Coke Escovedo
| Coke Escovedo | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Joseph Thomas Escovedo |
| Born |
April 30, 1941 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Origin | Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Died | July 13, 1986 (aged 45) Montebello, California, U.S. |
| Genres | R&B, jazz fusion, soul, disco, funk |
| Occupation(s) | Percussionist |
| Instruments | Percussions, timbales, congas, bongos, tambourine, vocals |
| Years active | 1958–1986 |
| Labels | Mercury Records |
| Associated acts | Santana, Azteca, Pete Escovedo |
| Notable instruments | |
| Latin percussion | |
Joseph Thomas "Coke" Escovedo (April 30, 1941 – July 13, 1986) was an American percussionist.
Escovedo grew up in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area and developed an early interest in jazz and Latin music through exposure gained from his father, an aspiring big band singer, and eventually gravitated to drums and Latin percussion. Coke's older brother, fellow percussionist Pete Escovedo, recruited Escovedo for a local Latin jazz combo led by pianist Carlos Federico. The Federico combo evolved into the Escovedo Brothers Band, which also counted Pete, bassist brother Phil Escovedo, saxophonist-flautist Mel Martin and trombonist Al Bent among its regular members.
Escovedo began to gain some notoriety in the San Francisco Bay Area Latin jazz scene and worked with jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader (some of his finest work can be found on Tjader's album Agua Dulce). Escovedo rose to even greater prominence in early 1971 when he first became a member of Santana, initially as a replacement for timbale player Jose "Chepito" Areas, who had been sidelined with medical issues. Escovedo was featured on Santana's Santana III album. Escovedo co-authored a hit song from that album, "No One To Depend On", which peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Years later the song would be covered by Vitamin C as part of her 1999 hit "Me, Myself And I" (#36 on Top 40 Mainstream chart).
While in the Santana band, Escovedo performed at many high-profile concerts, including the historic closing of the Fillmore West (appearing on the live recording and documentary film from that event). Santana drummer Michael Shrieve has credited Escovedo for showing him how to incorporate some Latin percussion figures into his drum set playing during their time together.
During Carlos Santana's transition period between the original and "New" Santana bands, Escovedo also performed with the Carlos Santana/Buddy Miles group, appearing on the 1972 release Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!
Escovedo and Areas had been pioneering a new style on the traditional Cuban timbales. Though drawing on the influence of the extroverted timbale showman Tito Puente, Escovedo took the explosive power of the Cuban drums even farther, adding spice to rock and soul music recordings by artists such as Boz Scaggs, Cold Blood, It's A Beautiful Day, and Malo (with whom he was a featured soloist on their debut LP), as well as to freer jazz experiments with artists such as trumpeter Luis Gasca.
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