Santana Bassist David Brown
Remembering and appreciating
February 15, 1947 – September 4, 2000
Bassist for Santana band: 1967 – 71 and 1974 – 76
Santana Bassist David Brown
Daly City, California
David grew up in Daly City, California.
According to a Ben Fong-Torres piece in Rolling Stone magazine from December 7, 1972, David Brown, who’d gone to public and private school in San Francisco and played bass at night with Latin jazz bands and at clubs behind touring groups like the Four Tops, was walking up Grant Ave., in North Beach, when he heard some music from a small club. He stepped in, sat in, and was approached by Stan Marcum, who would become Santana’s manager.
From that same article, David Brown is quoted that early in the band’s development they found that “We didn’t like the music too repetitious, the way Butterfield or other blues bands were playing…so we got into improvisation and we’d find the drums in there more of the time. Eventually, we just sat back and said let them do their thing.
Woodstock
Brown played with Santana at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969 and on several other dates and albums.
While most of us listen enthralled to Carlos Santana’s lead guitar on Soul Sacrifice (and deservedly so), for David Brown’s birthday celebration, let’s listen to the bass. Pretty good!
Though best known as part of Santana, David Brown also played in Boz Scaggs band on three of Scaggs’s albums: Moments, Boz Scaggs and Band, and My Time.
Here is his credit listing from AllMusic.com
David Brown
In 1998, he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Santana. All the members of the band speak, except Brown.
David Brown died in 2000 due to liver and kidney failure.
Santana Bassist David Brown
I was the guy who introduced Santan to Bill Graham at the Fillmore West where I worked back in 1968. Bill asked me to bring the band to his office and he took Santan into his office for almost 2 hours and told me to take the rest of the band out and he said he wanted to have a talk with Carlos and that was when I and Dave Brown became good friends. When Bill came out he called us all over and he told them that he has just become their promoter. I have some great stories and I love Bass Guitar.
Legendary
Wow that’s awesome. I am just finding out about Dave Brown.
I am 55 years old. In 1971, when I was 7, David along with Mike C, Jose, Mike S and of course Gregg and Carlos implanted a musical memory on my mind that have inspired me to this day. David taught me to play bass through these recordings in the early 70’s. I continue to listen to recordings from them from this era and will until the day I die. I am so sad that David Brown is gone, I really would have liked to have met him and shared my appreciation of his talent with him.
I was in a band in 1977, the bass player had a Fender bass he bought used in a music shop in Boston MA. years latter he went to a NAMM convention. He took the Fender bass with him to the show so he could bring it to the Fender booth to see if they could give him any history on it. They took it apart and recorded the numbers and told him they would look it up and get back to him. A couple or few weeks later he got a call from Fender, they told him the body of the guitar is the actual bass David Brown used on stage at woodstock, they also told him the neck was not original and had been replaced somewhere along it’s history after the Brown performance at woodstock Back in 77 he had no idea where the bass came from.
Great story. Thanks.
I often wondered what year that p bass is, from Woodstock?
I don’t know who you are, but I have David Browns Fender Precision Bass. You may have one of his too, I’m sure he had more than one. In San Francisco, the one he used when first joined Santana.
I’ve got that Bass, given to me by Dave himself.
I want that bass!!!
😳 yes
Hi guys ——great comments on David (RIP) — the ONLY OG Santana member i never interviewed for my book VOICES OF LATIN ROCK—he was out there and non contactable—- love this info on his basses… Love peace and latin rock Jim
I remember hanging out sometimes with David when we were young. Such a great guy and very talented. We kept in touch and much later I got the chance to meet Carlos and the other band members too. We had a little too much to drink one night and Iost my shoes somewhere. David gave me his and to this day I still wear them occasionally.
Cool story. Thanks.
I was “coming of age” in 1969, year before high school graduation and was totally wet-behind-the-ears when it came to being “with it.” I definitely wasn’t! Fortune smiled on me as I entered college in 1970 and had a great bunch of guys to mentor me in many aspects of the entry into adulthood. Secondary to my college education was my social education, which most definitely included MUSIC. After seeing the original “Woodstock” movie/documentary and getting totally immersed in rock ‘n’ roll as well as country/bluegrass and even classical music, my cultural awareness was at a peak. Even now, 51 years later, my attention is always drawn to “Woodstock” and its standout performance by Santana. So glad to hear some background on David Brown, as he caught my eye and imagination as being the epitome of a 1969 “outstanding example of a with-it citizen.” His attractiveness, dress, mannerisms and membership in a heritage hippie-time band put him on a pedestal for me. He looks so “far out” and “cool” in the videos on YouTube; and with some backstory he’s even more important in my lifebook.