Dave Brown – Bass

Dave Brown was the bass player for Carlos Santana between 1867-71 and 1974-76 and was the man who played the bass with Santana at Woodstock. Not a flashy player, Brown was the perfect foil for the guitar player. I chose this tune to transcribe because I wanted something that was almost entirely semi-breve and would not be too difficult to read (so many of my recent transcriptions have been really demanding if not unreadable – which is kind of missing the point). When the guitar solo starts, the line gets a little tougher but, because it repeats with minimal changes, it is not going to derail many of us.

This is Brown’s bass part for the classic ‘samba Pa Ti’ from the 1970 ‘Abraxas’ album.