We created something that’s just as valid as the blues greats, and that is something that we tried to do Carlos was all about the blues and Santana music in those days was built on the blues side of things – blues guitar with a 9 in it, and a B3, and congas and percussion.” It’s his own style of playing and that’s as simple as it is. “The thing about Carlos and his guitar playing is it’s all in his fingers and the neck and where he goes with it. “I don’t recall anything other than a reverb of some sort,” he told Total Guitar. While it’s been claimed that Carlos was also playing through an open wah pedal to help him get the beautiful distorted lead tone found on the recording, Rolie wasn't so sure. It was also likely that he was plugged into a Fender Twin, his favoured amp in that era. Rolie recalls Carlos playing a Gibson SG – probably his red SG Special with P90 pickups on Samba Pa Ti. He was playing to his headphones on the floor – it was an amazing thing to watch and I’m just glad I was there to tell Fred, ‘Don’t stop!’” He was so engrossed in what he was playing and we only stopped it when he finally lost it. “And headphones start to come off – they were almost on his nose and on the back of his head, and Fred almost stopped it… But I said, ‘Wait till he makes a mistake!’ His headphones actually ended up on the ground. “He was recording it, and he had his earphones on, and I’m in the control room with Fred Catero, who was the main engineer and producer of the Abraxas album,” Rolie recalled. Indeed, one of Rolie’s standout memories from the Samba Pa Ti recording sessions is Carlos’ sweet lead overdub. While Abraxas rhythm tracks were usually recorded live, the band weren’t averse to overdubbing lead parts and solos. Samba Pa Ti means ‘Samba For You’ in Spanish, and Rolie remembers percussionist José ‘Chepito’ Areas coming up with the title.
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