Santana/blues

Hey Michael...not messing with you, your comments are in good faith but...Santana indeed is a great blues player; in fact he started as the Santana Blues Band before he made it with the more Latino stuff...he was greatly influenced by Mike Bloomfield in his early years. There's a CD somewhere, don't recall the name, where Santana is playing straight blues at Winterland, think it's 1968...very impressive stuff...best...Hstick

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Neil>"Santana indeed is a great blues player; in fact he started as the Santana
Blues Band before he made it with the more Latino stuff"

http://www.soundunwound.com/music/santana/87674

Wow, had no clue: I thought he started with "Latin-style guitar" and
progressed more toward rock over time with bluesy intonation...and became famous
for combining fast picking Latin guitar technique with rock music. Actually
I'd argue with Carl here...that rock was, indeed, developed from blues and not
R&B. I don't know any major famous guitarist (Satriani, Van Halen, Steve Vai,
Slash...) who hasn't done a nod to blues, either in bios or cover songs, at
least a few times in his/her career...likely because they also 'know' their
chosen art of rock was born of blues.

. Though even then, it seems, Santana was not creating straight "Mississippi
Delta" blues...the article says "In the early years the Santana Blues Band
created a unique sound by blending rock, blues and jazz with salsa, Latin
percussion (congas and timbales), and Santana's melodic, bluesy guitar solos".
Again it seems to say he was influenced by blues more than that he was blues.
Even when he plays with John Lee Hooker...he sounds about 70% Latin Rock and
about 30% blues.

However...I'd believe he was in fact a straight blues player in the very
early days of his career...

>"There's a CD somewhere, don't recall the name, where Santana is playing
>straight blues at Winterland, think it's 1968...very impressive stuff"

Well, if you can recall, I'd love to hear it. The earliest Santana album
I've heard is mid-70's, haven't heard what he did in 1968. In fact, if you can
manage to share with us on the list a few links to a good few songs he wrote
that were, in fact, in straight blues. I'm still more convinced he is yet
another great guitarist heavily inspired by blues who grew more toward other
influences over time but, as with Slash, the way he solos, no matter what genre
it were over, makes the blues influence obvious.

________________________________
From: Neil Haverstick <microstick@...>
To: makemicromusic@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, January 28, 2011 12:57:07 PM
Subject: [MMM] Santana/blues

Hey Michael...not messing with you, your comments are in good faith
but...Santana indeed is a great blues player; in fact he started as the Santana
Blues Band before he made it with the more Latino stuff...he was greatly
influenced by Mike Bloomfield in his early years. There's a CD somewhere, don't
recall the name, where Santana is playing straight blues at Winterland, think
it's 1968...very impressive stuff...best...Hstick

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