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Posted by Xaman
on August 4, 2009, 9:27 pm
76.89.192.154
Santana live in Moscow, Russia in the mid eighties. Only Bill Graham could have pulled this off. I always felt that this was a peaking era for Santana. The "gorilla" percussion section of Armando Peraza, Raul Rekow, Orestes Vilato and Graham Lear. Chester Thompson was relatively new to the band. Tom Coster or Sterling played the second keyboard and synth bank. Alphonso Johnson was also relatively new. Carlos played his heart out. Although many questioned why Orestes had been added to the line up, his timbal playing style being more "tipico," less rock'n roll, check out his solo. He didn't invent "abanicos" but his "machine gun" speed "rehiletes" were a sensation among the New York Afro Cuban music scene musicians when he played with Ray Barreto in he sixties. This era's line up played my all time favorite version of "Gypsy Queen." I think that Black Magic Woman's key was too low to show Alex's best vocal skills. I enjoyed Graham Lear's drum patterns, many timess he played the toms like congas, and the snare like a timbal.
I am looking for the official Polydor records release of "Right On" from Milagro. I know that there is the Jay Leno live appearance floating around. But I remember seeing the official version on MTV or VH1, it has footage from the Tijuana concert in the late eighties.
Footnote: As Armando Peraza once stated, Tito Puente, Coke Escovedo, and Jose "Chepito" Areas were successful with their timbal playing styles, because they added lots of trap drums' nuances to their timbal playing. Orestes Vilato stayed "tipico" all the way. Puro cubano.
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