Cindy Blackman Santana "Give The Drummer Some" 2020***

Photos: the Santana band, featuring Cindy Blackman-Santana on drums, at Ziggo Dome Amsterdam, 24-06-2025

As I said previously, we greatly enjoyed the Santana concert at Ziggo Dome a few days back. The guitarist was of course the main draw, but his wife/drummer Cindy Blackman Santana gave an equally admirable performance, including a quite (physically) demanding drum solo, which came more than two hours after the start of the concert. My girlfriend and I were both so impressed we that we decided to buy her CD even though we had no idea what it would sound like - based on what I had read about her, I thought it'd be pure jazz but as it turns out that was only one of the colours she had in her palette.

Talking of Cindy Blackman as being the drummer of Santana band, or the wife of the guitarist, is of course reductive, as she is quite well-known in her own right. I, like most pop and rock fans, first became aware of her as that hot female drummer who appeared in Lenny Kravitz videos but, in reality, when she joined Kravitz's band she was already a well-respected jazz musician whose recordings as band leader went all the way back to 1987. Give The Drummer Some is her 11th solo album - as well as her first since marrying Carlos Santana in 2010. Previously she used to record more often; probably the demanding tour schedule of Santana was too time-consuming, but she used that time well. When she entered the recording studio after a 10-year absense she had 17 songs ready, all but one her own original compositions. I haven't followed her career closely, but this CD seems to be an anomaly: she used to be a straight-up jazz artist, but this one leans more on rock, pop, and R&B. Also, where she previously mostly contained herself to drumming, this time it's her singing that comes to the fore. She possesses a fine soulful voice; not a belter like Aretha, but perfect for the lighter pop-R&B material. Her drumming on this album is, as expected, impeccable - funky on the groovier numbers, strong on the rockers, inventive in the jazzier pieces. Sometimes it's overshadowed by the guitars, which is to be expected when one has Carlos Santana on board - his contributions here are fantastic, often better than on his own recent albums. Another heavyweight guitarist is John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis Band). His solos here, especially on "We Came To Play", are of dizzying speed and complexity. Vernon Reid (Living Colour) is an old associate of Cindy's, and balances rock and jazz very well. A surprising inclusion is that of Kirk Hammett (Metallica). To be fair, after Metallica had Marianne Faithfull guest on one of their songs, made a collaborative album with Lou Reed, and given a concert with a symphony orchestra, one should stop being surprised every time they step out of the Heavy Metal field. I guess they're so good at that one thing they do, you forget they're not one-dimensional. In this case, Hammett puts his heavy riffs and shredding solos in the service of the groove, providing us with the hardest rocking moment of this record. Combine this with jazz instrumentals, R&B dance tracks, funk rockers, and rapping by Santana Band vocalist Andy Vargas, and you've got a lot -maybe too much- diversity. On the whole, this is an uneven album featuring nevertheless great musicianship. A bit poppier than I had hoped, I expected a jazzy affair with the drums more to the fore - despite the consistently strong drumming there are barely any drum solos. I'm thinking that some of these songs would work better incorporated in a Santana album, while the jazz and R&B/dance tracks could form the basis for two different CD's. But it's Cindy's album, maybe she wanted to demonstrate her expertise in different styles at the expense of consistency and flow. The cover art reminds me of Santana's Africa Speaks, not surprising since the two albums belong to the same period, while the CD is hosted in a similarly flimsy cardboard case. Usually while I listen to an album I make a few notes on each track, which I later work into my review. This time, though, I think I can present them as-is, so here's my track-to-track presentation of Give The Drummer Some:

1. "Imagine"*** funk rock remake of the classic John Lennon ballad, not entirely convincing but featuring great guitar by Carlos Santana. I don't really care for the vocals on this one, it had me (mistakenly) thinking "This gal is no singer". It's the only cover on this CD, obviously chosen because the message of the song is important to the Santanas.

2. "We Came To Play"**** funk jazz instrumental. Solid drumming but totally overshadowed by John McLaughlin's masterful guitar arpeggios. Settles into a repetitive groove for the last minute.

3 "She’s Got It Going On"**** a funky pop number that reminds you she used to be in Lenny Kravitz's band, also despells previous doubts about her singing abilities.

4 "Miles Away" *** a short atmospheric jazz number with trumpet (inspired by Miles Davis?)

5 "Everybody's Dancin'" **** a self-described "feelgood song". Superb R&B with beautiful guitar fills by Carlos Santana.

6 "Velocity" *** a pure jazz number, great interplay between the drums and electric piano (Neal Evans).

7 "I Need A Drummer" *** upbeat funk rock. The song was inspired by a jam Cindy had with Prince, his influence is all over this one.

8 "Superbad" **** The title isn't the only part of this song that's reminiscent of James Brown. John McLaughlin limits himself to just one shredding solo, this time. Now that I think of it, this sounds a bit like Funkadelic when they had Eddie Hazel on guitar.

9 "You Don’t Wanna Break My Heart" *** a ballad of the Lenny Kravitz school. Carlos' emotive guitar solo elevates this.

10 "Evolution Revolution"**** OK, guitarist Vernon Reid is an obviously good fit, but Metallica's Kirk Hammett? His familiar heavy riffs nevertheless fit this song very well, and give Cindy an excuse to bang the drums even more savagely to match the two guitarists' aural attack.

11 "Change Is In Your Hands"*** another heavy funk rocker with Vernon Reid guesting on lead guitar and Andy Vargas (current Santana Band vocalist) on rap vocal. Uplifting political message.

12 "Dance Party" *** based on an electronic loop, not my kind of thing but interesting thanks to Bill Ortiz's contribution on trumpet.

13 "Fun Party Splash" *** a much better dance party number than the previous one, with a disco beat and energizing guitar by (who else?) Carlos Santana.

14 "Social Justice"*** another "message" song by the politically attuned couple. Carlos Santana and Andy Vargas guest.

15 "Twilight Mask" *** atmospheric instrumental with prominent low bass and Carlos Santana on free jazz improvisations. Goes on for 9 minutes, which is a bit too long.

16 "Mother Earth"*** Cindy hitting pots and trash can lids, basically everything that was around when she got a musical idea she wanted to put down immediately. Sounds way better than my description lets on.

17 "Black Pearl"**** An atmospheric jazz piece with great guitar by Carlos Santana and Vernon Reid.

Miles Davis "Ultimate Miles" 1945-2007(orig.) 2017(comp)****

I'm sure (or at least I hope, for your sake) that most of you will recognize the scantily dressed lady on the left. Her true name is unknown, but she's known as Venus De Milo. She was abducted by a Frenchman who put her on display at The Louvre, but her original home was the Greek island of Milos where I am right now, writing the introduction to today's post. She has served as a muse to many a pop musician, including Prince and Television, both of which wrote songs with the same name. Jazz saxophonist Gerry Mulligan (then a member of Miles Davis' band) also wrote an instrumental composition called "Venus De Milo" which was included in their masterpiece Birth Of The Cool. Further below you'll find a youtube clip of it, which I hope you'll enjoy. I certainly do enjoy Milos' beautiful beaches and tasty cuisine. I am nevertheless not neglecting my blogging duties and will keep posting during my island vacation. Until next time...

I'm not a huge jazz fan, in fact jazz only accounts for about 5% my rather sizeable collection. Not because I don't like it that much, I often go to jazz clubs and love listening to live jazz. But every time I play instrumental music at home it sort of blends in the background. By the time the CD is finished I remember very little about what I've just heard. Which means I'm not the one to enlighten you when it comes to someone like Miles Davis. Countless people have delved deep in his massive (100+ albums, including live recordings) and incredibly varied discography. Certainly for a genre that can seem samey to the ear of a beginner, few records can sound as different as, say, Kind Of Blue and Bitches Brew. I've always been meaning to buy Davis' "essential" albums to close the relevant holes in my collection but I end up buying overlapping compilations instead. The most exhaustive of them is this 5 CD collection, drawing from all the stages of his career. With such rich source material and ample running time, a cursory look made me think I was looking at the "Utimate Miles" collection indeed. Instead -let me spoil the end of the review for you- the compilers miss the mark. I really just wanted the highlights of Miles' illustrious career. Instead I'd say roughly a third of what's here is essential listening while the rest seems to have been selected randomly. Which doesn't make it a bad album. On the contrary, these CD's have a nice flow, and you get a broad overview of Miles' different styles and periods. But it's nevertheless a missed chance to assemble all of his essential recordings in one place. I guess eschewing the obvious in favour of the relatively unfamiliar is instinctive when the compiler is a true fan. The 5 CD's are more or less chronologically arranged, although not in any order. Instead we begin at the end: 

CD1 (1980-1992) contains songs from his last acknowledged masterpiece Tutu (1986) and covers of contemporary pop hits by Cindy Lauper ("Time after time") and Michael Jackson ("Human nature"). The general direction here is laid-back funk jazz though "Jean-Pierre" sports some fiery electric guitar solos courtesy of Mike Stern. A nice discovery for me was "Mystery" from his last album, the hip hop-influenced Doo Bop released shortly after his death. Two more posthumus selections continue in the same direction with hip hop remixes of classics: "In a silent way" is remixed by dj cam and "Freedom jazz dance" features vocals by rapper Nas.

***** for Time after time

**** for Tutu, Human nature, Fat time, Mystery

*** for Jean-pierre, Back seat betty, Perfect way, White, U 'n' i, Freaky deaky, In a silent way remix, Freedom jazz dance ft. nas

CD2 (1956-1961) is a non-stop parade of classics, especially ballads. Albums anthologized here include Miles Ahead, Milestones, Kind Of Blue, Round Midnight and Gerswin's Porgy And Bess. On some of them Miles is accompanied by John Coltrane (tenor), Cannonball Adderley (alto)  and Bill Evans (piano) - each a jazz giant in his own right. Others feature a bigger band under the supervision of Gil Evans. Every track here is pure magic.

***** for So what, Stella by starlight, Summertime, Round midnight, Blue in green, Someday my prince will come, Bye bye blackbird

**** for New rhumba, Sweet sue just you, It ain't necessarily so, Blues for pablo

*** for Sid's ahead

CD3 (1962-1969) sees Miles making the move from modal jazz to jazz rock. Many important albums are anthologized but the selections seem random: we get "The pan piper" and "Will o'the wisp" from the classical/Spanish folk-inspired Sketches Of Spain, presumably because they are the shortest tracks, a few pretty ballads, the bossanova-tinted "Aos pes da cruz" and "Corcovado", and an excerpt from "In a silent way". But some of his best music of that era is conspicuous by its absence.

***** for I fall in love too easily, Will o'the wisp

**** for Aos pes da cruz, Baby won't you please come home, The pan piper, Corcovado, Circle, In a silent way

*** for Mood, Pinocchio, Vonetta, Fall, Frelon brun

CD4 (1945-1958) contains his oldest recordings. The vibe is atmospheric and romantic, what we sometimes call "nocturnal jazz". Bebop opener "Now's the time" a Charlie Parker tune with Miles and Dizzy Gillespie guesting. We get two songs from his iconic Birth Of Cool album ("Venus de milo", "Moon dreams"), the heartbreaking ballads "It never entered my mind" and "My funny valentine", solo-laden "Walkin'", vibraphone-heavy "Bags' groove" and "Generique" from the soundtrack of French film noir Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud. Doesn't get any cooler than that sight and sound combination. "Blue Room" meanwhile sounds like it's mastered off a scratchy old 78. Musicians guesting here include such luminaries as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey. Jazz fan or not, it's impossible not to like this particular CD.

***** for Now's the time, Dear old stockholm, Venus de milo, It never entered my mind, Walkin', My funny valentine, Bags' groove, Generique

**** for Tasty pudding , Moon dreams, Green haze, Four, In your own sweet way

*** for Blue room

CD5 (1969-1976) deals with his most experimental period, during which he gave birth to so-called Jazz rock. He's often accompanied by that subgenre's dream team including John McLaughlin (guitar), Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul and Herbie Hancock (keyboards), and Wayne Shorter (sax). Unfortunately two of the selections from his iconic album of the period Bitches Brew ("Miles runs the voodoo down" and "Spanish key") are featured in severely truncated form. Another truncated jazz rock opus is "Prelude pt.2" from the live Agharta while we also get two songs from the influencial street-wise funk of On The Corner ("Take 4" and "Black satin"). I was very pleased to discover a few gems from relatively obscure albums: "Water babies" from the same-titled album, "Duran" from Directions and the straight blues "Red china blues" from Get Up With It, surprisingly introduced with some downhome harmonica.

***** for Red china blues, Miles runs the voodoo down, Prelude pt.2

**** for John mclaughlin, Black satin, Spanish key, Water babies, Duran

*** for On the corner take 4, Honky tonk, Sanctuary (live), Willie nelson/the theme (live)

All in all, this may not be the "ultimate" collection it might have been but it does contain a whole lot of great jazz. But while it certainly works well as an introduction to the various sides of this mercurial artist, I'd suggest newcomers to try the more concise Essential Miles Davis. More about that in a future post.