Bay Area Sabor

Malo album cover, from the American Sabor Website

American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music is on display in the Skylight Gallery on the 6th floor through November 13, 2011. This exhibit views the contributions of Latino musicians through the lens of five regional scenes - New York, Miami, Texas, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Art, Music and Recreation Center has long documented the musical life of the Bay Area. We have documented San Francisco Bay Area Latino musicians both through our book collections and through the Bay Area Musicians and Performing Artists newspaper clipping files we have created.

We have books about sisters Joan Baez and Mimi Fariña, Linda Ronstadt, and Carlos Santana. The Art, Music and Recreation Center also has newspaper clipping files on Latino musicians and groups like Francisco Aguabella, Altazor, Azteca, Joan Baez, Bobi and Gladys Cespedes, Francisco Cruz-Sandoval, Carlos Duran, Eddie Duran, Mimi Fariña, Pete and Sheila Escovedo, Los Microwaves, Juanita Newland-Ulloa, The Nuns, Orquesta Batachanga, Linda Ronstadt, Carlos Santana, John Santos, Los Tigres del Norte, Cal Tjader, and Tower of Power.

The American Sabor website includes a page for “The San Francisco Sound.” This includes audio and video excerpts as well as biographies of Joan Baez, Michael Carabello, Pete Escovedo and Azteca, Malo, Carlos Santana, Los Tigres del Norte, Cal Tjader, and Tower of Power.


Reading list:

Joan Baez and Mimi Fariña

And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir by Joan Baez (Summit Books, 1987).

Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001).

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt by Vivian Claire (Flash Books, 1978).

Linda Ronstadt, It's So Easy! by Mark Bego (Eakin Press, 1990).

Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana: Back on Top by Marc Shapiro (St. Martin's Press, 2000).

Soul Sacrifice: The Santana Story by Simon Leng (Firefly Pub., 2000).

Space Between the Stars: A Memoir by Deborah Santana (One World/Ballantine Books, 2005).


Garage Bands from the 60's, Then and Now, stories written and edited by Bruce Tahsler (Teens N' Twenties Pub., 2007) covers the East Bay scene including the Tower of Power. Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day, interviews by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor (Penguin Books, 2009) covers the punk scene including The Nuns.


See earlier blog entry: Garage Bands from the 60's, Then And Now (March 2, 2011)