Santana Rampage!

page · #1 03-09-2005, 05:10 PM

Ive been listening to mainly Santana for the last few days. I bought Caravansei , Moonflower, Santana 1 & 3 and live in Mexico. Santana Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any other fans???

Viva La Santana!!!!!!

JimK · #2 03-10-2005, 04:21 AM

I'm a big fan of early Santana. A part of me believes they may very well be "the Best American Rock band".
Abraxas was one of my 1st 3 'real' albums.
Over Xmas, I read a book called History Of Latin-Rock(I think that's the name)...anyway, many pages devoted to Santana; as a result, I went back & re-visited most of those early albums & even picked up 2 more that I didn't have, Welcome & Amigos. Welcome is definitely the better of the two; Amigos has only 2-3 tunes I like(IIRC, it is Dave Brown is playing on those).

From the book, I didn't realize how big a role the very young Neal Schon played. He takes some wild solos on Santana 3. I'm actually thinking about picking up the 1st Journey album!

(I did pick up Michael Shrieve's Automatic Man's debut disc; it's "OK").

The early band was onto something...infusing Rock, Latin, & Funk while stretching out.
The 3 percussionists also made them different than most of their Rock-Pop contemporaries.

Carvansarai & Moonflower go off in different direction; the electric Miles/Bitches Brew influence on Santana is definitely there...if you like those, pick up Lotus next.
Dougie Rauch is also a decent bassist(the above book cites him as a pioneer of the Slap/Pop style).

Dennis Kong · #3 03-10-2005, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimK

I'm a big fan of early Santana. A part of me believes they may very well be "the Best American Rock band".
also made them different than most of their Rock-Pop contemporaries.

[i
Dougie Rauch is also a decent bassist(the above book cites him as a pioneer of the Slap/Pop style).

Nice to know someone likes Dougie!! He used to teach in the
Bay Area and I heard some of stuff he taught. It was the S+++ at that time before Jaco & Stanley. Unforunately I did not know how to get in touch with him to study with him in the late 70's.
Sadly also his style was overshadowed by Jaco, Stanley & Rocco. He was one of the 1st to use a nice 16th note grooves before what it is now. (Along with some of his slapping stuff. Don't know how much of that his style of
slapping was actually recorded.)

I did manage to study with Tom Rutley( DB on Carvaresei) for DB for a while. However he never mentioned Dougie to me at all. He did mention to me (70's), Carlos was searching for new sound & kept on changing things in the studio.

Besides what Jim suggested, I recommend Barboletta with
Stanley, Airto & Flora.

There was a big tribute to the book about 2 months ago at
Bimbo's club here. Lot of the latin rockers except Carlos played a set. And were also interviewed on KCSM 91.1
by Chuyie about their recollections about '60s. ( 2 hour special.)

page · #4 03-11-2005, 10:27 PM

Thanks guys, I will defintely check out your suggestions.

Also, to Jim, Journeys first three albums ( before steve perry) are great fusion-rock albums . Try to find some live material of the early Journey, they are very good live. Schon is a Master of improvising.

JimK · #5 03-12-2005, 04:27 PM

I guess it's the 3 of us, huh?

Page-
I do recall hearing early Journey & liking them; they emerged at a time when I was a Jazz 'noob'(i.e. "Nazi"). Back then, I was busy buying Jazz records only...as a result, I did cheat myself out of some decent Rock music.

The book I was talking about is called Voices Of Latin Rock by Jim McCarthy. A decent read, IMO, & plenty of cool photos...I think that's what sold me as I thumbed thru it at my B&N.

nottswarwick · #6 03-12-2005, 04:35 PM

Guys- I love Santana. We play loads of his stuff in our sets. My Latin guitar duo see here plays a few as a duo, and the full band does more stuff.

I really like the early stuff, but also like the Supernatural album alot.

Sacred fire is a great Live CD and DVD too.

BIg O · #7 03-12-2005, 04:57 PM

Carlos rules, and the band was, although popular, very underrated musically. Greg Rollie and Mike Shrieve were both great, IMO.

We do their classics as "latin blues" in my blues band, "Under Arrest".

page · #8 03-12-2005, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimK

I guess it's the 3 of us, huh?

Page-
I do recall hearing early Journey & liking them; they emerged at a time when I was a Jazz 'noob'(i.e. "Nazi"). Back then, I was busy buying Jazz records only...as a result, I did cheat myself out of some decent Rock music.

The book I was talking about is called Voices Of Latin Rock by Jim McCarthy. A decent read, IMO, & plenty of cool photos...I think that's what sold me as I thumbed thru it at my B&N.

Cool, I ll have to check that book out. I only know a few Latin rock bands................Santana, Blues Image( who Im not even sure if they are good or not) and Los Lonely Boys.

Any you suggest??

JimK · #9 03-13-2005, 10:23 AM

I never really thought of Blues Image as a Latin-Rock band...at least not in the same sense as Santana.

Similar to 70's era Santana is Malo(Jorge Santana was one of their guitarists).
Also, a must-hear is Mandrill(east Coast Latin-Funk-Rock-Soul band).
In their prime, Santana OPENED for them!

How 'bout some advice-
I'm looking into these as possible pick-ups...
Gregg Rolie's Roots
Soul To Soul DVD/cd set...this a concert film from the '70s; Santana is on this, though, I'm not sure how much or what the band's personnel might be.
I was also looking for Abraxas Pool...this band put out one cd in '97.
It is same band found on Santana III minus David Brown & Carlos(Alphonso Johnson is on bass). I remember holding this disc in my hands back when it was issued...I'm pretty sure I played it in the store & seem to recall that it didn't float my boat. Now it's OOP!

nysbob · #10 03-13-2005, 07:43 PM

Another Doug Rauch fan here. I saw him on the Caravanserai tour...what a smokin' show!

page · #11 03-14-2005, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimK

I never really thought of Blues Image as a Latin-Rock band...at least not in the same sense as Santana.

Similar to 70's era Santana is Malo(Jorge Santana was one of their guitarists).
Also, a must-hear is Mandrill(east Coast Latin-Funk-Rock-Soul band).
In their prime, Santana OPENED for them!

Mandrill is very interesting indeed, cool thing they got goin on.

I named Blues Image cause I knew they were latino, I didnt know whether they used any latin elements in their music.

Rick Rice · #12 03-20-2005, 05:28 PM

Benny Rietveld's work on Smooth is one of my faves. Its a real fun song to play too ,where the bass line seems to get better and better as the song goes along .

JimK · #13 03-21-2005, 04:24 AM

I picked up the Soul To Soul DVD just to SEE '70s era Santana come alive again.
It's not too bad(wish the whole set could be found somewhere)...if you like what you saw on the Woodstock film, you will like this footage.
Dave Brown had been busy modifying his bass.

page · #14 03-21-2005, 07:50 AM

Curious, has Carlos always been using PRS guitars??? I think his guitar has alot to do with his sig sound.

SirPoonga · #15 03-21-2005, 08:22 AM

I have the supernatural dvd. that's a really good show.

mike sancho · #16 03-21-2005, 08:26 AM

I've been a Sanatana fan going back to the Filmore East days. Great stuff and fresh for the times. The first three albums are must haves if you're into any kind of Latin rock. Doug Rausch was way more than a decent bassist. He could play with the best of them back then. Latin rock, Jazzrock, whatever, he was killer. Left us way too soon, RIP Doug.

JimK · #17 03-21-2005, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by page

Curious, has Carlos always been using PRS guitars??? I think his guitar has alot to do with his sig sound.

C'mon, they didn't have PRS guitars in the '60/'70s.
Woodstock, he's playing a red SG.
Soul To Soul, he's playing a sunburst Les Paul.
Nevertheless, Santana has a very dinstictive voice/sound...I don't think it matters what kinda axe he uses.

Not sure if I have ever seen him with a Fender.

page · #18 03-21-2005, 10:07 AM

Oh, sorry, I didnt know when PRS came out.

**baba** · #19 03-21-2005, 11:49 AM

I grew up on my dad's Santana records in the 70s. I love the sound. Always a fan but I haven't listened to it much in the past 20 years....aside from that Rob Thomas stuff that was crammed into my ear by the radio for 2 years straight.

P. Aaron · #20 03-21-2005, 12:19 PM

Santana's Woodstock performance is terrific.

I always liked them prior to their huge commercial splash in the early 80's where they got rather formulaic.

The first version of Journey was of that "Prog-Rock" style that I dig. I remember seeing a later Journey interview on some TV show where they said they made "personnel changes" to "reach more people".