JAMM'N WITH CARLOS
With the amazing sucsess of Santana's Supernatural Album Winning 12 Grammy
Awards and draining the planets platinum resourses, Time Tunnel
takes a Retrospective look back to the Jam with Carlos"the holy one".
The Folowing excerpt appeared in Australian JAMM magazine in Feb 1978.
The KEVIN BORICH EXPRESS were asked to play at the ROCKARENA with SANTANA
and FLEETWOOD MAC. Apart from playing in front of 60,000 people, there was a bonus
for John Annas and Kevin Borich of playing on the same stage as Carlos Santana
whose music had inspired them for a long time, Little did they realise that they'd be playing
on the same stage " at the same time "as Santana,
During the encore of Soul Sacrifice Carlos gestured to John and Kevin to
join him and his band for a jamm. John played Timbales and Kevin went for one of Carlos'
Gibsons. John and Kevin were struck by the power Carlos exuded on stage,
He was very content, and in control, ruling the band by his unspoken commands.
John commented later, It was an Honor that Carlos invited us on stage to play.
Keith Jennings JAMM
MY LATIN CONNECTION
My Latin connection started when I was nine years old.
Exposed to my older Brothers record collection, I got to hear some latin Jazz.
In paticular, a track by Flautist Herbie Mann which featured Cuban Percussionist's
Patato Valdez & Jose Mangual. From that day on I knew I'd been bitten by the Latin Bug,
I just didn't know how hard I'd been bitten? I grew up listening to music &
learning to play the Drums. All I wanted to do was to play the drums.
At my school you had to be a certain age to be in the Marching Drum Corps Band.
You could only play for one year, then go on to secondary school.
"I had to get into that band" But being under the specified age didn't help, in fact If I could
pull of this stunt, I'd get to play the drums for two years and break new ground as far as
old school traditions go. Through sheer will and determination, hanging out & jamming
with the Drummers, I got an audition arranged for me, I Impressed the teacher's and got the Gig!
Although I heard Jazz & Latin a few years earlier, like most kids my age, I wanted to play
Rock or Pop music. I took lessons from Harold Ripper, a great Drummer, and
started playing in a Garage Band with school friends. After two years of playing at
Backyard party's and 21st's, my brother Jim and I put together a band called ATLAS.
While I was concentrating on Blues Rock, Hendrix and Cream etc, The latin bug was the
furtherest thing from my mind. Then ln 1969 I heard SANTANA. Straight away I loved it..
Now I could play Rock and Latin or Latin - Rock as it would eventually be named.
As soon as I heard Santana's percussionists it was like, "I know whats going on here,"
I can hear the licks & phrasing. The drums were Talking, and they were talking to me.
ATLAS immedietly added heaps of Santana songs in their show. Thirteen songs at last
count, including Soul Sacrifice with the big Drum Solo as their last song of the night.
The band was starting to go down well at gigs, it was time to get some exposure. So Atlas
entered the National Hoadley's Battle of the Bands. Atlas won their local heat and went on
to the State finals, where they played a Santana medley. At the rehearsal we were
told to shorten the song because it was over the allowed time allocated for each act.
The medley was quickly rearranged and Atlas went on to play their hearts out. But we didn't
win that day. Years later talking to Glenn Shorrock, lead singer with the Little River Band,
I learned that we had only lost by a very narrow margin. I asked Glenn how he knew about it, and
As it turned out, Glenn was one of the judges that day! But Winning or losing
didnt matter, we got noticed. What makes this part of the story interesting
is the Santana medley Atlas played that day was mysteriously the identicle arrangment that
Santana would go on to perform at the Rockarena eight years later in 1977.
The other coincidence is, by todays standards musicians start playing and can achieve
celeberity status very young. But in 1969 when Santana played at WOOSTOCK and drummer
Micheal Shrieve played that amazing drum solo, he was only 16 years old.
When ATLAS performed Soul Sacrifice on Sunday morning at the SUNBURY Festival in 1972
their Drummer had just turned 17 years old !
A WORLD OF MUSIC
As its namesake implies, ATLAS liked the idea of world music, and the band wore many musical hats.
Atlas liked to play music from well established artist and bands, as long as those artists were
different to each other in sound, style & influence. The other ingredient was for the band
to put an energetic, hard rock'n attitude into the musical mix. Atlas chose material as diverse
as Jethro Tulls celtic inspired symphonic Jazz rock, to Music by the band Mandrill, who
in 1970 introduced and popularised what we now call WORLD MUSIC. Mandrill did it all,
African Rythms, Funk, Calypso, Rock, R& B , Latin, Soul, Jazz & Middle Eastern music.
You can't get more diverse than that, The main writer performers are the Wilson brothers
who were raised in Panama, a perfect destination to experience the culture and sounds of
the world's travellers who passed through the Panama canal.
The Wilson brothers eventually migrated to New York and brought with them the
Sunshine the cold winters in New York needed...
Mandrill signed a major record deal and went on to record smash hits and popularise
what now is a musical genre in it's own right.
World music has alway's existed, But Mandrill did the best thing of all,
they introducd this type musical mix to western popular culture.
Mandrill music Spoke of not just havin a "good time mon" or havinn the Blues
they sang of Peace & Love, and the Fragile Ecology of Our Planet!
This might sound a bit corny to some people, But as our Forrests dissapear,
Poverty and Wars Escalate, we could use a lot of Peace & Love in the world today!!
Link to Mandrill's Officiall Website at the bottom of this page..
"WHY DONT YOU GUY'S WRITE YOUR OWN SONGS ?"
Do
Yo
ur
In an Interview in 1972, Atlas were asked " Why don't you guys write your own songs "
and " What will you do when Santana break up ? ".
Well I dont know about the first question, but I really have to laugh
at the second. Santana are doing better than ever, How does 12 Grammy's
for the album Supernatural sound ? not too bad ???.
Well, I got to meet and Jamm with Carlos Santana and his band in 77, and in a way, I suppose it was
meant to happen, or "I was in the right place at the right time," or I just got lucky.
To me, its a mixture of all three of those things. My band helped spread Santana's
music in Australia, so I kinda like the first option, that it was meant to happen.
As Carlos would say, I 'm Truly Gratefull..
John Annas 2000
ATLAS was together from 1969 to 1974
Personel:
Joe Maker Lead Vocal, Congas. Flute, Harmonica.
Jim Annas Bass: Vocals
Paul Alvarez Guitar
John Annas Drums: Vocals
George Judin Hammond Organ
MK 2
Paul Newell Guitar Carlos Mosca Hammond Organ Sam Casserta Guitar
Paul Leeder Bass Tony Pedrosa Guitar
John & Kevin Borich Jammin with Santana in Australia, 1977
Santana Photo Gallery: Oz Tour 1973
Personal photo's of Santana's first tour of Australia..
Learn more about the Band that started the World music Phenomenon..
Contact John at elfunko@optusnet.com.au
