José Chepito Areas

On May 11, 1969, José “Chepito” Areas and Michael Carabello, both drummers for Santana, joined the Grateful Dead on stage for Alligator and Lovelight. It sounds to our ear like Chepito was on congas, which he occasionally played with Santana. But it would not surprise us to find out that he was playing the timbales, the drums for which Areas is really known for. Regardless, the additional drummers transformed the Grateful Dead’s sound in a way that few other percussionist guests ever did, injecting a Latin drum circle quality that provides a firm base for – as well as helping to shape – Jerry’s guitar work and Pig’s vocal presence (read more about the music).

Born in Nicaragua, Chepito was instrumental in reshaping Santana, which had been an ostensible blues band earlier in the sixties, into the Latin rock power that we know and love. But long before Areas joined Santana in 1969, he had made a name for himself in both his native country, where he was known as the “Gene Krupa of Nicaragua,” and in the Bay Area music scene with his band, The Aliens.

Looking to move towards Latin rock, Carlos Santana sought Chepito out after an Aliens show and asked if Areas, as the timbales player remembers it, “could teach them the Latin stuff.” At the time, Chepito and the Aliens took the stage in jackets and ties, and the drummer did not quite know what to make of this “bunch of dirty hippies.” But Areas signed on, quickly becoming the “musical director” of the band, helping the rest of Santana develop their chops and sharing his expansive knowledge of Latin music. He also “threw away my shirt and tie and started acting like them. I started growing my hair out; I adopted a rocker style.”

It was the new Santana sound that Chepito helped foster that floored the 400,000 strong at Woodstock and launched Santana into superstardom. But when Areas and Carabello had taken the stage with the Dead back in May, all this was in the future. Not only was Santana a deep undercard at the concert, rating with Lee Michaels and local band Tarantula while Canned Heat and the Grateful Dead shared top billing, but the San Diego show was one of Santana’s very first outside the Bay Area.

Areas stayed with Santana through most of the seventies while also recording with other musicians – Herbie Hancock, John Lee Hooker, Boz Scaggs, and many more – and releasing his own critically acclaimed, though poorly distributed, self-titled album. And he continues to record today in his 70s.