Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

Happy birthday

July 20, 1947

Before Soul Sacrifice

Before Carlos Santana and his band performed at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on that sunny Saturday 16 August 1969, a few other things happened:

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

8 miles…

Friend Tony T and I had walked 8 miles from where we’d left his car on the side of the road. We didn’t know we’d walked 8 miles–only decades later when I clocked it with a car that could drive down Rt 17B without stopping, up Hurd Road without another car on the road, and to the Field.

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

Quill

We put our sleeping bags down to claim our spot, sat down, and waited. Quill opened that day. A Boston band hired by Woodstock Ventures to play free locally to residents of Bethel. Hopefully helping soothe the locals’ anger  who weren’t too enthused about the upcoming festival.

Few of us had heard of Quill. Few know them today despite their Woodstock appearance. No album appearance nor movie appearance.

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

Country Joe

In an attempt to keep things moving, Michael Lang drafted Country Joe McDonald to play and fill in while the crew set up next band’s equipment.

Joe said he had no guitar. Someone found one for him. Joe said the guitar had no strap. Someone found a piece of rope.

Gimme’ an F!

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

Big Grassy Bowl

When Max Yasgur showed Michael Lang his field, Michael realized he’d found exactly what was needed both literally and figuratively: a big grassy bowl.

After Country Joe finished his surprise and historic set, the guy sitting in front of us offered a toke to Tony and me. We straight suburban white Catholic-educated rising college sophomores (literally and figuratively redux) politely demurred.  He then asked us if we’d heard of the next band just announced? We said we hadn’t. He said we’d really like them.

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

We did

The next band was Santana and we sophomoric white kids were blown away. Never had we heard such percussion-filled music and an electric lead guitar that felt like Carlos Santana was playing personally to each of our 400,000 friends.

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana entered the ethos of myth that afternoon. And while his band mates went in different directions after he had, too, he has remained a beacon of musical nourishment for nearly 50 years.

And of course Carlos continues to inspire us with his music today.

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

Many happy returns Carlos!

We Boomers owe more than that big grassy bowl to Carlos. Thank you from all of us. I hope that thunderous standing ovation in 1969 meant as much to you as its continued memory means to us today.

Meeting Santana Carlos Santana

Trumpeter Thomas Henry Lowther

Birthday greetings

July 11, 1941

Jazz musician and…

Member of Keef Hartley Band at Woodstock

Thomas Henry Lowther was born in Leicester, England. “As a child Lowther learned trumpet from his father and took private violin lessons before going on to study with Manoug Parakian at London’s Royal Academy of Music.” (from All Music).

It has been a lifetime of music since then.

According to a 2019 Hastings Observer article, “He became interested in jazz and, inspired by a Sonny Rollins recording, he returned to brass playing and took up the trumpet. In the 1960s, he split his time between jazz and the rock scene. For instance he first played with the John Dankworth Orchestra in 1967, beginning a relationship that would last for 45 years. But he also played with bands like Manfred Mann, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and the Cream bassist Jack Bruce.”

Then the Keef Hartley band and Woodstock

Of Woodstock he said, ““You know I played Woodstock as the first gig of an American tour with the Keef Hartley band. The only other trumpet player at the gig was Sly Stone’s sister!”  (Jazz Wise magazine)

Since John Till and Louis Gasca with Janis, Steve Madaia and Keith Johnson with Paul Butterfield, and Chuck Winfield and Lew Soloff with Blood, Sweat and Tears played trumpet as well but we’ll just attribute Lowther’s error to that famous Woodstock Haze.

Trumpeter Thomas Henry Lowther

Henry Lowther

From  the Vortex Jazz site: During the sixties Henry was one of the first musicians on the British jazz scene to experiment with total free improvisation, notably with Jack Bruce, Lyn Dobson and John Hiseman. He played with the original and seminal Mike Westbrook band (which included Mike Osborne and John Surman), and also with John Dankworth, including playing on the now legendary and rare Kenny Wheeler album “Windmill Tilter” while also working on occasions on the rock scene with musicians such as Manfred Mann, John Mayall and  Keef Hartley, with whom he appeared at the famous Woodstock festival in 1969.

His work on the British jazz scene reads like a “Who’s Who”. He has played regularly with the likes of Gordon Beck, Michael Garrick, Graham Collier, Mike Gibbs, Pete King, Loose Tubes, John Surman, John Taylor, Stan Tracey and Kenny Wheeler. 

Here is his All Music list of credits. You’re going to be there awhile!

Trumpeter Thomas Henry Lowther

After Keef Hartley

After Lowther left Keef Hartley in 1970, he worked with dozens of different musicians including Bryan Ferry, Van Morrison, and did the trumpet solo for Elton John on “Return to Paradise” in 1978.

Trumpeter Thomas Henry Lowther

From his own site

In 1996, along with his great friend the great bass player Dave Green, Henry formed his own band Still Waters to enable him to pursue his increasing interest in composition. In 1997 Still Waters recorded an album, “ID”, on the Village Life label, to much critical acclaim

Trumpeter Thomas Henry Lowther

2018

In March, Still Waters released a new album: Can’t Believe, Won’t Believe. The personnel are: Henry Lowther (trumpet/flugel); Pete Hurt (tenor); Barry Green (piano); Dave Green (bass); Paul Clarvis (drums)

Of it, the Financial Times said, “The sturdy theme and somnolent harmonies of the opening title track have trace elements of a works’ brass band. But the melody has a quizzical edge, and elliptic splatters of percussion lie underneath. As the piece evolves, the trumpeter’s brassy certainty is interrupted by drummer Paul Clarvis’s off-kilter breaks. Can’t Believe, Won’t Believe is dedicated to cynics everywhere. As the album progresses, Lowther’s modern jazz quintet embroiders the trumpeter’s elegant and knowing compositions with unruffled emotions and filigree detail. Pete Hurt is a wispy-toned tenor sax foil to Lowther’s precise turn of phrase, and pianist Barry Green’s haunting impressionist voicings are underpinned by Dave Green’s pitch-perfect counterpoint bass.”

Trumpeter Thomas Henry Lowther