Soul Sacrifice: Michael Shrieve Turns 75
Celebrating the career of Santana’s otherworldly drummer
Michael Shrieve, who turns 75 on July 6th, had one of those “big star” moments, 55 years ago this August.
I bet you know the moment, which technically speaking was nine-and-a-half minutes. I have to think it resonated when it happened – I wasn’t there mind you – but it made a huge impact the following year, and has continued to have repercussions for decades.
Woodstock, the movie.
Shrieve was Santana’s drummer, playing alongside percussionists Michael Carabello and Joe “Chepito” Areas, and the gig was a 45-minute, mid-day set at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in August of 1969. He was the youngest musician on stage during the entire three-day run.
It was guitarist Carlos Santana’s band, certainly. But when documentary director Michael Wadleigh cut the film, what he chose to highlight from Santana was very much the group’s percussionists, featuring their extended jam during “Soul Sacrifice.” Movie audiences in their seats were whipped into the same kind of Latin rock frenzy as had the standing, sweating crowd at the festival.
VIDEO: Santana performs “Soul Sacrifice” at Woodstock
“The experience was something that was irreplaceable,” Shrieve told me about eight years ago. “It was a milestone. When we got there – aside from hearing that the highway was closed, aside from flying in in that helicopter and seeing that amount of people – the experience of doing it was actually somewhat surreal because nobody knew us at all. We didn’t even have a record out.”
And Shrieve was hardly a Latin rhythm expert. “I had a book that I did some practicing out of, a very basic Latin rhythm book by a man named Ted Reed,” he said. “But I had no experience whatsoever and you can hear it in the music, because I play so in-authentically. I just tried to fit in with them in a way that felt good. Even when we do Latin rhythms, I’m always swinging like a jazz drummer on the cymbals. So, it’s different than a Latin player and in retrospect it’s what created the sound of our rhythm section. It was a combination of elements that had its own feeling.”
Santana’s eponymous debut was recorded in May of ’69 and did not hit record racks until later that August.
“That was really something that we got over like that,” Shrieve said, sounding still somewhat amazed. “I can only figure that it was sort of a tribal element in the music and the tribal feel of the audience, but we really connected. It was really an incredible experience and then when the film came out that was a whole other dimension: First of all, seeing ourselves like that in a theater because we hadn’t seen any rough cuts or anything so seeing it was really amazing And then, of course, the way that has imprinted in people’s hearts and minds and stayed that way over all this time is amazing.”
And yet, there was a downside. When you hit a peak that high, that young and that cross-cultural …
“For the longest time, for many years I just kept trying to tell people about what I was doing aside from Woodstock,” said Shrieve. “Because it was so impactful, so many people asked about it. That was my lot in life. It was like being Shirley Temple or something. I was always like, ‘Have you heard my latest record?’
But there came a time … “At a certain point, I think I was around 35 years old – it was [me saying to myself] ‘You know what, just shut up and be grateful. You’ve done something that means so much to so many.’ I figured just keep doing what you, and change your attitude and just have gratitude for the fact that you did something that means so much to so many people.”
Shrieve played with Santana through 1974, playing on five albums. There was a toll taken, the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, the drugs specifically. Looking back, he said, “I can see certain periods and I can just see it on the faces of everybody. It’s terrible. But we’re alive and we’re kicking and thriving and we’re grateful for that.”
Shrieve was active after he left Santana in the mid-70s, with the bands Automatic Man and Go, the latter a prog-rock/jazz super-group with Steve Winwood, Stomu Yamashta, Tangerine Dream’s Klaus Shultze, and Return to Forever’s Al DiMeola. Shrieve also played percussion on the Rolling Stones’ Emotional Rescue album.
In 2013 Carlos reconnected with the guys in the “classic” lineup – Shrieve, singer-guitarist Neil Schon (who joined in 1971), singer keyboardist Gregg Rolie (both Journey men) and percussionist Carabello. Timbales player Areas was arrested in 1996 for allegedly molesting two children, and wasn’t invited. Marcus Malone, who joined after Areas left, had served time for manslaughter and was living on the streets of Oakland, but was found by a TV reporter and had a reunion with Carlos. It was hoped he could play on the album they were planning, but that fell through, Santana saying he didn’t have “the strength or stamina.” Then, Malone was severely injured by an unsecured tire that flew off a passing car and went on life support, later transferred to a nursing facility. He died Oct. 12, 2021. (Benny Rietveld joined on bass and Karl Perazzo on percussion.)
Life – and playing music – is different from when you’re just barely out of your teens and when you’re in your seventh decade.
“What was interesting was preparing for these shows,” Shrieve said. “Going over music that you played when you were 20-years-old and playing at this age, with this band, there’s a physicality to it that is a whole other story. That’s one real obvious situation that demanded quite a bit of attention because even if you’re playing [regularly], it’s different when you’re playing Santana music. It’s pretty intense and it’s loud. Those guys are loud now!”
VIDEO: The Making of Santana IV
To shape up, Shrieve said, “I literally went to physical therapy three times a week for five weeks, working on stuff with my forearms, juicing and going to the gym, going to the [rehearsal] set with the heater on, like hot yoga. Of course, mentally, yes, we’re all different, but we have an understanding that what we experienced as young men, what we created as young men, means a lot to each one of us, individually, so we bring that gratitude with us to the table when we get together, that acknowledgement and recognition. We don’t argue as much. We all put our best foot forward and try to make the music as strong as possible. The amazing thing was how much it was there. That there really is such a thing as chemistry and what we do together has a force of its own.
“We rehearsed one night and then we played at House of Blues in March. And we did three gigs on the east coast and they were all good too. The only disappointment with those performances was that we didn’t take it on the road over the summer.”
And then Santana went back to his other Santana – not the lineup of Santana Shrieve was in.
“That’s just him, he’s been doing that for years,” said Shrieve. “There certainly is confusion and a lack of clarity about what is what. I know a lot of people who bought tickets for European dates as well were suspecting it was the Santana IV band, which is what we were calling this original thing.”
That was it for Santana IV. “I don’t know what the reason is and there hasn’t been much communication,” Shrieve said.
It baffled Shrieve. The album went Top 10, the dates they did do went well. And, as everyone knows, even best-selling records barely sell a fraction of what they used to, streaming royalties are iffy, and musicians make their money touring.
“The record’s done fairly well,” says Shrieve, “but you make your money out on the road. There’s no doubt. I can’t hide the fact that I’m disappointed that we didn’t go out.”
It’s not that Shrieve sat around waiting for the call. He played with a group in Seattle, Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder, a five-piece band, including Hammond B-3 organist Joe Doria, guitarist Danny Godinez, bassist Farko Dosumov and trumpeter Raymond Larsen. They have two albums, the first Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder Live at Tost and the second, just Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder.
“The music is different and I bring another sensibility to it than I do to Santana,” says Shrieve. “You have to find the center within yourself. The essence of myself is still there but it’s grown in ways of wisdom and I approach it that way. I sit down to the drums in a way I have musical control over. It’s more like floating down a river, much more of a Zen approach I take to the whole thing. It’s instrumental music. It’s not ‘out there’ and it’s not esoteric.
“I’ve got another record coming out this year called Drums of Compassion, where I’m standing up playing 16 toms in a semi-circle. It’s almost like a mediation record, but it’s also got some great Jack DeJohnnette and Airto on it and I do a piece with Amon Tobin and Trey Gunz so I’m excited about that as well.”
Actually, that album did not come out in 2016; it finally released on May 24 of this year. On Shrieve’s website, he says, it “is not merely an album; it’s an odyssey that began two decades ago inspired by the Dalai Lama’s call for a Time of Compassion, with a nod to the title of the Nigerian Percussionist Babatunde Olatunji’s classic album from 1959, Drums of Passion, which is one of the first records to popularize African Music to the Western World. This album is graced with an Introduction Vocal Incantation by Olatunji himself and acts as a bridge between eras, cultures and sounds, embodying the spirit of unity and transformative power of music.”
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