Borboletta: A Tribute to Santana

The idea for this Santana Tribute Group began to come together after a show in early October 2012 when percussionist Johnny Durkin (DBB/Manchado),Cyrus Madan (Keys-DBB) and Tim Palmieri (Guitar-Kung Fu) had a warm up gig for a wedding.

“At the last minute Adrian Tramontano (Kung Fu) had to sub on drums so we picked a Santana song to start the 2nd set, and that was it,” says Durkin. “Afterward, we made the decision to create a side project dedicated to our favorite Santana tunes. Cy and I have always loved listening to those albums in the van over the years, and obviously the same thing had gone on with Tim and Adrian.” Over the years, Durkin became good friends with Yahuba Garcia-Torres (Ryan Montbleau Band), a fellow percussionist and devotee to Afro Cuban Music; so, when this idea came up, Yahuba was his first thought for another percussionist. It’s also an excellent experience to get to play music with crazy talented friends, and that’s where Rich Zurkowski (Bass-Manchado, The Durkins) rounds out the line-up. “As far as performing at this years GOTV,” adds Durkin, “I can’t think of a better place for this idea to come to light. It’s very difficult to get all tour schedules to align, and we are excited for the opportunity to all come together at such a beautiful place, with fans like the VibeTribe. Thanks to Ken for making it happen. I’ve been fortunate enough to play at EVERY SINGLE GOTV -including Dead Head Heaven- and I know I speak for the rest of the guys when I say that it is an honor for us to pay tribute to Carlos Santana and his Band at Vibes. Both he and The Grateful Dead paved the way for this type of music at events, and we will be celebrating that spirit with every note.”

“Borboletta” means Butterfly in Portuguese, and is the name of Santana’s 6th studio album.