Voices of Latin rock

Latin Beat Magazine, Feb, 2005 by Jesse Varela

THE WEST COAST'S LATIN BOOGALOO.

If you lived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and your ears and mind were open to it, you experienced a golden age of music. It was a renaissance fueled by the hippies that spawned psychedelic rock bands like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Santana.

Old vaudeville theaters like the Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore Auditorium became musical incubators, as scenes once divided by racial barriers came together. For Chicanos and other Latinos it was the Santana band that pulled us into the hippie thing and gave us a new sense of looking at our culture and ourselves.

It was rock impresario Bill Graham who introduced Santana to San Francisco, and eventually the world. Having lived in New York City when the mambo was the rage, he loved Latin music and related to what Carlos and his friends were doing. As a result, Graham's Fillmore Auditorium became the launching pad for Santana's unique fusion of blues-based rock and African-derived rhythms.

Uninhibited and tribal, the original Santana Blues Band played long songs with Carlos' blues-tinged guitar surfing over West African 6/8 time and Spanish Harlem boogaloo beats. The combination of Gregg Rolie (organ, piano), David Brown (bass), José "Chepito" Areas (timbal, trumpet), Mike Carabello (congas) and Michael Shrieve (drums) was perfect.

In 1969, Santana's band catapulted to national fame at Woodstock. Signed to Columbia Records by Clive Davis, the group scored hit singles with Jingo and Evil Ways. Their first three albums ruled as Carlos Santana became La Raza's first guitar god.

Record companies descended on the Bay Area, ready to sign anyone with a guitar and a conga drum. As a result, worldwide attention descended on the Bay Area's barrio musical scene, which included bands Soul Sauce, Righteous Ones, the Malibus, the Ghetto, Kabala, Race, Dakila, Mabuhay, Limbo, Unidad 7, Los Aliens, Zomo, and Grito, among others.

Major bands like Malo, Azteca and Sapo received national exposure with songs like Suavecito, Peace Everybody and I Can't Make It. It was a glorious time when The Fillmore and Winterland were palaces for a diverse musical array that included Latin rock.

VOCES--VOICES

For the first time, there is a book "Voices of Latin Rock" (Hal Leonard Publishing), that explores the historical impact of the Bay Area's Latin rock scene. Written by British author Jim McCarthy with the assistance of San Francisco author Ron Sansoe, "Voices" digs into the sweet-and-sour shangri-la of the abovementioned musical scene.

Full of rare photographs and interviews with the people who made the music, the book was released on November 18 at an invitation-only gala conducted at Bimbo's 365 Club in SE

It was a night to remember that began with the Brazilian dance school Samba Do Coracão, which created a joyous atmosphere that permeated all night. The group, directed by Mary Dollar and Fernando de Sanjines, charged up the crowd with its samba beats and traditional dances.

A drum circle followed, organized by Carol Steele and John Santos. It included Michael Carabello, Karl Perazzo, Rafael Ramírez, Tony Menejavar and Adrián Areas (the son of Chepito Areas). They acknowledged the contributions made by the drum circles of the 1970s, when congueros and other percussionists jammed at Aquatic and Dolores Park in San Francisco.

McCarthy and Sansoe got up and thanked the capacity crowd for being there. McCarthy was in Latin rock heaven, having been initiated into the music as a teen art student in London. "If God invented any better music than this," he said, "he kept it for himself."

The Voices of Latin Rock All Stars came on next for an amazing revue. Anchoring the group were members of the new-millennium version of Malo, with the addition of veteran trumpeter Toro Poole (an original member of Malo) and drummer Greg Ericco (from Sly & The Family Stone).

After a couple of tunes, Lydia Pense (of Cold Blood) joined the all-star group for two of her hits from the 1970s--You Got Me Hummin' and Down To the Bone. Unfortunately, during the hippie days, Pense was overshadowed by Janis Joplin, but she can sing a song. With a grittier yet still strong and clear voice, she wowed the crowd with her talent.

Then it was Malo time, as Jorge Santana came up to play guitar on Nena, Suavecito and Café. Richard Bean, who wrote and sang the original Suavecito, did the ultimate Latin rock love song, true to the original. In the book, Bean gets long overdue credit for his contributions to the SF Bay Latin rock scene with his groups The Dynamics (with a young Carlos Santana on guitar), The Righteous Ones and Sapo.

Abel Sánchez, who recorded for Fantasy Records back in the day, closed out the set with César's Song, a special piece he recently co-wrote with Jorge Santana as a tribute to farm labor leader César Chavez. It was a hand-clapping, gospel tune with a unifying message interpreted by Sánchez.

LONG LIVE THE SANTANA BAND!