Some Saturday Love: Prestia, Garibaldi, Pickett, and Tamalier of “Tower of Power” Do “Squib Cakes/What Is Hip?” Without the Horn Section, 1998
UPDATE (1/28/12, 3:51 p.m.): Okay, I made a boo-boo. It’s not “Squib Cakes,” it is “Oakland Stroke.” Sooooo, sorry.
I was actually looking for a video studio version of “Can’t You See?” from 1974′s Back to Oakland, which, next to their debut album, is one of my favorites from Tower of Power. It’s possibly their masterpiece, really. Instead, I picked this piece out of the air. Who are these guys? This is Francis Rocco Prestia on bass, David Garibaldi on drums, Lenny Pickett on sax, and Jeff Tamalier, guitar. They are performing and demonstrating their crafts at Bass Day ’98, starting on the one.
And here is the band in full force, just last November.
People think that creative people live in a vacuum, and that we don’t know each other. (Like the Imagist poet Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) didn’t know the singer, actor, scholar and ex-football player Paul Robeson? They even performed in a silent film together in Europe.) These showcases like Bass Day are opportunities, like the proverbial jam sessions late into the night at clubs, where people can see and respond to and interact with the geniuses on a one-to-one level.
I was able to rip off an MP3 version of “Can’t You See?” straight from the album here, thanks to Ken Shane of the blog Soul Serenade: “Can’t You See?” Tower of Power, “Back to Oakland”, 1974
Forty-four years together. Damn.
Prestia especially is an acknowledged bass god. Not to say that the rest of these guys aren’t slouches (Garibaldi! Pickett!) But it was great to see them without the famous horn section, and getting their praises and appreciation from peers, serious fans and students.
Related articles
- Sacramento’s Very Own Artist And Performance Painter David Garibaldi (ksfm.radio.com)
- Tower of Power with Special Guest AWB – The Klein Thu. Nov. 17, 2011 (theconcertslut.wordpress.com)
- Soul Serenade: Tower of Power, “Can’t You See (You Doin’ Me Wrong)” (popdose.com)
