Cindy Blackman Santana is known by pop fans for her long tenure as a drummer with Lenny Kravitz's touring group and her kit work in Santana. Since the 1980s, jazz fans have regarded her as a first-call session player, bandleader, composer, and recording artist. She's cut more than a dozen albums and appeared on more than 100. Give the Drummer Some is a sprawling, genre-crossing, 17-track set that reveals Blackman Santana's gifts in the above categories, as well as her fine vocal and production skills. She composed all but one tune here and produced or co-produced nine tracks, with Narada Michael Walden helming the remainder. In addition to appearances by husband Carlos Santana, she enlisted guitarists John McLaughlin, Vernon Reid, and Metallica's Kirk Hammett in a star-studded cast.
She opens with a radical read of John Lennon's "Imagine." Cindy, Carlos, and bassist Angeline Saris offer a hard funk-rock vamp with keyboards adding punch to the low end. Carlos' signature playing quotes late Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel amid the drummer's whomping fills and breaks. Cindy delivers the lyrics with resolve, even as the Funkadelic-esque backing chorus buoys her. "We Came to Play" is delivered by a riffing fusion trio that includes McLaughlin and bassist Matt Garrison. Its vamp gives way to knotty, intense shredding. "She's Got It Goin' On" is a funky rock rave-up with an infectious vocal hook, choogling organ, deep funk breaks, and biting guitars from Matthew Charles Heulitt. "Miles Away" is a short tribute to Miles Davis; Bill Ortiz's muted trumpet and Benny Rietveld's bass lead the silvery chart appended by Cindy's syncopated drumming and Neal Evans' electric piano. "Everybody's Dancin'" is modeled on Curtis Mayfield's goseplized approach to soul, its breezy three-chord vamp sets up Carlos' stinging guitar fills with a stirring vocal from Cindy. "Velocity" offers instrumental, guitarless fusion by the leader with Garrison and Evans that recalls Jaco-period Weather Report. "Superbad" (not the James Brown tune) is screaming acid funk with furious kit work and a steamy vocal appended by a filthy bassline, careening synth, and screaming guitar from McLaughlin. Set highlight "You Don't Want to Break My Heart" is a glorious soul ballad. Cindy's vocal is resonant; its spirit evokes Marvin Gaye as Carlos supports her with some of his most emotional work here. "Evolution Revolution" is spiraling hard rock featuring Reid and Hammett in a shred fest. "Twilight Mask" is a long, snaky, future blues instrumental offered with echoplexed drums in a trio with Carlos and Santana band rhythm section partner bassist Benny Rietveld. Closer "Black Pearl" is a moody jazz instrumental driven by lyric drumming inside a quintet. Reid and Carlos inventively dialog with Cindy, Evans, and one another. Give the Drummer Some's only problem is its sometimes-tricky sequencing -- with a palette this wide, it's almost unavoidable. That said, the music provides a truly remarkable showcase for Blackman Santana's depth as a musical renaissance woman, whose signature is marked by infectious grooves and a truckload of soul.