Mingo Lewis - Frankincense
And just like that, it's beginning to look a lot like December! Let's inaugurate it with some fiery Salsa-imbued sounds in honor of someone's birthday, wanna?
This will have to be a relatively short post, not least because there seem to be more photos available online of me than there are of today's b'day guy.
Some of the pix, I can't even tell if it's him or his son, who is also a percussionist and is arguably more well known than his dad.
Anyway his name is James "Mingo" Lewis -- the Senior! -- and he was born this day in 1953.
He is probably most renowned for being one of the main players on the beloved Santana album Caravanserai, among other LPs.
Of course, he made one incredible record in the 1970s, entitled Flight Never Ending, but was a force in particular on the Bay Area music scene in that whole, fertile period.
Here he is at the height of his powers 50 years ago, in two Marin performances at the old Sausalito Record Plant at which so many platters of distinction were waxed.
In the first one he is sitting in with Salsa de Berkeley, and the other one finds him leading his own, blazing Latin fusion ensemble.
Salsa De Berkeley + Mingo Lewis
Record Plant
Sausalito, California USA
9.26.1974
01 Samba de Brazil
02 Coco A
03 Brute Force
04 Puerto Rico
05 Note Critico
06 Cana Y
07 Bird of Beauty
08 Alegria
09 Chara Charinga
10 unidentified title incl. percussion jam
Total time: 55:23
Jon Otis - percussion & vocals
David Margen - bass, vocals & percussion
Jeff Narell - steel drums, vocals & percussion
"One Drop" Scott Rasulala - steel drums, percussion & vocals
Marc Roberts - steel drums
Butch Haynes - congas
Juan Carlos - bongos
Dan Regan - trombone, trumpet
Marc Baum - alto & tenor saxophones
Mingo Lewis - congas, bongos & percussion
320/48k Audio of a KSAN-FM "Live from the Record Plant" broadcast, streamed from Wolfgang's Vault
converted to 16/44 CD Audio, edited, tracked & slightly remastered by EN, December 2024
321 MB FLAC/link below
321 MB FLAC/link below
Mingo Lewis
Record Plant
Sausalito, California
11.9.1974
01 unidentified instrumental
02 People
03 Free At Last
04 Flye Trap
05 Light Within
06 Flight Over Rio
07 Revolution
08 Spanish Fly
09 Frankincense
Total time: 58:01
Mingo Lewis - percussion & vocals
Chuck Burgi - drums
Brian Godula - bass & vocals
Kinkaid Miller - keyboards & vocals
Pat Thrall - guitar
320/48k audio of a segment from KSAN-FM's "Live from the Record Plant" series, streamed from Wolfgang's vault
spectral analysis is lossless to 20 kHz, making this essentially equivalent to a preFM source
converted to 16/44 CD Audio, edited, repaired & slightly remastered by EN, December 2024
378 MB FLAC/direct link to both shows
378 MB FLAC/direct link to both shows
I have quite the December planned, but there's a lot going on so I am probably going to post them all as timed things to drop over the course of the month. But I wanted to make sure I squeezed Mr. Mingo into the fun, as he has just turned 71!--J.
