FOR CARLOS SANTANA, LIVE MUSIC IS THE ONLY WAY TO UNDERSTAND WHY MUSIC STILL MATTERS
The hippie talk hasn't lost its lustre, or at least when it comes with palpable authenticity from Carlos Santana. Here's the man of tribal throbs, shamanistic melodies, musical transcendence: songs aren't just songs, but supernatural agents that lift us up and transport us, hopefully, to a better world.
"What we're trying to is create SOCC, the sound of collective consciousness," Santana said in a phone interview. "It's the sound that Bob Dylan calls 'forever young', but we call it 'eternally relevant,' _ the sound that in Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, or in the Indian reservations, is all the same, because it resonates in the centre of people's heart."
Santana has been playing since 1967 _ 44 years of resonant melodies flowing like an endless stream from his guitar. On March 1, the man and his band might probably open their show in our City of Lost Angels with Angel Is All Around Us, the anthemic curtain-parter for the spiritual pageant that he intends his music to be, or that music is. At 63 and a veteran of a few thousand concerts, Santana will perform in Bangkok for the fourth time in 17 years, and he promises that sonic exhilaration and irresistible vibe will, as usual, replace oxygen and float us high.
"It feels like I'm coming home," he said about his Guitar Heaven World Tour 2011 in Bangkok. If that sounds like more hippie talk, again the man also makes it sound right, and genuine.
Different generations may have different audio images of Santana. For those who grew up listening to Evil Ways or Jingo, the band was the triumph of Third-World music ("World Music" is always Third-World music, isn't it?) in the vein of Santana's hero Bob Marley, who popularised indigenous sound to the more affluent masses. Fast forward to 1998: teens of that decade _ no longer idolising guitar heroes _ were still hooked to the salsa riffs of Santana in his period of collaboration with various hip-hop and pop-rock artists, notably the superhit Smooth from that phenomenal comeback album Supernatural.
His Latin pulse has blended into, or mated with, the current vibration of musical waves. His extensive collaborations on recent albums _ with a wide rage of personalities from Michelle Branch to Placido Domingo _ may explain that process of being eternally relevant, but when it comes to gigs, it's Carlos' guitar that sings, screeches and breathes fire. In the age of iPhones and digital downloads, Santana is one of a few bands from the analogue age that still proves, with stalwart confidence, that live music is music _ that it's only way to understand why music still matters.
"Santana is very much a live band," he said on the phone. "It's the melody. And our melody is a language of light, the kind of light that doesn't blind you or scare you, but the light that reminds you that you're also a multi-dimensional spirit. You're more than what your wallet says you're worth, and you're capable of creating impossible things."
Santana's latest studio album, Guitar Heaven, features guest singers and musicians in new renditions of classic rock tunes, from Cream's Sunshine of Your Love to Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water. He singles out, however, rock-maverick Gavin Rossdale, husband of Gwen Stefani, as a singer he feels very gifted in terms of musical expression.
"In the past there were Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, but there are always new people," he said. "Gavin Rossdale played Bang a Gong with me on Guitar Heaven, and I found him very interesting. But, in fact, anyone who plays from their hearts is important.
"A lot of singers today try to sound like Michael Jackson," Santana continued. "But Michael was unique, he was number one in making everyone feel childlike, in making us feel the innocence and purity. He gives everybody supreme entertainment, and he gives everybody hope. To me, he's number one is making people feel happy."
Santana then talked about how he still has to "take his fingers for a walk" on the frets of his guitar. "I don't call it 'a practice'," he says. From the blues, jazz and salsa base, he says the way to keep his music new, fresh and full of life even when he collaborates with a number of new singers, is to stick to the virtues he's always held dear: "We have to make everything genuine, honest and true."
"I do my best to stay in my heart," he says, "to keep pure and innocent, and making everything with pristine intention."
At the concert Santana is looking forward to rocking the house and lighting it up. "You can expect your hair to stand up, tears to come out, for you to feel really happy, be reminded that you're significant and meaningful. In a powerful tangible way, we all can make a difference in the world."
Credit: Bangkok Post (www.bangkokpost.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment