THERE ARE perhaps only a handful of artists that I would catch a plane to see and Carlos Santana is certainly one of them. We go a long way back, to when my older brothers purchased an alluring LP called Abraxas in the early 1970s.
My first ever concert was Santana at Wembley in 1977 – I even have the bootleg tape I recorded. It sounds pretty awful by today’s flashy digital standards but it’s a much cherished item on a shelf full of interviews with various artists.
What I like most about Santana is even though he looks older, he simply has not aged musically. I don’t mean that in some kind of boring dinosaur-type way – he has moved on but also stayed firmly rooted in himself.
So it was refreshing to get an email a month ago from my friend Bill Ortiz, who has been playing trumpet for Carlos post-Supernatural, inviting us to see them live in Athens. Arriving in the Greek capital, we were also fortunate to be in the hotel next door to the hotel where the band were staying on Syntagma Square.
Athens is not the type of place to be schlepping around in the heat looking for hotels and friends who play with Santana, who are surrounded by tight security. So we felt lucky and blessed to be 10 steps away.
The gig itself at the magnificent Olympic Stadium was jam-packed. Around 40,000 people cutting across all generations are a testament to how much of a night it was. Carlos, as expressive as always, went through an electrifying set covering several decades of illuminating material. Standard numbers sounded familiar and fresh. Three different vocalists shared the verses on ‘Black Magic Woman’ and Carlos reached the sky with the solo. In the middle of the set he paid a very fitting tribute to Michael Jackson with a moving version of ‘She’s Out Of My Life’. He did it in such a tasteful manner. No big, long-winded speeches, just a very touching sentence at the end and an admirable interpretation of a song that touched many hearts.
Carlos Santana’s survival as a live and recorded artist boils down to several basic ingredients. His humility as an artist and imperviousness to what has always been going on around him in the world is so honest that it warrants much wider recognition. He is an inspirational – even visionary – artist who has always given so much on and off stage to the causes of peace, respect and a more compassionate world.
Acoustically, he is possibly the most expressive electric guitarist of all time. This is not intended to mean he is the best or the baddest or whatever other egocentric accolade us writers hurl at various artists as a form of praise. It’s just meant to say that Carlos makes his guitar speak and when that happens his powers of communication with an audience are inspiring and mesmerising.
Philosophical, hippy world view sits into the recipe rather naturally and this was elaborated on very eloquently. People shine light or choose darkness. The world, as Carlos says is between love and fear and for the sake of the world we should all chose love every time.
Finally, he is possibly one of the hardest working and in-demand live musicians of all time. History speaks for itself. Santana has more or less been gigging around the globe non-stop since the early 1970s. That’s some track record and even now in 2009 his stadium gigs in Europe and Latin America are sold out.
Going backstage afterwards, I was a little disappointed that the spiritual one had departed. Never mind, we will meet some day. I did however see percussionists Raul Rekow and Karl Perazzo improvising and jamming live on two coffee tables. Frankly, after this experience, coffee tables will never be the same, they take on a whole new meaning for this scribe.
Carlos Santana’s European tour continues until the end of this month. If you missed them in Greece they will also be in Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Germany and the UK. More details at the official web site www.santana.com Many thanks to Bill Ortiz for the tickets and hospitality…
REST IN peace Michael Joseph Jackson – you should always be remembered for your music, philanthropy and nothing else. Even in death, elements of the media obsessed with gossip just carry on digging for negative dark angles. It so sad that some one cannot simply finally find some peace.