I love music memorabilia. I collect tour programs, music pins, posters, signed CD and album covers.
One of my favorite pieces in my collection is the first Santana album signed by the original band members, Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, and Michael Shrieve.
I am hoping to get Michael Carabello and Jose “Chepito” Areas to sign this album cover someday.
Michael Carabello has shown up to play unannounced twice at live concerts I have attended. I saw him play with The Steve Miller Band and with Santana in Connecticut. I just didn’t have this album with me those evenings.
It’s been an exciting month plus for the original members of Santana and longtime Santana fans.
Texas – March 19
The Santana IV Reunion “Live” commences in stages. Gregg Rolie joins Santana in Corpus Christie, Texas on March 19th. It serves as a dress rehearsal for the Santana Mexico concerts to follow.
Photo Copyright Libby Fabro
Mexico – March
Santana reunion efforts began to further gel when Gregg goes on to perform with Carlos and the Band in Monterrey, MX, Cumbre Tajin Festival and at two special co-headline events with Journey in Guadalajara and Mexico City.
Videos of Gregg Rolie sitting in with Santana performing “Black Magic Woman” begin to surface on YouTube.
Things really get exciting when the original Santana nucleus expands when Journey and Santana co-headline. We see Neal Schon playing guitar with Carlos Santana set against the rhythmic backdrop of the Santana band.
Neal Schon has been the motivator pushing for the Santana reunion. I am thankful that he has been instrumental in driving Santana IV to that goal.
Neal, Gregg and Carlos Santana do the dynamic tracks from Santana III, “Batuka/No One To Depend On”, “Everybody’s Everything”. How cool is that?
Copyright Chad Tasky
The stage is set for completing the Santana IV recording in Las Vegas the next month. Can you say supercharged? I knew that you could 😉
Photo Copyright Libby Fabro
Las Vegas – April 2015
The Santana IV Reunion scene shifts to Las Vegas, Nevada. The composition and recording of the final three tracks for the Santana IV recording enters high gear. The Santana IV recording team and studio musicians assemble at Odds On Records and Studios (Audio Mix House) in Henderson, Nevada. Michael Shrieve and Michael Carabello join Neal, Gregg and Carlos to put down the last tracks for Santana IV. They are joined by Benny Rietveld on bass and Karl Perazzo on percussion. Jim Reitzel, Head Engineer at Tarpan Studios mans the boards, coordinating the sounds Santana IV seeks to make. Jim has worked actively with Santana over the years. He becomes the glue to bond Santana IV together. I wonder if he will also be chiefly responsible for the mixing that follows next?
Photo courtesy of Benny Rietveld via Facebook
Copyright Chad Tasky
Neal Schon has been vocal about Santana IV touring live at some point in the future. Can wait to see Santana IV live!
I wonder what record label Santana IV will be released and distributed by. Who has the rights? SONY, Arista, or Starfish?
My hat is off to Santana IV!
Copyright Chad Tasky
Good things come to those who wait!
Special Mention
We are fortunate to have the camera team of Libby Fabro and Chad Tasky documenting the events. I think Libby Fabro is a photographer for Team Santana. Chad Tasky is a San Francisco based photographer and filmmaker. Chad was a drum tech for Santana for a time. Props to both photographers for being our inside image sources for Santana IV. Your respective photos are superb.
We have seen Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band three times live at Mohegan Sun Casino Arena. It’s always a fun evening as the All Starrs’ perform their hits with Ringo Starr as the centerpiece artist.
Here is the promotional tour video for this year’s North America events. The Connecticut stop is the Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford on June 14, 2014.
Christmas is a special time when we receive blessings from the angels that are all around us. A beautiful reunion story of brotherhood, compassion and support comes to us from Oakland, California.
Thanks to the efforts of San Francisco news reporter Stanley Roberts, who came across Marcus Malone earlier this month while reporting on illegal dumpsites for his segment ‘People Behaving Badly’ for the station KRON4.
Marcus Malone, original conguero of The Santana Blues Band from 1967 to 1969 has been living in desolation in Oakland. He has been making do with a parked trailer and harvesting the streets. The vagrant revealed to Stanley Roberts that he was a composer and part-time landscaper who used to play with Carlos Santana’s original band.
Stanley Roberts investigated what he was told and he learned Marcus Malone was indeed telling the truth. He got in touch with Santana Management and arranged for a reunion between Marcus Malone and Carlos Santana.
“But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.” – Luke 15:32
The reconnection of Marcus Malone with Carlos Santana takes on a special tone in the music of our heart. It turns out that Gregg Rolie has written a song “The Magnificent Marcus Malone”. Carlos Santana has a vision of Marcus Malone getting back in touch with his musical self by making arrangements for Marcus to get an apartment, play some LP congas he will be giving him soon and to have Marcus Malone join Gregg and Carlos on the Santana IV reunion track Gregg has written. I think that is so outasight!
I love the video sequence where Carlos turns Marcus’s hand over and rubs his palm to determine how able Marcus will be to play again. That was one beautiful expression as was the picture Marcus kept in his trailer of the Santana Blues Band that Carlos and he reminisced about.
Marcus Malone co-wrote “Soul Sacrifice” which is a fiery song for Santana all these many years. You can hear Marcus Malone perform on Santana, Live At The Fillmore 1968.
I imagine many Santana fans had the perception that the Corazon, Superstar Concert and first All-Spanish Santana Record project had knocked the Santana IV project out of the box.
Well disregard that false perception, the Santana IV project lives and breathes with a deep sense of commitment to the Santana brotherhood.
“When Santana is finished with “Corazon,” he plans to begin work on a fascinating album (especially for those nostalgic about classic rock) with some friends and former bandmates.
“We got together for two days already, with Gregg Rolie, Michael Shrieve, Michael Carabello,” Santana said. “The original Santana, we stopped at three. We are looking forward to this spring and doing Santana IV. After this incredible CD (“Corazon”), I will be with them, totally and absolutely.”
Santana has plans to play Dubai in February, and there are no scheduled dates at House of Blues beyond Feb. 1. Because of his recording commitments, it’s likely the earliest he would be back onstage in Las Vegas would be the fall of 2014.
But whenever it is, the timing and mood will be right. Carlos Santana will make sure of that.”
So with Corazon AND Santana IV in 2014 (And hopefully an East Coast Tour too), Everything Is Coming Our Way!
The last studio recording to feature the major vestiges of the original Santana band was Caravanseraireleased in 1972. The cover of Caravanserai featured a journey into the desert sun.
It is only fitting that the 2013 Santana reunion is a renewed “Journey” of exploration out of the Las Vegas desert.
The Santana fan base and the musicians themselves are pumped about the Santana reunion underway by five of the original Santana members, Carlos Santana, Michael Carabello, Gregg Rolie, Neal Schon, and Michael Shrieve.
The Santana Reunion excitement fuse was lit on August 28th at the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms in Las Vegas. Journey was the scheduled act that evening. The magic shifted when the encore segment took place. Out stepped Carlos Santana and Gregg Rollie to settle into a jam with Journey to everyone’s great delight for five minutes. They played an extended version of a Journey song “LaRaza DeSol” and “Gypsy Queen”. The band then launched into the inspiring instrumental “Soul Sacrifice,” immortalized on the Woodstock soundtrack and concert film.
Neal Schon: We also rehearsed for the 2 days I was here in Vegas with Gregg ,Carlos, Michael Shrieve and Michael Carabello. We recorded and wrote and will go in the studio.
Photo: Edison Graff
Michael Shrieve posted this comment and picture on his Facebook page.
Had an amazing time making music this week with Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, Michael Carabello and Neal Schon. Neal was at a Journey soundcheck when we snapped this photo.
Today is June 17th, 2012. We want to wish Gregg Rolie a Happy 65th Birthday today.
It is also Father’s Day and our 39th wedding anniversary. It’s nice to have all this in common with Gregg Rolie. As many of you know I am a huge, long time Santana fan. Gregg Rolie was the original lead singer and keyboardist with Santana. He later founded Journey with ex-Santana member, guitarist Neil Schon.
It’s been a great year for Gregg Rolie. He is presently on tour with Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band. Tonight they are playing at Mohegan Sun Casino Arena in Uncasville, Ct.
Earlier this year he put on a tour of small clubs called “An Intimate Evening With Gregg Rolie”. He performed with Texas blues guitarist Alan Haynes. He performed his songs, answered questions from the audience, staying until the end of the night signing autographs and greeting fans.
I can attest how down to earth Gregg Rolie in person can be. Several years back I caught the Gregg Rolie Band at a free concert at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Ct. The night took on an interesting twist when GRB was playing Santana songs from Woodstock. The wind kicked up and lightning/rain threatened to end the show. (It felt like Woodstock and “No More Rain” was upon us.) GRB hung tough, completed the show and stayed to sign autographs for us, despite the threatening weather. It was really cool to chat with Gregg Rolie and Michael Carabello (Original Santana conga player) that night. They signed my copy of the book Voices of Latin Rockas we discussed the significance of the music book topic in relationship to rock history .
I found this picture of Santana’s original keyboard artist, Gregg Rolie, on Gregg’s Web site. As a devout Santana fan and a Woodstock nation member I just had to share it with you on my music blog.
The picture of Gregg Rolie by Barry Z. Levine, who was one of the official Woodstock photographers. Barry Levine and Linanne G. Sackett collaborated together on a fantastic book, The Woodstock Story Book . You can find the original photograph on page 88 of their book, which they lovingly signed for us at The Gathering of the Vibes in 2009 😉
My friends on the Moonflower Cafe made me aware that the Gregg Rolie Band has a new CD, Rain Dance, a live CD, which is available on CD Baby. Below is the CD cover, if you click on the cover image it takes you to the CD Baby order page for the CD and the MP3 download files. It’s a very accurate representation of The Gregg Rolie Band Live whom I have seen and can testify to 🙂
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