SFJAZZ Singles: Cindy Blackman Santana Band performs “Wildlife“

Watch weekly live broadcasts from the SFJAZZ Center: About this clip: Master drummer Cindy Blackman Santana and her band perform Tony Williams’ 1975 composition “Wildlife” during their performance on June 14, 2023, part of the 40th San Francsico Jazz Festival, broadcast on Fridays Live. About the concert: If there is one artist on today’s music scene with the passion, fire, and percussive mastery to do justice to the legacy of the late Tony Williams, it is undoubtedly Cindy Blackman Santana. She returns with organ great John Medeski and Living Colour guitar genius Vernon Reid to honor Williams and his groundbreaking late 60s/early 70s electric jazz group Lifetime, with special guest Carlos Santana. Made famous by her 10 years providing the bone-deep grooves behind singer and guitarist Lenny Kravitz, Blackman has distinguished herself as a highly versatile player and composer who is as comfortable leading post-bop sessions with Joe Henderson and Wallace Roney as she is touring with pop stars like Kravitz and husband Carlos Santana, whose band she currently anchors. This tribute has its origins in the all-star project Spectrum Road, which revisited the Lifetime material and featured Blackman Santana, Medeski, Reid, and the late bass legend Jack Bruce, who was a founding member of Cream and performed with Williams’ Lifetime band in the 1970s. Their eponymous 2012 Palmetto Records release was named for the Williams/John McLaughlin composition “Via the Spectrum Road” from Lifetime’s explosive 1969 debut, and expanded upon the original material, using it as a springboard for fresh directions, which was in full evidence on this unforgettable night. PERSONNEL: Cindy Blackman Santana: drums Emilio Modeste: saxophone Carlos Santana: guitar Vernon Reid: guitar Aurelien Budynek: guitar David Gilmore: guitar John Medeski: keyboards Zaccai Curtis: keyboards Felix Pastorius: bass Learn more at Subscribe to SFJAZZ’s YouTube Channel: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: ***SFJAZZ is a non-profit organization that presents year round jazz concerts, festivals and educational programs at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, CA.