Voices of Latin rock

by Jim McCarthy

"'Voices of Latin rock: the people and events that created this sound' is a dazzling document of modern American music history. In the heat of the politically charged, psychedelic era of the late 1960s, San Francisco's Mission District barrio became a veritable incubator for a new breed of bands that fused burning acid guitar to a base of boiling Latin percussion. The music and recordings of these groundbreaking artists are hailed as having pioneered the sound that came to be known as Latin rock." "Eventually becoming one of the biggest selling acts in the world, Santana, in particular, spearheaded this new musical art form and its subsequent cultural wave. Other Mission-based bands that emerged during Latin Rock's formative years -- Malo, Azteca, Dakila, Sapo, and Abel & The Prophets -- likewise influenced and fed the ranks of such acts as Sly & The Family Stone, Graham Central Station, Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and many others." -- from the front flap.