Hyde Street Studio Sessions: Anthony Blea & John Santos

Experience an intimate live performance inside the historic Hyde Street Studios with violinist Anthony Blea & percussionist John Santos, two of the Bay Area’s preeminent practitioners of Afro-Cuban traditions. 

As part of its Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series, the Tenderloin Museum presents another installment “Hyde Street Studio Sessions,” an intimate live music experience that gives music lovers and history buffs alike the opportunity to experience a local legend perform inside the iconic recording studio (formerly known as Wally Heider Studios) that is responsible for the “San Francisco Sound.” On December 5, 2024, violinist Anthony Blea and percussionist John Santos lead a Latin jazz quintet for two hour-long sets of music and storytelling, recounting their experiences recording at the TL’s historic studio. 

As two of the Bay Area’s preeminent practitioners of Afro-Cuban traditions and masters of Latin jazz, Blea and Santos have been musical collaborators for decades both on and off the record. Their collective recording credits at Hyde St. Studios are vast and stylistically diverse; however, for this installment of “Hyde Street Studios Sessions” the duo will undoubtedly focus on two records cut at Hyde St. by Orquesta Batachanga. La Nueva Tradicion (1982) and Mañana para los Niños (1985) mixed traditional rhythms with contemporary sounds and significantly influenced the Bay Area’s Afro-Latin music scene. 

The Orquesta Batachanga / Hyde St. Studios connection came to TLM’s attention thanks to Josealberto “Beto” Salazar, longtime Tenderloin resident and co-host (with his father Alberto) of the superlative Discomovil Salazar, a weekly radio show on Psyched! Radio SF that features “tropical music from all over the world.” So, we’ve asked Beto to lead a conversation with Blea & Santos during each set to get the history of Orquesta Batachanga recording at Hyde St. in the 1980s and to trace their influence into the present. 

Not only will audiences be up close and personal with these Bay Area musical luminaries, they will also get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at an active recording studio and the dedicated crew of engineers and musicians that create and sustain musical community in the heart of the Tenderloin. Nestled in what was historically San Francisco’s entertainment district, Hyde Street Studios has been an active recording studio for over 50 years, and throughout that time has stood as a bastion for working musicians, creative collaboration, and independent artistry. Blea, Santos, & their band will play two (separately-ticketed) sets on the floor of Studio A, Hyde Street’s main live room that drips with vintage vibe and resonates with over 50 years of musical history. The venue is unique, site-specific, and, given the nature of the space, close quarters–there are only 20 seats available for each set!

Click here to learn more about John Santos and here for more on Anthony Blea.

This program is made possible by support from the Specified General Fund for the Museum Grant Program under the California Cultural and Historical Endowment. 

** About Hyde Street Studios **

Founded in 1969 as Wally Heider Studios in the heart of the Tenderloin, Hyde Street Studios is the longest running multi-room recording studio in the Bay Area. It was the first technologically modern recording studio in San Francisco, and its founder Wally Heider was not only a pioneering recording engineer but also a savvy businessman who saw an opening for a studio that placed creative control in the hands of artists (instead of their labels). The well appointed space attracted independent bands like the Grateful Dead, and a slew of iconic records were cut at Wally Heider, such as the Dead’s American Beauty, CSNY’s Deja Vu, Santana’s Abraxas, and many more. The studio’s freewheeling, convivial atmosphere engendered the “San Francisco Sound,” which meant a “live” feeling coming through on the records: for example, Eric Burdon’s impassioned, LSD fueled vocal performance on “Spill the Wine” with WAR, or Herbie Hancock’s epic, unbridled jazz jams captured in whole thanks to cleverly daisy-chained tape decks.

When Wally Heider officially closed in 1980, local studio owner and songwriter Michael Ward, along with initial partners Tom Sharples and Dan Alexander, took over and kept the space alive as Hyde Street Studios; ever since, Hyde Street Studios has continued the legacy of encouraging creative collaboration and building musical community. Stylistically, the studio grew with the times, too, and the records cut there in the past 42 years reflect a wide spectrum of contemporary recorded music and a deep connection to many of the Bay Area’s local scenes. Dead Kennedys, Flipper, and The Tubes, and later Green Day put Bay Area punk onto tape at Hyde St.; Tupac, Digital Underground, & Del the Funky Homosapien cut records of now classic Bay Area hip-hop. Today, the studio continues to be a robust hub for music making, a haven for working players, writers, and engineers, from local talent to major label stars and national touring acts. Read more about the studio & its history here.