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What happened to David Margen???

bikeplate

bikeplate

Supporting Member
Jun 7, 2001
11,883
8,066
Upstate NY
#1
HI

Hey people. When I was a youngster I was drawn to the Santana albums of the late '70s and early 80's. My first concert was Santana at SPAC in Saratoga, NY. The bassist was David Margen. He played on the studio half of Moonflower, Inner Secrets, Zebop, and Marathon and one of Carlos' solo records. He was off the charts melodic, amazing staccato, awesome slapper, etc.

After that show, I got a ride to a music store in Albany, NY and bought my first bass. Thats how impressed I was. I'll never forget it.

After he left, what happened to him? I've googled, etc. and nothing. Is he still gigging, healthy, alive? I'm clueless

Chime in if you have info

Rob
 
#11
HI

LOL. Just talking about him yesterday morning at my gig. Santana was playing between services and someone asked my who it was. I went on to tell them that Santana was my first concert as a 16 year old. I saw David on bass that night and my eyes and ears were glued to him. I took my summer job money and bought a bass that week. What a talent

Rob
 
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#13
ajn said:
I actually ran into him just last week. He was at a local tech's shop picking up the very same P-bass that he played on the video linked a couple of posts back. (Nice bass...it's a 60 of 61, and now a bit more faded and worn than in the video.) So he's still around....and like all of us, a bit older!
Click to expand...


Cool, it would have been nice to get a picture taken with him and his old p-bass....:D
 
#15
Well, lots of chat but nobody has answered the question: what happened to David Margen?

I was one year older, played bass with the same crew for awhile, until David left me in his wake ... later filled in for me in a band I left, etc.

Respect.

To give credit where credit is due, David learned a lot of the funky stuff from a very great bassist John Knight (long deceased) who played a lot with Tim Kaihatsu, etc. at La Val's Pizza (on Euclid) in Berkeley, CA; Larry Blake's (on Telegraph), etc.

The last time I saw David was at a High School reunion, 10 years or so ago. I guess he slowed down a bit, as all of us do, eventually all of us, come to a dead stop. Nothing to be ashamed of.
 
#16
I saw him live with Santana in the late 70's. He was playing that same P-bass. He was a good player alright. 1980, I remember working on that bass solo of his from the Marathon album. I was on the road and practicing up in my hotel room after finishing a gig. I thought I had my practice amp on low enough not to bother anyone, but somebody in the next room started banging on the wall. It was about 3am, so I don't them. I stopped.


I haven't heard anything further about him since the early 80's, or whenever he left Santana.
 
#17
David is alive and well and living somewhere in the Bay Area (California). The reason I know is that I had an Epifani cab advertised for sale here locally and David showed up to check it out! I talked to him for a while about how he got hooked up with Santana, etc. He said he was in real estate now. Cool guy, but he didn't buy my cab.
 
#19
Berkeley real estate investor pleads guilty to conspiracy charges

By True Shields | Staff
Last Updated July 6, 2011
Comment

Following a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice, the department announced that eight Northern California real estate investors — including one from Berkeley — agreed to enter guilty pleas for their alleged involvement in conspiracies to rig bids at foreclosure auctions and commit mail fraud.

Charges were filed against eight men — David Margen of Berkeley, Thomas Franciose of San Francisco, William Freeborn of Alamo, Robert Kramer of Oakland, Thomas Legault of Clayton, Brian McKinzie of Hayward, Jaime Wong of Dublin and Jorge Wong of San Leandro — in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California in Oakland on June 30.
 
#20
He used to come up to the Berkeley Rose Garden and hit tennis balls against the wall. Not very accomplished, but a great bass player! He has two brothers, who are twins. His brother Paul used to do great work on electronics, until it became too hard to get parts and so many things became disposable. Bummer about David's legal problems. Yikes!
 

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