate – He was fiercely independent and was ravenous about the value of melody. The creation of beauty is the responsibility of an artist. Abel’s music values are all over the album. As one of the few human beings alive to hear Abel Zarate and Jorge Santana play together (and the very first horn player to put his mark on it) it was beyond anyone’s imagination as to how great it really was. With those two and Arcelio and Pablo and the rest of us, we all knew there was no end to the style and music we were creating… but it wasn’t to be.

3) Alfonso – Back in 1968 Philadelphia the Motivations were having a rehearsal. Steve Busfield walked in with a record nobody ever even heard of and said we should learn some song off it. For the next 30 minutes we all go to a different corner of the rehearsal hall and learn our parts while someone keeps playing the record over and over. But Alfonso sits on the couch doing nothing. Finally as we all near knowing our parts, the leader says – Alfonso, will you get up and go learn your part. (we called him “string bean”) Alfonso smiles, stands up, does some kinda’ south Philly strut, walks over to his bass, picks it up, and proceeds to play his part perfect – note for note on the 1st try. We all stood there speechless. Then we all smiled and laughed with him. He was grinning ear to ear. It was great!! When Carlos Santana said in the liner notes of his “Blues for Salvador” that two of the tracks are a testimony to the spontaneity of “One take Johnson”… I understood!!

4) Malo was #1… and nobody knows it. If they do – there hasn’t been much talk about it. Well, here goes.

Malo’s first album (the one I did) hit #14 on the charts and Suavecito #18 as a single – Not bad, but both would have gone much higher if it wasn’t for a snafu by Warner Bros. Would anyone ever ‘fess up to it? Here’s what happened.

Bands like Naked Lunch & Malo and a few others that were destined for Bill Graham’s Corporation all had one thing in common. At various times they all needed a place to rehearse. So Dave Rubinson and Bill gave up office space in their complex for that purpose. That’s how serious all this was. But only one person would have a key in those bands – that was me. I was trustworthy. I over heard stuff. But the one that rings in my mind, even to this day was when I was in Rubinson’s office talking to him about something. He went out to the reception area and I heard him say the following. When the President of Warner Bros. Records flew into New York and by far his most important and immediate mission was when the plane landed, he immediately marched into Warner Bros. headquarters and bellowed and gave the command to release Malo’s album NOW. Immediately – For it already had been released two weeks earlier on the west coast and was hitting the charts.

Well, what does this all mean?

If both the East Coast and West Coast had released Malo & Suavecito at the same time, both the album and single would have been much higher up the charts.
Aside from how that would have affected things then – it even affects things now. Both the album and single would have surely hit the top 10 – putting it into all those years & decades of those top ten lists of moldy oldies etc. but, instead it’s not there in all those media things. That is a lot of pizzazz lost. In my mind if both coasts would have released simultaneously it would have hit #1!!!

5) Rick Stevens and the “what if’s” and some other Gospel stuff. Aside from all the bands previously mentioned, I still got invitations to join others or to record with them. Van Morrison, Copperhead (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Several R&B groups in San Francisco, Jerry Miller (a few years after Moby Grape) etc. etc.

After the Aliens and before forming Stone Creation I very briefly played in a band called Stuff. Guess who sang in it? Rick Stevens. (If it wasn’t Stuff, then it was one with very similar circumstances and even rehearsal location that we played in together playing pick up gigs or top 40 covers in topless bars on Broadway in S.F.) I thought he was tremendous!! I tried to do some booking for Stuff, but did not succeed. Money was pressing and the group was going splinter – Rick suggested we should form a band together. After all, a trumpet and his voice worked extremely well together (“Your still a young man”) – It wasn’t long and I joined into Naked Lunch and then later Malo. He joined into Tower of Power. I think both of us found what we were looking for. A sound and a style to totally dedicate our talents too. That’s why I didn’t want to be playing in multiple bands. I wanted one band that could say it all!! But what if I hung with him a bit. Would I have auditioned for TOP or would I have invited him into Naked Lunch? If so, how different a lot of things would have been. Even after Malo when Richard Bean asked me to record with him and his group Sapo (After all, my trumpet and his voice worked extremely well together too – “Suavecito”) Again, how I wish I could have found the time – but I was too far away being on the road with the All-Stars.

I would love to write about some of the other bands i did on the East Coast as well like “Ralph – the Rock Orchestra” produced by Don Costa and many others. But that’s out of the confines and printability of this interview.

Epilogue:

So what’s important about all of this?
Musically and socially, a lot. But there’s a bigger picture. All those years of being on the road and travel did a lot for me. It was fantastic!! But I was lost! I didn’t know that until I met these people who called themselves “Christians.” They called themselves that for following Jesus Christ. I totally reject evolution or that we are products from Outer Space. We have a creator and redeemer. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. I never touched a Bible until I was 39 yrs old. Man did not write it. God wrote it through man and don’t let the translation problems confuse you, the message is clear…Christ crucified for us. Exceptions, none. Yes, all!!
And all even means Rick Stevens who is currently serving double life sentences, or anyone else. I don’t know if Rick would even remember me. But the life of Christ is not a game. God sent His only begotten son to earth to be one of us. God gave us free will – you know what happened. Christ was crucified. He held back legions of angels ready to attack – He said dying on the cross would be payment by Him for your sins if you accept this greatest gift of Love ever given. I’ve heard that Rick has accepted Christ. I only knew Rick but for a very brief moment, but I will now know him for all eternity when we all get there because this is the blood of God that washes away all sin. Our Reedemer lives; there is nothing more that I believe in!!

In closing I’d like to quote some lyrics from the closing song on MALO’s first album. “Peace”

There was a man who lived who said,
he said, love your brother and kiss your enemy.
He’s dead – they hung him, they hung him,
nailed Him to a cross, they hung him –
Peace all through the nations.

I hope some dots have been connected.
Roy Murray
Trumpet d’Amor
“Brass of Peace”

Appendix A

Naked Lunch:
Abel Zarate-lead guitar & lead vocals, Rick Tiffer and Charles Fletcher-bass, Ludwig (Fist) Stephens-C3 Hammond organ, Jose Marrero-congas, Richard Spremich-drums, Robert (Bob) Olivera-sax & background vocals, Roy Murray-trumpet.

Western Addition;
Ross-bass, Bill-guitar, Greg-drums, mike-trombone, John Celona-sax, Roy Murray-trumpet, Wendy Haas, vocals & organ.

The Loading Zone:
Paul Fauerso-organ,piano,vocal; Steve Busfield-guiter,vocal; Ron Taormina- alto & baritone sax; Patrick O’Hara- trombone, French.horn; Mike Eggleston-bass; George Marsh- drums & percussion.
Footnote: This too was quite a very interesting group because of its many styles. When I arrived in S.F. (1969) Steve took me with him to my very first S.F. gig – The Loading Zone. They made the 3000-mile drive worth it!! Linda Tillery (Sweet Linda Devine) had already left the group to go on her own. Later on I got to play with her for just one night. Pretty sweet!! But what’s also interesting here for those who wish to be thorough is that for the above personnel for the album “one for all” on Umbrella Records their engineer was a little known Columbia Records staff person named Brent Dangerfield who got just a matter of fact working assignment – Santana’s first album! (Wow!) Later in life when I was with the All-Stars we’d play a club called The Orphanage (a pretty happening place) – but we’d crash at Brent’s apartment as he was working with us on our sound. It was pretty extreme fun in sound engineering adventures.

Premier of Azteca:
Friday, June 16th – Kabuki Theater (S.F.) – also appearing: Gabor Szabo

Timbales- Coke Escovedo, Drums- Michael Shrieve, Congas- Victor Pantoja, Bongos- Armando Perraza, Guitars- Steve Busfield & Neal Schon, Bass- Paul Jackson, Horns- Mel Martin, Tom Harrell, Bob Ferreira, & Jules Rowell, Keyboards-George Diquattro, Flip Nunez & George Muribus, Vocals- Rico Reyes, Pete Escovedo, Wendy Haas & Errol Knowles.

A majorly big thanks to Roy Murray for answering questions on all the above, it is really good to get the experiences and views of people who did not make the VOICES book for a variety of reasons, be it time, unavailability, deadlines etc.

Thanks again Roy- your input is greatly valued amigo!
Jim McCarthy
August 2009

Tags: Alfonso Johnson, Aliens, Azteca, Carlos Santana, Coke Escovedo, David Rubinson, Fred Catero. Bill Graham, Jorge Santana, Linda Tillery, Loading Zone, Malibus, Malo, Mike Shrieve, Naked Lunch, Neal Schon, Rick Stevens, Santana, Steve Busfield, Tower Of Power, Western Addition

This is the show which taped in LA last November.
Check your local PBS schedule:

“Latin Music Legends,” a musical variety show hosted by and starring Palm Springs resident Trini Lopez, will air as a national public television pledge break special in August, its locally-based produced have announced.

It will debut Aug. 14 on KVCR, broadcast to 5.5 million households in Southern California, and then air on PBS stations across the nation.

The show, taped at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, is produced by local executive producers Dan Bohlmann, Robert Alexander of the Motion Picture Hall of Fame group and Mitchell Sussman of Raven Productions.

Besides Lopez, it will feature Julio Iglesias, original Santana lead singer Gregg Rolie, El Chicano, Tierra, Thee Midniters with Little Willie G, and Palm Springs resident Mark Guerrero, who performs a tribute to his late father, Lalo Guerrero.

Alexander said “Latin Music Legends” will air nationally on for 11 months and then “be taken to retail outlets and syndicated internationally.”

The show will air at 9 p.m.

Tags: El Chicano. East Los Angeles, Gregg Rolie, Julio Iglesias, Lalo Guerrero, Latin Music Legends, Latin Rock, Mark Guerrero, PBS, Santana, Thee Midniters, Tierra, Trini Lopez, Voices of Latin Rock, Willie G

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

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

David Rubien
San Francisco Chronicle
E-mail David Rubien
Original article here
Sunday, January 18, 2009

Sometimes the good things in life don’t last long enough. Azteca, a big band spawned in 1972 by members of Santana and filled with the best rock, jazz and Latin jazz musicians in the Bay Area, lasted less than two years but set a “brown sound” watermark that’s rarely been topped.

Pete Escovedo, who has resurrected his 1970s Latin jazz b…Coke Escovedo (left), Tito Puente (center) and Pete Escov…The Latin jazz band Azteca in 1973. View More Images

“I really think we could have made a lot more music,” says Pete Escovedo, the Latin percussion master who formed Azteca with his brother, Coke. “Listening to the stuff we recorded, it still sounds great. It still holds up all these years.”

A crowd will get a chance to see if Azteca still can deliver the goods when Escovedo revives it Saturday at the Warfield Theatre to play a Voices of Latin Rock benefit for Autism Awareness, part of a bill that includes War, Los Cenzontles and the Voices of Latin Rock Revue.

After flying up to San Francisco recently from Los Angeles, where he’s lived for nine years, Escovedo, 73, is talking with The Chronicle about growing up in West Oakland, playing in Santana, forming Azteca and other subjects. Dressed in a gray sports jacket and matching tie, with his gray hair slicked back, he looks a bit like a Mafioso. But there’s nothing menacing about the man, unless you’re intimidated by the idea that he can play the fastest timbales in the West – and you should be.

Actually, Escovedo’s daughter, Sheila E., may play the fastest timbales in the West, but the audience Saturday won’t get to experience that because she’ll be anchoring Azteca behind the trap drum kit. Anyone who knows her work with Prince in the ’80s will vouch for her genius as a drummer.

Escovedo was born in Pittsburg and moved to Oakland when he was 4. His father, Pedro Escovedo, an immigrant from Saltillo, Mexico, was a pipe-fitter at Oakland’s Army base during World War II.

“My dad was a wannabe singer,” Escovedo says. “He would throw us all in the car and drive down to one of the ballrooms in Oakland – there was Sweet’s, the Ali Baba, the Sands – because a lot of the concerts were on Sunday afternoons. My mom made him take us so we’d be sure he’d come home. My dad was a rolling stone.

“We’d just sit in the car listening to this great music coming out of the ballroom. The Dorsey brothers, Basie, Latin bands like Machito, Perez Prado. We grew up listening to all this stuff.”

Dad’s first marriage produced seven kids, including Pete and Coke (born Joseph Thomas Escovedo), and his second yielded six more, including Alejandro, a pioneer of West Coast punk and alt-country. Many of Escovedo’s siblings are professional musicians.

As a student at McClymonds High School, Escovedo played saxophone, but he moved to percussion when an older friend from New York played him records by greats such as Tito Puente and Chico O’Farrill.

“Man, I just fell in love with that music,” he says. “It was great to play jazz and have Latin rhythms with it.”

When Escovedo was 18, he and Coke met Puente.

“He was playing at a club called the Macumba on Grant Avenue, upstairs in Chinatown. We went there every night. We became great friends with Tito. … We were lucky because we got a chance to meet a lot of the great Cuban drummers at that time: Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo. We’d go to the Blackhawk and see Armando Peraza, Cal Tjader, all the great players. We made friends with all of them and hung out together.”

In the late ’50s, Escovedo put together the Escovedo Brothers Sextet, with Coke on timbales and another brother, Phil, on bass. The group burned through practically every club in Northern California for years.

“We were playing in this place where the Broadway Tunnel is,” Escovedo says, unable to recall the name. “That’s when Carlos (Santana) and Chepitó (José Chepitó Areas) came in. They were listening to us play, then said, ‘Man, we’re rehearsing in this garage on Mission Street. Come on over after you guys get off.’ They would rehearse 24 hours a day. So we went, and that was the original Santana band. We started hanging out with them and playing all night. Who knew these guys were going to become famous and make so much money?”

First Coke was hired on timbales as a replacement for Chepitó, then Pete Escovedo joined on congas.

“We had a chance to travel the world,” Escovedo says. “What was really cool for me was we were playing for a lot of white people. There we were, doing our thing, and it was amazing because I think a lot of the people were hypnotized by the sound of the Latin percussion. A lot of people had never heard that stuff before, and Carlos was able to break that barrier.”

But Santana kept shuffling personnel, leading to discontent in the band. It was Coke, Escovedo says, who decided to start a new group, and Azteca was born. With top rhythm players such as Paul Jackson on bass and Lenny White on drums and a large roster of horns and percussion, the group sounded something like a combination of Santana, Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power and the Tito Puente Orchestra.

“It was Coke’s vision,” Escovedo says. “Azteca was a mixture of a lot of different styles of music. All the Latin rhythms were very strong and prominent. At the same time, a lot of the guys came from a jazz background, so we incorporated a lot of jazz harmonies and jazz melodies. At the same time, because we were in the Latin rock era, we incorporated that and a little R&B.”

The groups recorded two magnificent albums for Columbia, “Azteca” and “Pyramid of the Moon,” and toured with the Temptations and Stevie Wonder. Columbia dropped the group after Clive Davis – who had signed Azteca – was ousted in a payola scandal. Mainly, though, it was the size of the group that did it in – 16 players at minimum, often augmented by many more.

“It was crazy,” Escovedo says. “There were times when we left a gig with no money and had to sneak out of the hotel at night. … We started having internal problems in the band because we weren’t making any money. Our bank account ran out, and a lot of guys began to jump ship. The ship was slowly sinking.”

The death knell came when Coke left the group for a solo career. He released three albums for Mercury, then was in high demand as a percussionist for artists such as Wonder and Herbie Hancock.

Coke died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1986.

“He passed away in L.A.,” Escovedo says. “We were in that era of doing some crazy things. Some of us were smart enough to get out of it, and some of us were not. And he was one of the ones who could not get out of it. And it eventually was his downfall. … It was too bad. He was a great musician.”

Compounding the anguish, Coke died on July 13, Escovedo’s birthday.

“It was a tough thing to get over,” he says. “Every time my birthday would come up, it’s kind of like, ‘Do I celebrate, or do I feel bad?’ ”

Escovedo’s career as a bandleader and percussionist – for artists ranging from Woody Herman to Hancock to Stephen Stills to Barry White to Puente – has been nothing but successful. Less so have been his ventures into owning nightclubs.

The resurrection of Azteca began in the summer of 2007, when filmmaker Daniel Meza approached Escovedo and other original members about getting back together and recording a DVD. The group performed at Hollywood’s Key Club on Sept. 15, 2007, featuring surviving members Lenny White, Jackson, Victor Pantoja on congas, Wendy Haas and Errol Knowles on vocals, Bill Courtial on guitar, Jules Rowell on trombone and Escovedo.

The DVD, “La Piedra del Sol” (“Stone of the Sun”), will be available from Internet vendors beginning Tuesday.

For Saturday’s show, the personnel is the same, except Sheila E. is on drums and Curtis Olson replaces Jackson on bass – and there’ll be plenty of guest horn players and percussionists on hand.

A new era for Azteca?

“It remains to the seen,” Escovedo says. “You never know what situations the good Lord puts us in. … I look at all these things as a blessing. We’ll see what happens.”

VOICES OF LATIN ROCK: Azteca, War, Los Cenzontles, Voices of Latin Rock Revue. 7 p.m. Sat. Warfield Theatre, 982 Market St., San Francisco. Tickets $45-$75. Call (415) 421-8497 or go to www.ticketmaster.com.

E-mail David Rubien drubien@sfchronicle.com.

Tags: Azteca, Pete Escovedo, Santana, Sheila E, The Warfield Theater

Directly from the Mission District in San Francisco, the explosive fusion of Latin, salsa and rock is chronicled from a writer who has followed the music and the musicians for over 30 years. The book covers the stories of prominent Latin rock bands including Santana and Malo, examining in detail the pioneering records and the ways in which both reflect a wide spectrum of Latin influences. It highlights the cast of characters and emerging period in the US during the late ’60s, with all the cultural background events including the Summer of Love, Woodstock, political activism, and the record label expansion. Legendary figures such as Bill Graham, Clive Davis and the Escovedos family play crucial roles in the development of this sound. As Latin music continues to become more mainstream, the interest in its musical roots grows. This book sheds light on these musical pioneers, and is gorgeously illustrated with over 800 BandW photos by Jim Marshall, Rudy Rodgriguez, Joan Chase and others, plus artwork of dozens of rare album covers.
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More details
Voices of Latin Rock: People and Events that Created this Sound
By Jim McCarthy, Ron Sansoe
Contributor Ron Sansoe
Published by Hal Leonard Corporation, 2004
ISBN 063408061X

Tags: Carlos Santana, Jim McCarthy, Mission District, Ronnie Sansoe, Santana