Caravanserai - The Santana Tribute

Caravanserai was joined on stage by Andy Vargas, lead singer of Santana for the Watsonville Relay for Life, a Benefit for Cancer research. Watsonville is Andy's hometown, and he and Caravanserai joined together for one performance to help fight this dreaded disease.
An auspicious occasion for the Santana tribute band to be joined onstage by a member of the band they pay tribute to, it was a wonderful performance and a day to remember!

After being recommended by Paul Reed Smith Guitars,
Hammond Organs, as well as Fuch's Amplifiers,
Caravanserai has had the privilege of being chosen to
perform at NAMM 2007 during the Saturday evening party at the Hilton Hotel.

Caravanserai interviewed live on KGO Radio at Downtown San Jose's American Festival for Independence. Leo Herrera and Hank Gibson are interviewed by Greg Jarrett and Edie Sellers on their special 4th of July edition of the Wednesday Cafe. Click on the link below to check it out.

Old Friends Reunited:

Caravanserai timbale player/percussionist Frank D.
Parise was recently reunited with old friend James
“Mingo” Lewis, world renowned percussionist for
Santana, the Tubes, Return to Forever & Peter Gabriel
(Mingo was on Santana’s “Caravanserai” album which the
tribute band is named after) After a multi decade
absence, the two friends have renewed their
relationship and Mingo has agreed to some special
appearances with Caravanserai. Check the Caravanserai
gig list or join the website’s email list for updates
on when Mingo will be performing with the band, coming
soon!

Leo, Frank & Bernie attended the yearly NAMM Show, as did members of Santana, including Carlos Santana himself. Guitarist Leo Herrera finally got to meet his hero of the past 3 decades, and upon introduction as the leader of Caravanserai- the Santana Tribute, Carlo's response to Leo was:"Beautiful!"

Another auspicious occasion was Leo's introduction to Paul Reed Smith, maker of Carlos Santana's guitars and the same guitars Leo plays and endorses. Go Here to see Leo's name on the PRS guitar artist list.

For more Caravanserai NAMM show report go: Here

Caravanserai would like to thank all our fans for making the gig on Friday, February 1st, a SOLD-OUT performance to be remembered. The packed house danced and sang along to many of the Santana hits, and we t,he band are very thankful for such a wonderful time.
There was an enormous picture of us in Friday's San Francisco Chronicle, making Caravanserai one of the most recognizable tribute bands on the West Coast.

Go here to check it out in the press section.

To read the write-up, and to see a larger picture, click here.

Caravanserai's YouTube video surpasses 10,000 hits!
Thanks to all Caravanserai fans for your support!!!
Go here to see it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCIxJPXVECM

To all Caravanserai Fans- 2009 is shaping up to be a milestone year for us! Look for Special Appearances by ex-Santana percussionist Mingo Lewis as well as ex-Santana lead singer Alex Ligertwood with Caravanserai.
Keep an eye on our calendar!!!

Friday July 9th 2010 was an auspicious occasion for Caravanserai, with the appearance onstage of Jorge Bermudez, percussionist extraordinaire,sitting in at Caravanserai's Redwood City gig at their Music on the Square Series. Bermudez has toured, and or recorded with artists like Malo, Crowded House, The Grateful Dead, Tower of Power, Pablo Cruise, Jose Feliciano, Jeffrey Osbourne, The Escovedo Family including the early historical days with the late Phil and Coke Escovedo, Joe Sample, Peter Case, Dusty Springfield, Johnny Mathis, The Temptations, The Gipsy Kings, Rod Stewart, David Baerwald, Santa Esmeralda, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Benise, Angela Bofill and many more. See him again this week with Caravanserai at Foster City's Summer Concert Series at Leo J. Ryan Park on Friday July 23rd from 6-8 p.m.

Caravanserai- The Santana Tribute to perform with Chaka Khan and Martha Wash at Oakland Pride Festival Sunday September 5th (please see gig page: link)

San Carlos Art & Wine Faire Saturday October 9th Radio spot.

Leo Herrera and Frank Parise spend time with Karl Perrazo (timbales) and Raul Rekow (congas) of Santana at this year's NAMM show in Anaheim. They stayed in the same hotel together and had breakfast the Friday of the show. Karl and Raul both use Frank's new invention the Wingkey (www.wingkey.net) and Karl helpedpitch the tool for Frank to various drum manufacturers for distrubution. This tool, in a year or so, will be standard issue for ALL drummers everywhere. Karl and Raul were great to hang with and it was nice to make a connection with Santana members.

Caravanserai and Santana both performed in Reno, Nevada, about two blocks away from each other. Santana played Reno's new Events Center and Caravanserai played the El Dorado Casino/Hotel. After performing with Santana that night, lead singer Andy Vargas and his friend Philip Retamoza (of the fabulous salsa group Orquesta Gitano), visited Caravanserai at their El Dorado performance. Andy gave Caravanserai a big "thumbs up" and thanked them for performing Santana's music. Caravanserai made fast friends with Andy and look forward to meeting in the future.