Victor Pantoja from Ralph Riccardi on Vimeo.

Victor Pantoja; conguero par excellence has passed on the morning of March 12, 2010 at 6:00 am. I had the pleasure of interviewing Victor Pantoja thru a visit to Mike Carabello, who was then living in Fairfax, California, this was in the year 1991. I interviewed Victor over the phone for a magazine feature I was doing. I didn’t in fact use some of that till writing the Voices of Latin Rock book.

Victor Pantoja

I remember Carabello telling me, how he had brought Victor in, to hang around the Santana camp, as he had loved his playing with Willie Bobo and Gabor Szabo and Chico Hamilton. Santana had included Hamilton’s song Conquistadores in their early sets. Pantoja also came onto the Santana tour of 1971, playing alongside at various gigs, Rico Reyes, Coke & Pete Escovedo.

Pantoja ended up being recorded at Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles Live set from the Diamond Crater in Hawaii. He also played on the outtake Banbeye, which can be heard on the Santana 3 two CD Legacy Edition, released in 2005. (This edition has new and detailed sleeve notes by myself).

Victor Pantoja Crater Gig 1972

Pantoja had an earthy style, sparse in places, with each slap and beat echoing his Cubano background. Standout cuts from Victor for Latin rock freaks will be the two Azteca recordings, Malo’s debut album, the Luis Gasca solo recording, Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles Live plus
the aforementioned Santana 3rd album outtake Banbeye.
But his exhilarating playing on the Gabor Szabo cuts and with Willie Bobo and Chico Hamilton bear renewed investigation and show his earthy, soulful brilliance.

Please find a filmed interview from Voices Of Latin Rock Year 5 show, this was filmed backstage on Saturday January 24th 2009 at The Warfield; San Francisco. God Bless you Victor. RIP.
Here is an unedited excerpt of Victor talking that mostly did not make the Voices book.

“Victor Pantoja; “ I was born in Puerto Rico, raised in New York. I started playing when I was eight years old, then I went on to play with Tito Rodriguez, Tito Puente, Machito, loads of others. My first band was with my sister. I played drums too, on top. I was with The Harry James Orchestra, when I was about fifteen. ‘

Mike Carabello had brought Victor Pantoja into the Santana scene during recording of the 3rd album. Chepito had suffered a brain haemorrage just as Santana were due to tour Europe in 1971. Coke Escovedo guested and toured on Santana 3, (during the time of Chepito Areas’ illness) just before the band were due to go on the road, starting in Ghana, Africa. Ghana was then just entering the first flush of it’s independence from Britain and the concert was a planned celebration, featuring the cream of US soul and jazz, such as Roberta Flack, Les McCann & Eddie Harris, Wilson Pickett and Ike & Tina Turner.

John Santos; “ Pete Escovedo sang with Mongo on Mongo’s Charanga. Victor Pantoja is Puerto Rican, not Cuban, he played with the Orchestre Cacho in Puerto Rico, he played bongoes and congas, then he was with Herbie Mann and then they both hit the Latin Rock scene with Azteca, after they’d touched Santana on the Third album. Victor was very influenced by Carlos Patato Valdes.”

Victor Pantoja; “ I played with Herbie Mann, we went to Europe, when I got back, I played with Jimmy Smith. I knew Luis Gasca from the Stan Kenton days. I came out to California, playing with Wes Montogomery . I had also met Willie Bobo, we were from the same neighbourhood, that was the barrio. We used to play at a place called Count Basie’s.“

pantoja bobo album cover

Herbie Herbert; “ When the band was splitting up, we tried to change the spiral by dosing them with liquid Owsley. It was Gregg’s first trip, we took the drops too, to stay on the same page. It was the most electrifying show at Cobo Hall at Detroit and
Carlos was wondering what was going on, Gregg said we’re all tripping. This was about two days after Carlos and the percussion had their Mexican standoff. After at the Howard Johnson, things were really crazy with Booker T. They had the whole floor of the Howard Johnson and they never lost the attitude, y’know fighting, Victor Pantoja had a knife pulled on him by Booker T. He wanted to kill Victor. Victor was screaming his head off, he wants to kill someone else, it was crazy.”

Victor Pantoja; “ We used to do Evil Ways with Willie Bobo, Santana did it but we didn’t make a dime. I met Mike Carabello in San Francisco, I love him to death. I played a couple of times with Santana, it was cool, I also played on the Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles Live album.”

Discography
Nat Adderley- Autobiography (1965)
El Chico- Chico Hamilton (1965)
Spanish Grease – Willie Bobo (1965)
Uno Dos Tres – Willie Bobo (1965)
Spellbinder- Gabor Szabo (1966)
Soul Sauce-Cal Tjader (1966)
Further Adventures of Chico-Chico Hamilton (1967)
Do What You Want To Do-Willie Bobo (1968)
Much Les- Les McCann (1969)
Memphis Two-Step-Herbie Mann (1971)
For Those Who Chant – Luis Gasca (1972)
Azteca (1972)
Bluesmith-Jimmy Smith (1972)
Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles Live (1972)
Iapetus- Hadley Caliman (1972)
Malo- (1972)
Pyramid Of The Moon-Azteca (1973)
Betty Davis (1973)
Standard School Broadcast (1973)
Born To Love You. Luis Gasca (1974)
They Say I’m Different-Betty Davis (1974)
Canyon Lady-Joe Henderson (1975)
Montara-Bobby Hutcherson (1975)
Fantasy. Luis Gasca (1976)
Giants (1978)
Hell Of An Act to Follow (1978)
Huracan-Cal Tjader (1978)
Bobo (1979)
Mwandishi Complete Recordings-Herbie Hancock (1994)
Senorita-Malo (1995)
Roots Of Acid Jazz – Cal Tjader (1996)
Blue Movies –Various (1997)
No Dancing Please-Mento Buro (1998)
Blue Bossa-Various (1998)
Ay Califas- Raza Rock of 70’s & 80’s –Various (1978)
Celebracion- Malo 4 CD box (2001)
Crossings-Herbie Hancock Re-issue (2001)
A New Dimension-Willie Bobo (2002)
Santana 3 – 2 x CD (Legacy Edition)

Victor Pantoja

Apologies if any stuff is missing?

Voices of Latin Rock 2009 from Avalon Media Group

“For us, music was … sounding like a street mutt, like a dog that’s bred with everything,” notes Carlos Santana in his foreword, neatly encapsulating the feel of McCarthy’s photo-rich book. Consisting primarily of artists’ reminiscences, and at times difficult to follow, the chatty volume traces the origins and early successes of Latin Rock, from the street gangs of San Francisco’s Mission District to the chart-topping albums and singles. Not surprisingly, much of McCarthy’s narrative concerns the band Santana, which began as the Santana Blues Band and rose to fame by combining the wail of blues guitar with Latin rhythms while playing songs from Mary Poppins. McCarthy also traces Malo’s early career in detail and recounts the group’s making of their Coast to Coast album. Even more interesting are his accounts of San Francisco’s Mission District in the 1960s and the confluence of styles that fueled the burgeoning Latin Rock scene. Numerous asides mention lesser-known acts, such as Mandrill and Azteca, and give brief coverage of newer Latin rock bands, like Los Mocosos. Unfortunately, the book lacks an index, but its “Cast of Characters,” glossary and limited discography are useful substitutes. With over 800 black-and-white and color photographs, McCarthy’s book looks and reads like a photo album. One disappointment is the large gap in the Santana story, which skips the late 1970s and the ’80s. However, among the sordid tales of touring, recording, partying and snorting cocaine are gems of information about the electrifying music and its creators. McCarthy’s focus is purely on Latin Rock in the U.S. Readers looking for a broader view of the scene should check out Rockin’ las Américas: the global politics of rock in Latin/o America.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

voices book cover

Product Description

Directly from the Mission District in San Francisco, the explosive fusion of Latin, salsa and rock is chronicled from a writer who has followed the music and the musicians for over 30 years. The book covers the stories of prominent Latin rock bands including Santana and Malo, examining in detail the pioneering records and the ways in which both reflect a wide spectrum of Latin influences. It highlights the cast of characters and emerging period in the US during the late ’60s, with all the cultural background events including the Summer of Love, Woodstock, political activism, and the record label expansion. Legendary figures such as Bill Graham, Clive Davis and the Escovedos family play crucial roles in the development of this sound. As Latin music continues to become more mainstream, the interest in its musical roots grows. This book sheds light on these musical pioneers, and is gorgeously illustrated with over 800 B&W photos by Jim Marshall, Rudy Rodgriguez, Joan Chase and others, plus artwork of dozens of rare album covers. Include color photo section and foreword by Carlos Santana.

Click

Our special honoree tonite, who is in receipt of our Armando Peraza Award is a music industry innovator, a true original that we are proud to be presenting this too. In fact, he was the initial catalyst after contacting him in New York in 1985, for me later coming to the USA, meeting Mike Carabello, then Jeff Trager and Ron Sansoe and the Voices book and subsequent shows being born. He has also shared many stages around the world with Armando, so this award could not be more appropriate.

Santana & Shrieve - Voices 6

Voices 6 January 2010

Carlos & Michael-Voices 6

From an early age he displayed a restless search for both musical knowledge and excellence. After initially honing his craft playing with a group called Glass Menagerie and then various soul bands and organ quartets, around the Palo Alto area, he landed his first big opening with the original Santana band. Within months he had contributed genre- defining drums to their ground-breaking debut album. He also made a now iconic and electrifying appearance with Santana at the Woodstock festival later that year with the resulting ascent to stardom the group received.

The Santana group, in the space of the next two years, constantly toured the USA and around the globe, as they were a global phenomenom. He and they also managed to record two further Latino rock classics, the timeless Abraxas and the scorching Third Album.

By this time our recipient had amalgamated many diverse techniques into his drum kit playing, such as Latin, jazz, rock, fusion and funk, all folded into a flavorful and distinct
melding of styles.

He went onto to further influence the growth of Santana music with the critically acclaimed albums, Caravanserai, Welcome and Borboletta and the then Japanese import of the live Lotus recording.

After departing Santana, he was involved in one of the best bands you’ve never heard, the cult group that was Automatic Man, a group way before it’s time. (A shout out to Doni Harvey, the band bassist who’s with us here tonite!!) While residing in London, England and Europe, he also played on the Go trilogy with Stevie Winwood and the avant-garde Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashata.
These projects found him experimenting with the first wave of electronic percussion both onstage and in the studio.

A move to New York City, found him establishing the power pop band Novo Combo with two album releases. Plus work guesting with various acts, such as Todd Rundgren, Pat Travers, The Rolling Stones & Mick Jagger to name but few.

As well as this he has produced a series of critically acclaimed solo releases such as Transfer Station Blue, Fascination, Stiletto, The Leaving Time, The Big Picture, Two Doors and the current release Spellbinder, who we have enjoyed here tonight!

Apart from being a great musician, he’s an engaging and open person, a lyricist and a composer/producer, who has recently produced acts such as New Moonsoon, Douglas September, Ruby Dee & The Snake Handlers and many more.

He has a knack of linking with and has also played with a stellar array of guitarists – here are some; Carlos Santana, Neal Schon, Al Di Meola, Pat Thrall, Bill Frizell, Pat Travers, Buckethead, Shawn Lane, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Carlos Rios, Kevin Shrieve, Pete Hewlett, Jack Griffiths, Danny Godinez, Dave Edmonds, David Torn, Andy Summers among others.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his continuing delight in and innovation in the field of music.
The phrase “pushing the envelope” is often overused but this gentleman embodies that term with a non-clichéd and questing attitude for the new and daring in his musical search.