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Posts: 2017
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RIP Tony Menjivar
My long time band mate passed away today from COVID. He was an incredible congero who played with Malo, Larry Coryell, Joe Satriani, Narada Michael Walden, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and many others. He was a unique talent, and if I wanted to take over a room, all I had to do was give Tony a solo, and he’d tear the place down. I’ll miss you my friend.
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I'm heartbroken over his passing. He was an incredible character.
We had a regular gig at a club in Marin, CA that was owned by a former picador from Spain. He was a very formal and intense man. No BS kind of guy. First time Tony meets him he puffs out his chest in imitation of the guy, and puts on a fake Spanish accent and says "FERNANDO! Mucho gusto! I held my breath, not knowing what the reaction would be. Feranado cracked up at being mocked.
A local flamenco group played the club on a different night of the week. When they heard Tony, they hired him even though he wasn't versed in flamenco compas. His talent transcended gendre.
This is how I'll remember him-jamming with Jorge and Carlos Santana, with his mentor and friend Leo Rosales on timbales:
In the last year he had cancer surgery and heart surgery. When I heard he was in the hospital with covid, I thought he'd recover. I still can't believe it.
Condolences on the passing of your old friend, Mark.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
My condolences, Mark. Seems like he was a great person and musician.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
Thanks guys. It's very sad to think I'll never play music or hang out with him again. Our group really hasn't been active for the last decade- just a gig here and there.
In the back of your mind though you always think there is a possibility of it catching fire again, but now Tony's passing makes that impossible.
In the early 80's I was playing in southern rock style band and after rehearsal I drove by a club where they were playing Latin rock. I stopped and asked to sit in, and that decision led to opening the door to the Latin rock scene in San Francisco.
I've been so fortunate to be part of it. It's full of great musicians inspired above all by by Santana, but also Malo, and War. Seeing my friends in that video playing with Carlos brings me great joy. I know how special that was for them. Carlos is the father of that whole school, and his success is an inspiration and source of pride to the whole Mission district of SF.
One more memory-I decided I wanted to learn to play congas a bit, and asked Tony if he had a set he'd sell me. He gave me a deal on a beautiful set of LP congas. I looked at a few videos and learned a few beats. I really worked on one in particular.
At the next gig I was dying to show Tony and have him jam while I laid down the groove. He asked me to do a different beat, but I said "no man, let me just do this" thinking I could maintain the groove doing this one simple thing while I listened to him jam.
Within seconds he started syncopating and a smile broke out on my face because he was doing such crazy cool stuff. After a less than a minute I was so caught up and dazzled by his skills I completely lost the beat.
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