Another Bay area event....Santana reunion

Rocky Road

From Classic Rock to Progessive to hip hop to today's hot new tunes!

S.F.'s Latin rockers party down to their roots at Bimbo's reunion
- Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Saturday, January 13, 2007

Jose "Chepito" Areas finished thumping the timbales and signaled for his bandmates to be quiet. He leaned down to the drum microphone and, as he has so many times before, grunted the intro to "Oye Como Va" as Gregg Rolie hit the opening chords on organ. Guitarist Carlos Santana was all smiles.
The sentimental reunion of the greatest Latin rock band of them all capped the third annual Voices of Latin Rock celebration Thursday at Bimbo's, a sold-out charity fundraiser that was never publicized or advertised. The five surviving members of the band that stole the show at Woodstock had not played together onstage since a 20th anniversary reunion concert 20 years ago at Shoreline and may not play together for another 20 years.
"I'm not sure I would want to hear a recording of that, but it sure was fun," said Rolie, as he came offstage smiling and sweating.
The original Santana band spearheaded the incandescent Latin rock movement, which flourished, however briefly, in the band's spectacular wake in San Francisco more than 35 years ago. When Santana released the band's third album in 1971, the group was selling a phenomenal 100,000 albums a week, giving rise to dozens of other groups that married Afro-Cuban traditions to the new electric rock sound of the day. It was a moment soon forgotten by everybody but the people who were there.
But at Bimbo's, the crowd was there to remember the day, a Latino pride moment and insiders' night out, rolled into one. There were people in the audience such as Sal Valentino, the lead vocalist of San Francisco's first hit rock group, the Beau Brummels, and a second-generation North Beach native, and silver-haired Don Wehr, who used to sell Latin rockers their equipment a couple of blocks up Columbus Avenue at Music City. Guitarist Neal Schon spent the entire night hanging around, watching the show from the corner of the room, to play one number with Rolie, his bandmate from both Santana and Journey.

Rest of this here (Open in New Window)

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Parts Connexion

Topic - Another Bay area event....Santana reunion - LWR 08:52:41 01/13/07 (0)

You can not post to an archived thread.