Doug Rauch
Encyclopedia
Douglas Haywood Rauch (14 September 1950 – 23 April 1979) was an American
bassist
most famous for his work with Carlos Santana
during his jazz fusion
period in the early 1970s.
, Voices of East Harlem, and Bunky and Jake. He arranged to record as a guest on Bunky and Jake's 1969 record; L.A.M.F. The collaboration with Buzzy Linhart also resulted in an album: Music in 1971, opening the door for him to meet and record a track on Carly Simon
's debut album the same year; Carly Simon
.
Accepting an invitation from Santana drummer Michael Shrieve Rauch moved to San Francisco in 1971 where he worked with the band Loading Zone which also featured future Santana bandmate Tom Coster
. Rauch and Coster also worked briefly with guitarist Gabor Szabo
during this period.
, and was an important element in shaping the more jazz/rock/fusion-oriented sound of The New Santana Band. He appears on the albums Caravanserai
, Welcome
, Love Devotion Surrender
and Lotus.
During the Santana years Rauch also played with a third edition of Tony Williams Lifetime (which also featured Japanese
guitar
ist Ryo Kawasaki
), David Bowie
, Lenny White
, Billy Cobham
and the George Duke
Band, and Jan Hammer
.
for his Diamond Dogs
-tour for a month in September 1974. He also did session-work for Japanese singer/guitarist Shigeru Suzuki's album "Bandwagon". In July–August 1975 Rauch worked with Lenny White
on his Venusian Summer - solo release. The same year Rauch joined the Cobham & Duke Band. This collaboration was, however, short-lived due to Rauch's increasing substance abuse
problems. His collaboration with the Jan Hammer Band was also short-lived and he was replaced by Fernando Saunders in late 1975.
and Victor Wooten
. The earliest recorded examples of Doug Rauch using this approach is the "Attitude" on the ”Giants” album (released in 1978, but recorded in 1971) and ”Look Up (To See What's Coming Down)" from Santana's 1972 album Caravanserai
. Another key element of his sound is his frequent use of a phase-shifter. Rauch still used a good amount of conventional two-finger right-hand technique during his Santana years. But with Lenny White and the Billy Cobham & George Duke Band, it was thumbstyle more or less exclusively.
. The bass had an additional Gibson EB-pickup (a.k.a "mudbucker") in the neck position. The original jazz bass neck pickup was replaced with a P-bass pickup. It also sported some additional non-original knobs and switches. He also used a stock pre-CBS era Precision Bass for some of his work with Santana. All of Doug's Bass's where customized by Alembic and two had LED in the neck.
He was also the first bass player ever to use a stereo power amp and pre-amp made by Mcintosch.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
most famous for his work with Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
during his jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
period in the early 1970s.
Early years
Rauch was born in New York, and attended Elizabeth Irwin High School, graduating in 1968. Prior to joining Santana, he worked with several New York-based acts including Buzzy LinhartBuzzy Linhart
Buzzy Linhart is an American rock performer and musician.Born William Linhart in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began honing his craft playing percussion for symphony at the age of seven, switching to vibraphone at ten...
, Voices of East Harlem, and Bunky and Jake. He arranged to record as a guest on Bunky and Jake's 1969 record; L.A.M.F. The collaboration with Buzzy Linhart also resulted in an album: Music in 1971, opening the door for him to meet and record a track on Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
's debut album the same year; Carly Simon
Carly Simon (album)
-Track listing:All tracks composed by Carly Simon; except where indicated# "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" – 4:15# "Alone" – 3:36# "One More Time" – 3:32# "The Best Thing" – 4:14...
.
Accepting an invitation from Santana drummer Michael Shrieve Rauch moved to San Francisco in 1971 where he worked with the band Loading Zone which also featured future Santana bandmate Tom Coster
Tom Coster
Tom Coster is an American keyboardist and composer. Detroit-born and San Francisco-raised, Coster played piano and accordion as a youth, continuing his studies through college and a productive five-year stint as a musician in the U.S...
. Rauch and Coster also worked briefly with guitarist Gabor Szabo
Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...
during this period.
1972-1973
Doug Rauch teamed up with Santana in 1972 replacing Tom Rutley. He made his first appearance with the band in early 1972. Rauch shared a mutual admiration for the music of The Mahavishnu Orchestra with his new bandleaderBandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
, and was an important element in shaping the more jazz/rock/fusion-oriented sound of The New Santana Band. He appears on the albums Caravanserai
Caravanserai (album)
Caravanserai is the fourth studio album by Santana released in October 1972. It marked a major turning point in Carlos Santana's career as it was a sharp departure from his critically acclaimed first three albums...
, Welcome
Welcome
Welcome may refer to:-Place names:* Welcome, Barnet, London, United Kingdom* Welcome , a metro station* Welcome Islands, a small rocky archipelago to the north of the main island of South Georgia* Welcome, Ontario, Canada...
, Love Devotion Surrender
Love Devotion Surrender
Love Devotion Surrender is an album released in 1973 by guitarists Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin, with the backing of their respective bands . The album was inspired by the teachings of Sri Chinmoy and intended as a tribute to John Coltrane...
and Lotus.
During the Santana years Rauch also played with a third edition of Tony Williams Lifetime (which also featured Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Ryo Kawasaki
Ryo Kawasaki
Ryo Kawasaki chose a career as a jazz fusion guitarist after spending some years studying as a scientist. During the 60s he played with various Japanese jazz groups and also formed his own bands...
), David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Lenny White
Lenny White
Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...
, Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
and the George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
Band, and Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...
.
Post-Santana
Doug Rauch played his last show with Santana on New Year's Eve 1973-1974. He was replaced by returning original bassist David Brown. Later that year Rauch teamed up with David BowieDavid Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
for his Diamond Dogs
Diamond Dogs
Diamond Dogs is a concept album by David Bowie, originally released by RCA Records in 1974. Thematically it was a marriage of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Bowie's own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocalyptic world...
-tour for a month in September 1974. He also did session-work for Japanese singer/guitarist Shigeru Suzuki's album "Bandwagon". In July–August 1975 Rauch worked with Lenny White
Lenny White
Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...
on his Venusian Summer - solo release. The same year Rauch joined the Cobham & Duke Band. This collaboration was, however, short-lived due to Rauch's increasing substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
problems. His collaboration with the Jan Hammer Band was also short-lived and he was replaced by Fernando Saunders in late 1975.
Style
One of the key elements of Rauch's style was his unique use of his thumb in a down-and-upward-motion. This technique is now commonly referred to as "double thumbing" and used by several high-profile bass players, most notably Marcus MillerMarcus Miller
Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...
and Victor Wooten
Victor Wooten
Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....
. The earliest recorded examples of Doug Rauch using this approach is the "Attitude" on the ”Giants” album (released in 1978, but recorded in 1971) and ”Look Up (To See What's Coming Down)" from Santana's 1972 album Caravanserai
Caravanserai
A caravanserai, or khan, also known as caravansary, caravansera, or caravansara in English was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey...
. Another key element of his sound is his frequent use of a phase-shifter. Rauch still used a good amount of conventional two-finger right-hand technique during his Santana years. But with Lenny White and the Billy Cobham & George Duke Band, it was thumbstyle more or less exclusively.
Equipment
Doug Rauch main bass was a heavily modified pre-CBS era Fender Jazz BassFender Jazz Bass
The Jazz Bass was the second model of electric bass created by Leo Fender. The bass is distinct from the Precision Bass in that its tone is brighter and richer in the midrange and treble with less emphasis on the fundamental harmonic...
. The bass had an additional Gibson EB-pickup (a.k.a "mudbucker") in the neck position. The original jazz bass neck pickup was replaced with a P-bass pickup. It also sported some additional non-original knobs and switches. He also used a stock pre-CBS era Precision Bass for some of his work with Santana. All of Doug's Bass's where customized by Alembic and two had LED in the neck.
He was also the first bass player ever to use a stereo power amp and pre-amp made by Mcintosch.
Discography
- 1969: Bunky & Jake: L.A.M.F.
- 1970: Music: s/t (1970, re-released as "Buzzy Linhart is Music)
- 1971: Carly SimonCarly Simon (album)-Track listing:All tracks composed by Carly Simon; except where indicated# "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" – 4:15# "Alone" – 3:36# "One More Time" – 3:32# "The Best Thing" – 4:14...
- 1971: Papa John Creach: s/t
- 1971: Giants (recorded 1971, released 1978)
- 1972: CaravanseraiCaravanserai (album)Caravanserai is the fourth studio album by Santana released in October 1972. It marked a major turning point in Carlos Santana's career as it was a sharp departure from his critically acclaimed first three albums...
- 1973: Betty Davis: Betty Davis
- 1973: Love Devotion Surrender (John McLaughlinJohn McLaughlin (musician)John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
& Carlos SantanaCarlos SantanaCarlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
) - 1973: WelcomeWelcome (Santana album)Welcome is the fifth studio album by Santana, released in 1973. It followed the jazz-fusion formula that the preceding Caravanserai had inaugurated, but with an expanded and different lineup this time...
- 1974: Lotus (Santana)
- 1974: Jose Chepito Areas
- 1975: Bandwagon (Shigeru Suzuki)
- 1976: Venusian Summer (Lenny WhiteLenny WhiteLeonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...
) - 1976: Billy Cobham: Life & Times