Jesse and I watched Fillmore: The Last Days this past weekend, which is a documentary of the final concerts at Bill Graham's world famous venue in San Francisco between 29 June and 4 July, 1971. There were a number of great performances featured on the film - however, for us, the high point was watching Santana perform Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way"on the last day. At the time, the band featured Carlos Santana and a very young Neal Schon on lead guitars, David Brown on bass, Michael Shrieve on drums, Mike Carabello on congas, José "Chepito" Areas and Coke Escovedo on Timbales, and Gregg Rolie on keyboards - in short, an absolutely brilliant line-up. Here is an audio recording of the performance ...
I love the play back and forth between Santana and Schon in this version - amazing technique and tone in both these guitarists, which is only enhanced by that killer percussion section throughout the entire song.
Bill Graham moved his Fillmore Auditorium to the Carousel Ballroom on South Van Ness Avenue in 1968, and renamed it the Fillmore West (he also owned the Fillmore East in Manhattan). Building on an already world famous reputation, Graham would continue to feature the best of the best until the venue's final days in 1971. Everyone who was anyone on the scene performed at the Fillmore West, from Jimi Hendrix to Jefferson Airplane - and Graham was known for mixing it up in his bookings for a single night, featuring pure psychedelic rock acts on the same ticket as major blues and/or jazz groups. These were the days of affordable ticket prices and pretty intimate settings - so the crowds packed in and history was made night after night. Graham also hired professional artists to create some of the most iconic posters of the era - here are a couple from 1968 and 1970 that feature Santana alongside a handful of other amazing bands ...
Ah those heady days of colorful swirls and black light ballrooms - it must have been fun!
One last thing regarding "In a Silent Way" ...
For those of you who are interested, here is the entire original recording from Miles Davis's 1968 album of the same name, including "In a Silent Way" (intro and ending written by Joe Zawinul) and "It's About That Time" (middle section co-written by Davis and Zawinul) - and featuring the virtuoso brilliance of John McLaughlin on guitar, not to mention some of the most amazing jazz players of the day, including Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock. All that said, in my opinion, the cool cat on trumpet trumps them all. I know this is supposed to be a blog about guitar - but when it comes to Miles Davis, I just can't resist ... enjoy!!
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