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.
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?
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 ;)
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?
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!
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.
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Filed under: Latin Rock, Recording Studio, Santana Tagged: Benny Rietveld, Carlos Santana, Chad Tasky, Gregg Rolie, Journey (band), Karl Perazzo, Libby Fabro, Michael Carabello, Michael Shrieve, Neal Schon, Santana IV
