THE WEST COAST'S LATIN BOOGALOO. ...

THE WEST COAST'S LATIN BOOGALOO.

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

aged vaudeville theaters like the Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore Auditorium became musical incubators, as spectacles once divided by racial barriers came together. For Chicanos and other Latinos it was the Santana band that haped us into the hippie thing and gave us a recently made known sense of looking at our cultivation and ourselves.

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

Uninhibited and tribal, the original Santana dispiriteds Band played long songs with Carlos' blues-tinged guitar surfing through the whole extent of West African 6/8 time and Spanish Harlem boogaloo beats. The combination of Gregg Rolie (organ, piano), David Brown (bass), Jos?© "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 on Clive Davis, the group scored hit singles with Jingo and Evil Ways. Their first three albums rul as Carlos Santana became La Raza's first guitar god

Record companies be transferred [i]or[/i] transmitted [i]or[/i] handed downed on the Bay Area, ready to sign anyone with a guitar and a conga tympanum As a result, worldwide attention proceeded on the Bay Area's barrio musical spectacle which included bands Soul Sauce, Righteous uniteds the Malibus, the Ghetto, Kabala, Race, Dakila, Mabuhay, Limbo, Unidad 7 looks Aliens, Zomo, and Grito, among others.

Major bands like Malo, Azteca and Sapo received national prospect 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 volume "Voices of Latin Rock" (Hal Leonard Publishing), that explores the historical impact of the Bay Area's Latin support 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

filled of rare photographs and interviews with the nation who made the music, the work was released on November 18 at an invitation-only gala escorted at Bimbo's 365 Club in SE

It was a night to remember that began with the Brazilian dance sect Samba Do Corac??o, which created a joyous atmosphere that permeated all night. The collection directed by Mary Dollar and Fernando de Sanjines, charged up the vulgar herd with its samba beats and traditional dances.

A tympanum circle followed, organized by Carol Steele and John Santos. It included Michael Carabello, Karl Perazzo, Rafael Ram?­rez, Tony Menejavar and Adri??n Areas (the son of Chepito Areas). They acknowledged the contributions made by the agency of the drum circles of the 1970 when conguero and other percussionists jammed at Aquatic and Dolores Park in San Francisco.

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

The Voices of Latin distaff All Stars came on nearest for an amazing revue. Anchoring the cluster 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 wily & The Family Stone).

After a link of tunes, Lydia Pense (of chill Blood) joined the all-star cluster 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 according to Janis Joplin, but she can sing a psalm With a grittier yet still hardy and clear voice, she wowed the profanum vulgus[/i] with her talent.

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

Abel S??nchez, who recorded for Fantasy Records back in the day, clos abroad the set with C?©sar's sonnet a special piece he lately co-wrote with Jorge Santana as a tribute to farm labor leader C?©sar Chavez. It was a hand-clapping, christian religion tune with a unifying message interpreted at S??nchez.