Gracias John Santos: “Santos Skin To Skin” & Birthday Celebration at SF JAZZ

The John Santos 67th Birthday celebration at the SF JAZZ Center last Sunday night, October 30th was a special affair which included a showing of the new documentary by filmmakers Kathryn Golden and Ashley James on this esteemed musician “Santos: Skin To Skin“. The documentary, which took 10 years in the making, looks into Santos’ life and the aspects of his life that drives him: his family and his multi faceted career as a percussionist, educator, bandleader, record producer, community activist, collaborator and catalyst who makes diverse people and projects connect. (Photo by Luis Medina: David Flores (L), John Santos (Center), Javier Navarette (R) at SF JAZZ 10/30/22)

The film includes interviews with many illustrious figures including the late Santana percussionist and Santos’ close friend Raul Rekow, SF JAZZ artistic director Randall Kline and the legendary Eddie Palmieri who spoke about the impact that Santos has made both as a musician and educator. The film gives insight on his diverse interests from his love of percussion to participating in different musical genres, his well-known arrest with Rekow for playing congas in SF’s Dolores Park, his evolution as a bandleader from Tipica Cienfuegos to the current sextet, his history as an educator of Afro Cuban music and his deep connection with his family and his roots. Santos: Skin To Skin gets in deep into its subject, captures the joyful, sad and significant moments of a rich, meaningful life with footage from different periods from childhood to middle age. It paints a portrait of a passionate artist who continues to make connections and his mission to be an advocate for social justice.

I’ve known John for many years and seen his evolution as a musician as I started my radio career at KPOO and my involvement in the Mission community. We would run into each other since John was from nearby Bernal Heights and I lived in the Mission district. Great memories flashed back as I watched the film such as seeing Raul Rekow and Santos play rumba on a bench at Dolores Park back in the day to Santos playing in bands such as Ritmo 74, and Tipica Cienfuegos to being fascinated with the information he shared in his history of Salsa class at La Raza Graphics back in the day. Golden and James did a fine job capturing the moments of Santos’ life with great archival photos, filmed sequences of performances and the insightful interviews with his wife, friends, colleagues and collaborators.

The second half of the evening featured a wonderful performance of the current John Santos Sextet featuring special guests master percussionist Orestes Vilato, conguero Javier Navarette, hip hop/spoken word artist Rico Pabon and vocalist Destiny Wolf. The top-notch members that make up the current version of the Santos sextet: long time collaborator and flautist Dr. John Calloway, pianist Marco Diaz, bassist Saul Sierra, drummer David Flores and new member, saxophonist Charlie Gurke were excellent. Each member of this exceptional sextet had their moment to shine. A bonus was the encore of the jazz classic Obsession done in the Puerto Rican Plena style which will be on the new John Santos Sextet recording Filosofia Caribeña Vol. 3 coming out in early December. It was a beautiful way to end this special evening that gave a long overdue tribute to this musical trailblazer.