‘Deep and
rich’ released by Santos
As
a super percussionist, Walter Santos toured nationally with a who’s who
of the music business, such as Weather Report and Fandango, sharing tour dates
and stages with The Charlie Daniels Band, The Outlaws, Pure Prairie League, New
Riders of the Purple Sage, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Moby Grape, Judas Priest,
and the Marshall Tucker Band.
But
he had a terrible secret that was destroying his life — he was addicted
to drugs, a habit that nearly had him sentenced to life imprisonment. But then
a miracle began to happen in his life when former teenage idol
Dion, who had such hits as “Teenager in Love,” “Runaround
Sue” and “The Wanderer,” told him to totally give his life to
Jesus Christ. He did and later was completely delivered from his habit at
Calvary Ranch in Lakeside.
Santos
learned to play percussion on the streets, with groups on the
“stoops,” a NYC term for hanging out on the front porch of a house.
“I hung out in these strong ethnic neighborhoods,” he said.
“They took me in as one of their own — I had a name like Santos,
but I looked so German! After a while I was asked to play in clubs with a lot
of R&B bands in the neighborhood. My first break came when I was asked to
play percussion with Charles Earland on the same bill with The Jazz Crusaders
at Carnegie Hall. After that, I became a member of the Charles Earland Sextet
and we toured nationally with the likes of George Benson, Les McCann, Jimmy
Smith, and Stanley Turrentine.”
Now
Santos has dedicated his life to Christian music and he has just completed a
surprising new album called “Deep and Rich” which even features the
singing of Pastor Chuck Smith, “father” of the Jesus People
Movement in Southern California and senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Costa
Mesa.
Santos
says, “Listening to ‘Deep and Rich’ is like taking a
spiritual bath in God’s awesome love.”
He
then revealed how the album came about. “For the past several years, I
have been asked to sing the powerful hymn ‘Were You There When they
Crucified my Lord?’ at Calvary Costa Mesa’s Good Friday Service,
held at the Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine. Pastor Chuck Smith, who started
Calvary Chapel over 30 years ago, requested that I sing the song in a
‘deep and rich’ tone. I finally did sing the song for him.
“Meditating
on Pastor Chuck’s words ‘deep and rich,’ then caused me to
think about making a CD of timeless classic hymns and title the
project ‘Deep and Rich’ based on Romans 11:33, which states,
‘Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!’ Pastor
Chuck liked the idea and said, ‘Let’s do it!’”
Santos
said that Holland Davis, director of Calvary Music, spearheaded the project.
“It was his suggestion to use the Maranatha Music style from the early
days of Calvary Chapel,” he stated. “Tom Keene was assigned the
task of arranging and producing the album.”
Santos
can be reached at mashrecovery@aol.com or visit his web page, www.santosministries.org.
Dan
Wooding is founder of ASSIST Ministries. For information about the ministry,
visit www.assistnews.net.