Voices of Latin Rock show turns funky at end

An article by Shay Quillen - The Mercury News - January 25, 2008



It had the makings of one of those dream musical moments. Los Lobos were performing Thursday on stage at Bimbo’s, the unannounced final act on the fourth annual Voices of Latin Rock benefit show. After paying homage to honoree Ritchie Valens and romping through some of their own classics, the band paused around 11:30 as DJ Chuy Varela came out to announce two surprise guests: George Clinton and Sly Stone.


The Wolves launched into the signature groove of “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin” and Clinton came out before the excited crowd, but … no Sly. Clinton peered off stage, urging Sly to come on, haltingly sang the first verse, sang the chorus for a while, led the crowd in some P-Funk choruses, clowned around. Sly finally emerged, skinny and hunched over and sporting a giant white Kangol hat, and wandered over to a Yamaha keyboard, which he plunked at to no discernible effect. Eventually the groove petered out, and Sly started plunking out “I Want to Take You Higher” on the keyboard. He sang the first line, no one picked up the second, he picked the lyrics up again, belted out the chorus in the real genuine soulful Sly voice we all wanted to hear, then grabbed the hand of the audience member and led a train through the crowd, out the door, and into a white van parked out front. And that was that.


It was a weird ending to a fun night of music. The Voices of Latin Rock, the annual benefit for autism awareness organized each year by San Francisco dentist (and Malo manager) Dr. Bernard Gonzales, has become one of the most fun events of the year — and one of the hardest to get into, as the show sells out immediately without any advertising. Last year’s event, the first I attended, featured an unannounced reunion of the original lineup of Santana. This year’s headliner was an unnamed band paying tribute to Mexican-American rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Ritchie Valens. Even if you hadn’t read the first paragraph you would’ve known who that was, right?


Members of Valens’ family, including sisters Connie and Irma and brother Mario, spoke briefly before Los Lobos’ set, and Mario joined in on harmonica for the closing medley of “La Bamba” and the Young Rascals’ “Good Lovin’.” The Lobos opened with a few Valens tunes before moving into their own repertoire, including “I Got Loaded,” “Don’t Worry Baby” and a long, sprawling “Mas y Mas” with Mick Gillette of the Tower of Power horns on trombone and Jackie Greene on guitar. Another guest star was ex-Santana lead singer Tony Lindsay, who joined the band for the first encore, a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On.”


That all followed a short but smoking set by Latin jazz great John Santos, who was joined by members of his Machete Ensemble including Orestes Vilato on timbales and John Calloway on flute. Honored earlier was Malo, second only to Santana in the pantheon of San Francisco’s early ’70s Latin rock scene, and featuring Carlos Santana’s brother Jorge. Past and present members of the band came and went as part of the monster Voices of Latin Rock all-star band (with Greg Errico of the Family Stone on drums). “Suavecito,” Malo’s big hit, featured the song’s writer, Richard Bean, singing with the band’s present lead vocalist, young Octaviano Cueto. The musicians were in high spirits throughout, as evidenced by the ridiculous wig worn by Malo founder Arcelio Garcia. Another generation of Santanas emerged as Jorge’s nephew Jose delivered his Latin-rap song “Latin Lover” in front of the band with backing from the Herrera Sisters. North Beach native Sal Valentino joined the fun to sang “Laugh Laugh,” one of the big hits from his great ’60s band the Beau Brummels.

. Sly finally emerged, skinny and hunched over and sporting a giant white Kangol hat, and wandered over to a Yamaha keyboard, which he plunked at to no discernible effect. Eventually the groove petered out, and Sly started plunking out “I Want to Take You Higher” on the keyboard. He sang the first line, no one picked up the second, he picked the lyrics up again, belted out the chorus in the real genuine soulful Sly voice we all wanted to hear, then grabbed the hand of the audience member and led a train through the crowd, out the door, and into a white van parked out front. And that was that.


It was a weird ending to a fun night of music.

What is it with Sly? Most modern Sly 'gigs' seem to consist of the man arriving late (I suppose we should be grateful he arrives at all in a way), wandering onstage half way through the set, bumbling around a bit on the keyboard, singing half of 'I Want to Take You Higher' rather well, showing he still has 'that' voice, then he wanders off shortly after for no apparent reason, never to be seen again.

Judging by this most recent appearance, Sly is becoming the Pied Piper of Funk .

What is it with Sly? Most modern Sly 'gigs' seem to consist of the man arriving late (I suppose we should be grateful he arrives at all in a way), wandering onstage half way through the set, bumbling around a bit on the keyboard, singing half of 'I Want to Take You Higher' rather well, showing he still has 'that' voice, then he wanders off shortly after for no apparent reason, never to be seen again.Judging by this most recent appearance, Sly is becoming the Pied Piper of Funk .

Two crack heads together; great news

Miles said:

Folks won't like this and blast for being "negative", but Sly's a freakin' burnout. Considering his history for "no call; no show" all this current crop of revivals just pads his pockets with survival money. We'll keep hanging on waiting for something to drop, but the shows sound like 2-for-1 beer night at the corner bar.

Two crack heads together; great news