Escovedo rose to even greater prominence in early 1971 when he first became a member of Santana, initially as a replacement for timbale player Jose "Chepito" Areas, who had been sidelined with medical issues.
While in the Santana band, Escovedo performed at many high-profile concerts, including the historic closing of the Fillmore West (appearing on the live recording and documentary film from that event).
Santana drummer Michael Shrieve has credited Escovedo for showing him how to incorporate some Latin percussion figures into his drum set playing during their time together.
Though drawing on the influence of timbale virtuoso's Tito Puente and Willie Bobo, Escovedo took the explosive power of the Cuban drums even farther, adapting them to rock, soul, and funk recordings by artists such as Boz Scaggs, Cold Blood, It's a Beautiful Day, and Malo (with whom he was a featured soloist on their debut LP), as well as to freer Latin jazz experiments with artists such as trumpeter Luis Gasca.
This 1976 solo debut featured a spare, sophisticated soul/funk/jazz/Latin blend highlighting the talents of vocalist Linda Tillery (formerly of The Loading Zone) and keyboardist-composer Herman Eberitzsch.
Escovedo continued to perform in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond at the helm of a band that included former Malo guitarist Abel Zarate[4] in pursuit of a new record deal which never materialized.
He also continued to do session work and to tour with the likes of Santana, Herbie Hancock and his niece Sheila E, finally relocating to the Los Angeles area in the 1980s.