Marcus "The Magnificent" Malone (July 29, 1944 – October 12, 2021) was an American percussionist and a founding member of the

Latin rock Latin Rock is a term to describe a subgenre blending traditional sounds and elements of Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean folk with rock music. However, it is widely used in the English-language media to refer any kind of rock music featurin ...

band

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

Life and career

Malone was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. The band

- originally known as the Santana Blues Band - was formed in 1966 in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

with Malone as a percussionist specializing in Latin instruments. Guitarist

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...

and bassist David Brown credited Malone with inspiring the band's early improvisational approach on tracks like " Jingo".Ben Fong-Torres, "The Resurrection of Santana", ''Rolling Stone'', December 7, 1972
Retrieved 27 October 2021 The group found little success in the music scene until it was slated to perform at the August 1969

Woodstock Music Festival The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquarian Expositio ...

and began work on its debut album, ''Santana''. Malone is credited as co-writer of " Soul Sacrifice", which featured on the album and which the band performed at Woodstock. By the time of the band's appearance, Malone had been convicted of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

for stabbing a man, and was serving his sentence in

San Quentin State Prison San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated area, unincorporated place ...

. After his release from prison in 1973, Malone had been living on the streets of

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

, where he was accidentally discovered by

KRON-TV KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's outlet for The CW. Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV has studios ...

field reporter Stanley Roberts in December 2013. Malone and Carlos Santana subsequently had an emotional reunion and Malone was set to play as a percussionist on the band's upcoming album ''

Santana IV ''Santana IV'' is the twenty-fourth studio album (and the thirty-eighth album overall) by American rock band Santana, released in April 2016. Overview The album reunited most of the surviving members from the early 1970s lineup of the band (i ...

''. Though they did meet to rehearse, Malone did not appear on the album. Santana said, "I could tell he hadn’t played in years. He didn’t have the strength or stamina.” On June 18, 2016, Malone was critically injured by an unsecured tire that flew off a passing car in Oakland and knocked him backwards onto the sidewalk. He was placed on life support at Oakland's Highland Hospital. A crowdfunding

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...

page for his medical expenses was set up by his personal manager and nephew, Carl Jacobs. Malone was transferred to a skilled nursing facility in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

. Malone died on October 12, 2021, at the age of 77.

Albums

With Santana

*'' Live at the Fillmore 1968'' (1997) (Label : Columbia) *''

The Very Best of Santana – Live in 1968 ''The Very Best of Santana – Live in 1968'' is a (double CD) live album by Santana, recorded in 1968 and released in 2007 on the Mastersong (Australian) label. Track listing Disc one #" Jingo" – (Babatunde Olatunji) #"Everyday I Have the ...

'' (2007) (Label : Mastersong – Australian import)

References

External links

Encounter Santana and Marcus Malone
1944 births 2021 deaths African-American rock musicians American percussionists Columbia Records artists Santana (band) members Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee {{US-drummer-stub