One, Two, Three...

Play your part.
Make the whole thing sound like a complete package.
The essence of a band is that the parts make something greater than themselves.
What is a John, Paul, George or Ringo?

Ah, but what is The Beatles?

So the drummer has to know when to swell the music and when to bring it down for the vocalist.
The bass player must be the anchor - never to lose his place no matter the distraction.
The rhythm guitar backs the bass and provides fills.
The keyboards, likewise.

I play more Santana and I play it better than anyone else I know. Years of following the band and wanting that soulful cry that Carlos can evoke has led me very close. Close to the point the patrons asked me to play without regard to the rest of the band. My ego thanks you, but my sense of whole does not. My sense of music certainly doesn't.

So the regular drummers brother 'forgets" to bring his ID. Drama.
The the other guitarist plays nothing but solos. Selfish.

The second drummer and his brother put up a very steady back beat. I play with them.
And while it does serve my sense of whole - serving a higher purpose than my own swelled head, the package was fragmented by the lack of cohesion from the others.

I will give the bass player and his younger brother a lot of credit - they came to play, to rehearse. Not to just jam. Or stroke their own egos. It took a lot of work to get them to take a break - no, they wanted to get the set down.
We played 'Black Magic Woman,' ten...twelve times?
We segued that into 'Oye Como Va,' which lead to Europa.
While the band is working the back to 'Oye', I stand and explain the original tune was written by Tito Puente in 1963 and then famously covered by Santana in 1969. We are rehearsing in a bar full of patrons. Eventually the other two seem to get it. It's not about any of us - it's about the people that came to hear us.

When we finished Europa, we brought the house down.
An instrumental?
Yeah, it was that good.
That's, what I am talking about.