Someone, not from the U.S. asked me once a while back, about Trop Rock music, of which he had limited exposure to. He mentioned that my music didn't sound like the other Trop artists he had heard. He mentioned that my music was going in different directions than everyone else. I laughed and thanked him replying “I'm kind of the black sheep of the genre”.
We talked for a while, then he put out a perplexing question, asking “How did the genre start, Santana?”
What an interesting question!
First off, Santana's first album came out in 1969, while his band had been together since 1966.
Santana is a very curious individual. Born in Mexico in 1947, his family emigrated to the US about ten years later. Musically, his influences were not from Mexico however, but rather primarily the US and Cuba. This is a major curiosity. Cuban music, specifically Afro-Cuban, isn't something one hears in Mexico.
I thought for a moment. Antonio Carlos Jobim pre-dated Santana, and while his music was certainly very tropical, it wasn't Rock, it was Bosa Nova.
Growing up, my parents were big fans of Martin Denny. However, like Jobim, Martin Denny's music, though extremely tropical, wasn't Rock, it was called Exotica.
The more I thought of it, the more I pondered his observation. Santana was a rock band with it's roots in Rock, Blues, and Afro-Cuban music. Listen to Soul Sacrifice. Hear the forces of rhythm of the drums, congas, bongos. Hear Santana's guitar crying out. You can't help but feel like you're in a Santeria ceremony in the jungles of Cuba.
Trop Rock? I don't know what else it could be?
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