Don Cornelius...R.I.P.

"...and you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I'm Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love...peace...and soul !"

Don Cornelius...  .September 26,1936 - February 1, 2012

Santana

In San Francisco, 1967 a band was formed that would be truly one of a kind. The Carlos Santana Blues Band was and is a group that combines a very strong Latin influence and style with blues-based rock. What makes this band, and by extension its leader and namesake Carlos Santana so unique is that that without sacrificing one iota of their Afro-Cuban based sound, they have become, of all things, classic rock icons. Your average classic rock playlist may include several heavy rock bands, a good number of classically influenced bands, quite a few country-rock bands and even a handful of horn-driven bands, But in all of the classic rock canon, no one sounds even remotely like the band that would eventually shorten its name to simply Santana.  At the group's first audition at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom weeks after their formation, they were told by promoter Chet Helms that they would never get anywhere playing such heavily Latin-based rock and that Carlos should keep his day job as a dishwasher at Tick Tock's Drive-In on 3rd Street. Then came Woodstock.

The band was announced as one of the performers at The Woodstock Music And Art Fair as they were recording their self-titled debut album in May of 1969 which they finished in a month. After a career- making Woodstock performance the album was released. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts and a song from that collection,"Evil Ways", became a top ten single. Chet? Anything? I suppose not.

The band went on tour to promote the album with a line-up of Santana on guitar, keyboardist Gregg Rollie, Jose "Chepito" Areas on timbales and trumpet, bassist Dave Brown, drummer Michael Shrieve and Dave Carabello on congas. At this time they also started work on their sophomore album. The album, titled Abraxas was released in May of 1970 and went to #1. The single release from that album was a remake of Fleetwood Mac legend Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman" which peaked at #4 U.S.


The third album, brilliantly titled Santana III, was released in July of 1971. It followed it's predecessor to the #1 spot on the charts and would feature the addition of guitarist Neal Schon.



In the time between the third album and their fourth, Caravanserai, The band would see the beginning of  a long line of personnel changes, so many that in the course of the band's existence, the name Santana would come to identify the man, Carlos Santana as opposed to the band, ultimately leaving for all intents and purposes, Carlos Santana as a solo act. Among the first to go were Dave Brown, Michael Carrabello , Gregg  Rollie and Neal Schon, Rollie and Schon would later form another classic rock giant, the band Journey. Caravaserai was released in October of 1972, peaking at #8 with no single release.  The next hit single would come from the 1981 album Zebop , the Russ Ballard composition,"Winning" with lead vocals from British journeyman Alex Ligertwood.


I would feel negligent not to include a mention of Carlos Santana's brother, guitarist Jorge Santana. Jorge worked with salsa band The Fania All Stars, as well as recording two solo albums. His best known work, however was with the band Malo, which he led along with fellow Mexican Arcello Garcia. Malo had a top 20 hit entitled "Suavecito".
The two brothers have appeared together onstage numerous times.


Firmly established as one of pop music's most respected artists, highly regarded by critics and fans alike, Carlos Santana's career continued to flourish. In the realms of rock, pop, and jazz he came to be held in high regard due to his singular talent, unique style, genre flexability and pleasant, self-effacing personality.            
After his 1981 hit "Winning", it wasn't until 1991 that he scored a comparable success with the album Supernatural, which featured Santana performing with an impressive array of the period's top vocalists from different musical genres. This collecton reached #1 in several countries and went 15X platinum, selling nearly 27 million units worldwide.It included the hit single "Smooth" , featuring lead vocals from Rob Thomas of the group Matchbox Twenty. The song became a winner of three Grammy Awards.

The band Santana was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988. The inductees were Dave Brown, Michael Shrieve, Jose Areas, David Carabello, Gregg Rollie and Santana himself. As a band,Santana won eight Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards all in 2000, while Carlos Santana won two Grammy Awards as a solo artist in 1989 and 2003. All told, Santana has sold over 100 million units worldwide as of 2010. Carlos Santana is still active in the industry to this day.

For Jason

At this time I am enjoying an all-too-infrequent visit from my youngest child,my son Jayson for the holidays Not long ago he relocated to the state of Indiana,basically going where the work was. It was hard to see him go, but the way he's established himself there,full-time job,attending a university for computer sciences,and maintaining a really nice apartment, makes me beyond proud. This post and the accompanying selection, is dedicated to him and the way he's holding it down. It gets better from here, baby boy and I hope you enjoy The Average White Band's excellent rendition of the Isley Brothers' classic "Work To Do". When you're here, things just feel a little more complete.

Madness

Formed in Camden Town, London in 1976, these gentlemen were and are one of the most prominent (and arguably best) bands of the late 70s two-tone ska -punk revival. While their line-up has varied slightly over the years, the seven -man core group is Mike Barson on keyboards, guitarist Chris Foreman, Mark Bedford on bass guitar, saxophonist Lee Thompson, drummer Daniel Woodgate, Cathal Smith on trumpet and backing vocals and lead vocalist Graham "Suggs" McPherson.
Their first hit came in 1979 with "The Prince", a song which like the band's name, was a tribute to their idol, ska legend Prince Buster. Released on the 2 Tone label, it went to #16 on the U.K. charts. After touring with fellow 2 Tone acts The Specials and The Selecter They recorded their debut album One Step Beyond. Released on Stiff Records, the title track spent 32 weeks on the U.K. charts peaking at #2

The band's second studio release, Absolutely, featured more of the heavily ska-influenced material most notably "Baggy Trousers" which peaked at #3 in the U.K. and "Embarrassment" which went to #4. Reviews were mostly positive, with the notable exception of Rolling Stone Magazine, which scathingly criticized Madness as "the Blues Brothers with English accents". Not the first or last time that venerable publication got it wrong in my humble opinion.


Unlike the previous albums, the band's third release, ingeniously titled 7, was a departure from the straight ska material in favor of a more pop-oriented musical  direction. "Grey Day" (#4), "Shut Up" (#7) and "Cardiac Arrest" (#14) revealed this change including a different vocal style by Suggs. One of the most striking excamples of this new direction was the 1981 release of acover of Labi Siffri's 1971 hit  "It Must Be Love", a masterfully crafted rendition that became one of the band's signature tunes.

1982 Madness released their first and only #1 hit, "House Of Fun".The song was performed live on the British tv series The Young Ones, and was included on their first compilation disc, Complete Madness. The fourth studio album, The Rise And Fall , was a huge hit in Britain but was not released in the U.S. It contained the band's biggest internationally known song "Our House", which appeared in the U.S on the aforementioned Complete Madness collection.


In 1982, their single "Wings Of A Dove" went to #2 in the U.K. and the following album, Keep Moving peaked at #6. By this time the band had their own label, Zarjazz Records, and their own recording studio, Liquidator Studios. The studio is still used by many musicians including Madness themselves.
The band broke up in 1986 and later re-united in 1991, which brought about the re-release of "It Must Be Love" and a live show, called Madstock. Madstock was held on August  8 and 9 at Finsbury Park in London and was attended by over 75,000 fans. The song's second coming got it to #6 U.K. while a singles compilation album Divine Madness peaked at #1. Subsequent to the Madstock reunion a live album was released featuring a Madness performance of Jimmy Cliff's venerable song "The Harder They Come". This was released as a single that went to #44  U.K. with the album reaching #22.


Madness was awarded "The Idol Award"at The Q Awards  in London. The band's final show was at  London's Earls Court in December 2010. Truly one of the finest bands to walk the stage. This final clip is a collaboration, written with Elvis Costello called "Tomorrow's Just Another Day."

Parliament - Funkadelic

What we have here is not, in the strictest sense, a band in spite of fact that they are known to do a lot of band-like things...write great music, kick all kinds of ass onstage, influence at least two entire generations of musicians, that sort of thing.  The fact is Parliament-Funkadelic is not so much a band as they are a collective. They are an ever-changing group of individuals coming, going and coming back again, vast in numbers and united by a concept created a long time ago by a man named George Clinton.

Plainfield ,New Jersey in the 1950's is the place to start. A doo-wop group formed called The Parliaments  (pictured left above). The name came from a brand of cigarettes. They were Ray Davis,Fuzzy Haskins,Calvin Simon,Grady Thomas,and group leader George Clinton (far right in the picture and also pictured to the right). After several attempts at several labels, the finally scored a hit with "(I Wanna) Testify" on the Revilot label. It reached #3 r'n'b and #20 pop on the Billboard charts.  As it turned out, Clinton was the only member to appear on the recording because the other members were unable to make the trip to Detroit for the sessions. It was on the surface a nice bit of the expected soul vocal group offering, but a closer listen revealed an underlying subversiveness in the performance not  found in similar groups.

Clinton put together a backing group for a tour,and having lost the rights to the name, "The Parliaments" in a contract dispute, renamed the entire ensemble Funkadelic, a name coined by bassist Billy Nelson.The band consisted of Nelson, guitarist Tawl Ross, keyboardist Mickey Atkins,  guitarist Eddie Hazel, and drummer Tiki Fulwood. The band itself was signed to Westbound Records by Clinton and released their epynomously named debut album in 1970. The album also featured the five-man group who were at one time The Parliaments.


Clinton, having regained the rights to The Parliaments name, formed a new entity, called simply Parliament. It was comprised of the same two groups combined but concentrated on a smoother r'n'b sound as a counterpoint to Funkadelic's funkier, more aggressive guitar-oriented sound. (stay with me,it all comes together soon) Parliament signed first to Invictus Records, then to Casablanca Records where they released their first album, Up For The Down Stroke in 1974.


Combining influences with the best of them, Clinton's collective served up James Brown-like marathon funk, the humor and fearless experimentation of Frank Zappa, and with it's stellar line-up of past and present guitarists, generous amounts of Hendrix-Zeppelin inspired hard rock. Much like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, P-Funk had legends pass through it's ranks. Bootsy Collins,  Bernie Worrell,Gary Shider, Fred Wesley,Maceo Parker,Eddie Hazel and Phillipe Wynne are all Parliament-Funkadelic alumni. All told, the organization produced thirteen top ten hits including six Number one hits on the American charts between 1967 and 1983.


Along with personell changes a-plenty, there of course were the inevitable differences both artistic and personal that resulted in spin-off bands such as Glenn Goins' Quazar and Jerome Brailey's Mutiny. Spin-offs also were formed under George Clinton's tutelage, most notably Bootsy's Rubber Band and The Brides Of Funkenstein. P-Funk music has had a large influence on hip-hop with the group's works being widely sampled on a huge number of rap hits, particularly by Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Hits like "One Nation Under A Groove", "Flashlight" and "Atomic Dog" are practically tutorials on funk music. George Clinton and fifteen other members were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in May of 1997, the largest group inducted to date. You simply cannot intelligently discuss funk without discussing P-Funk.