Douglas Haywood Rauch (14 September 1950 – 23 April 1979) was an American bassist most famous for his work with Carlos Santana during his jazz fusion period in the early 1970s.
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Rauch was born in New York, and attended Elizabeth Irwin High School, graduating in 1968. Prior to joining Santana, he worked with several New York-based acts including Buzzy Linhart, Voices of East Harlem, and Bunky and Jake. He arranged to record as a guest on Bunky and Jake's 1969 record; L.A.M.F. The collaboration with Buzzy Linhart also resulted in an album: Music in 1971, opening the door for him to meet and record a track on Carly Simon's debut album the same year; Carly Simon.
Accepting an invitation from Santana drummer Michael Shrieve Rauch moved to San Francisco in 1971 where he worked with the band Loading Zone which also featured future Santana bandmate Tom Coster. Rauch and Coster also worked briefly with guitarist Gabor Szabo during this period.
Doug Rauch teamed up with Santana in 1972 replacing Tom Rutley. He made his first appearance with the band in early 1972. Rauch shared a mutual admiration for the music of The Mahavishnu Orchestra with his new bandleader, and was an important element in shaping the more jazz/rock/fusion-oriented sound of The New Santana Band. He appears on the albums Caravanserai, Welcome, Love Devotion Surrender and Lotus. During the Santana years Rauch also played with a third edition of Tony Williams Lifetime (which also featured Japanese guitarist Ryo Kawasaki), David Bowie, Lenny White, Billy Cobham and the George Duke Band, and Jan Hammer.
Doug Rauch played his last show with Santana on New Year's Eve 1973-1974. He was replaced by returning original bassist David Brown. Later that year Rauch teamed up with David Bowie for his Diamond Dogs-tour for a month in September 1974. He also did session-work for Japanese singer/guitarist Shigeru Suzuki's album "Bandwagon". In July–August 1975 Rauch worked with Lenny White on his Venusian Summer - solo release. The same year Rauch joined the Cobham & Duke Band. This collaboration was, however, short-lived due to Rauch's increasing substance abuse problems. His collaboration with the Jan Hammer Band was also short-lived and he was replaced by Fernando Saunders in late 1975.
One of the key elements of Rauch's style was his unique use of his thumb in a down-and-upward-motion. This technique is now commonly referred to as "double thumbing" and used by several high-profile bass players, most notably Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. The earliest recorded examples of Doug Rauch using this approach is the "Attitude" on the ”Giants” album (released in 1978, but recorded in 1971) and ”Look Up (To See What's Coming Down)" from Santana's 1972 album Caravanserai. Another key element of his sound is his frequent use of a phase-shifter. Rauch still used a good amount of conventional two-finger right-hand technique during his Santana years. But with Lenny White and the Billy Cobham & George Duke Band, it was thumbstyle more or less exclusively.
Doug Rauch main bass was a heavily modified pre-CBS era Fender Jazz Bass. The bass had an additional Gibson EB-pickup (a.k.a "mudbucker") in the neck position. The original jazz bass neck pickup was replaced with a P-bass pickup. It also sported some additional non-original knobs and switches. He also used a stock pre-CBS era Precision Bass for some of his work with Santana. All of Doug's Bass's where customized by Alembic and two had LED in the neck.
He was also the first bass player ever to use a stereo power amp and pre-amp made by Mcintosch.
Doug Rauch died of a drug overdose in San Francisco, at the age of 28.