Biography:

Raul Matthew Rekow ( born June 10 , 1954 in San Francisco , California ; † November 1 , 2015 [1] [2] [3] [4] , according to some sources November 2 , 2015 [5] [6] , ibid.) was an American rock musician . From 1976 to 2013 he played congas , bongos and other percussion with Santana . The name Rekow goes back to a German grandfather from Coburg .

Life

Raul Rekow initially started with trumpet and French horn , but preferred to play drums . But then he saw the Santana Blues Band at the Cow Palace ( San Francisco ) in 1967. This show and the Santana sound inspired him to switch to congas. From then on, his dream was to end up with Santana. [7]

At the age of 15, he covered Santana songs with a band called Soul Sacrifice. He then played with Malo, Carlos’ brother Jorge Santana’s band, and from 1972 to 1976 with Sapo, another band in the Chicano scene.

In 1976 he was invited to Santana to record the album Festivál as a replacement for the ill Armando Peraza . Apart from a two-year break (1988/89), he remained an integral part of the band until summer 2013. Armando Peraza, one of the best percussionists in Latin jazz long before Santana , became Rekow’s teacher and mentor under Santana until the late 1990s. [8th]

In between, Rekow also worked with other musicians such as John Lee Hooker , Aretha Franklin , Patti LaBelle , Whitney Houston , Tremaine Hawkins and Herbie Hancock . He was involved in the ROAR project in 1985 with Armando Peraza and other Santana colleagues. And he was part of the mega-successful album Supernatural in 1999, for which he received eleven Grammy Awards together with the other Santana musicians . [9] [10]

Raul Rekow was one of the world’s most renowned conga players and, together with the instrument manufacturer Latin Percussion , released a signature conga and bongo edition that he helped develop himself.

Credits: