The Michael Shrieve Interview

San Francisco, back again my friend to the days of wine and roses -Cal Tjader, Bayete, Armando Peraza, Eddie Marshall Ron Stallings,  and the rest of the Mill Valley Gang which included David "What are their names" Crosby.

San Francisco was a beautiful artistic enclave before anybody knew it was great. It was an incubator of Latin Funk mixed with Psychedelic Rock and 1st generation blues players like a John Lee Hooker. Marin City was filled with the sounds of Wes Montgomery and Bola Sete.

My guest hails from The Bay and is a blur of movement and magic. Lightning fast when he is in that trance. The one he found himself in again and again in his garage Woodshedding for hours. Being ready for the live moment in front of audiences at Andres or The Poppycock or Woodstock. Relentless pursuit for those who chant with Carmelo Garcia and Victor Pantoja and Hadley Caliman.

My guest was the drummer for Carlos Santana during the most explosive growth of electronic music in our countries history. Sound expansion, playing seemingly simple patterns in complex polyrhythmic grooves exploring the thesaurus of scales the way Coltrane used to duke it out with Elvin Jones. Except it was my guest along with Doug Rauch and Michael Carabello with Tom Costner laying on the B-3.

He has played on the world stage with the heaviest cats like Neil Schon, Sammy Hagar and Steve Winwood challenging gravity with flurries of patterns while still holding it down. He is the same master drumming discussion as Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham, Billy Kreutzmann, Lenny White Greg Errico and Gaylord Birch.

When music came out of the community and was supported by the community.

Now that community looks somewhat different as we have fully become automatic men in the age of digitization. On this journey I have used technology to find my heroes in music. Once accessed these cats provide lessons in leadership, love, life and lineage. My guest does it by helping people dance, maybe even the teacher in the classroom because you want to enjoy the musical ride. Looking to set the rhythm straight in 2015 Michael Shrieve welcome to the JFS.