Carlos Santana 'East-West blends'

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Bob Chowdhury

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Posted: 19 years ago

Carlos Santana

Sunday, May 7, 2006

The delightful swing... Mexican musician Carlos Santana plays during a concert at the Color-Line Arena in Hamburg, northern Germany, on Friday evening. It was the inaugural concert of the All That I Am tour in Europe which will also see concerts in Berlin, Zurich in Switzerland, and Vienna. AP

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Bob Chowdhury

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Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born 20 July 1947 in Autln de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico) is an American Grammy Award-winning musician and Latin-rock guitarist.

Aguilera
After the Latin Grammy Awards, the band did a little party hopping. Carlos & Christina Aguilera talk about the

He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band The Santana Blues Band, which created a highly successful blend of salsa, rock, blues, and jazz fusion. Their sound featured his often high-pitched and clean guitar lines set against Latin instrumentation such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades, and experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Over his career he has sold an estimated 80 million albums worldwide.

g's events at a private party on The Sunset strip. (September 2000)
photographed by: Adam

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Bob Chowdhury

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Posted: 19 years ago

'I was blown away'

When Bruce Lundvall got a message that a woman in accounts was looking for him his first thought was that he had another royalty payment problem to smooth over.

By Guardian Newspapers, 2/25/2003

When Bruce Lundvall got a message that a woman in accounts was looking for him his first thought was that he had another royalty payment problem to smooth over. The boss of Blue Note records, a jazz label owned by EMI and operating out of New York's Flatiron district, phoned her back immediately. But Shell White, an accounts executive based a few blocks north, didn't want to talk numbers. She wanted Lundvall to meet Norah, a young singer she and her jazz musician husband had heard singing to brunchers in a local cafe.

It was the sort of request he had received dozens of times before, but Lundvall suggested she drop by anyway. In doing so he unwittingly set in train a sequence of events that in just two years have turned an unknown 21-year-old waitress into one of the most critically-acclaimed musical acts in the world.

Five days after White's first call, a wide-eyed Norah Jones was sitting nervously in Lundvall's office, gazing in awe at walls covered in signed photos of music legends such as Duke Ellington and Ray Charles while a crackly three-song demo played in the background.

"I was blown away, totally blown away," recalls Lundvall. "Sat in front of me was this very shy little girl in glasses, fresh out of university, who had the most extraordinary voice. I said to her, 'We gotta get you an attorney, because I'm going to sign you to Blue Note records right now'. She didn't know what to say."

On Sunday night Jones was again lost for words, as her debut album picked up a remarkable five Grammys - the musical equivalent of the Oscars - in front of almost 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden. The awards, including album of the year, best new artist and best female pop vocal performance were for Come Away With Me, a soulful, smokey album that has led critics to draw comparisons with Billie Holiday and Nina Simone.

Released last February, only days after she hung up her waitress apron for the last time, it has already sold almost 8m copies worldwide. One million of those sales have come in the UK and with it a Brit award for best international newcomer. "We knew she had tremendous appeal but this is a kind of success we never dreamed of," says Lundvall.

A 42-year veteran of the industry, he has worked with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Miles Davis, but Jones is on a different scale. In a year, he says, she has sold more records than any other artist in Blue Note's history. "After so much electronic, teeny music and hip-hop the public was hungry for something different. Norah had a signature sound that was just that."

The afternoon after the Grammys ceremony, the phones at Blue Note were ringing non stop. As an increasingly harassed PA fielded calls from newspapers chasing interviews with the sleep-deprived Man Behind Norah, Lundvall tried to gather his thoughts. "Is this really happening? Tell me it's real," he laughs as he slumps into the leather chair behind his desk.

Then Carlos Santana, the guitar legend and an old friend, is put through. "Carlos has written a song for Norah and wants to perform with her. He thinks she is incredible," Lundvall says after the call.

The impact of Jones' awards on EMI's fragile finances is likely to be significant. Grammy awards spark hundreds of thousands of new sales, and EMI executives believe the album could end up shifting 11m copies - their biggest success since the Beatles 1 compilation album of two years ago. A DVD of her performing recently in New Orleans is due to be released within the next fortnight.

A further boost to the money men is Jones's abhorrence of flashy videos or heavy marketing. "When sales of the record passed the 1m mark she came to me and asked if we could stop selling it," says Lundvall. "She didn't want people burning out on it and becoming bored. I had to persuade her that there were millions of people out there who wanted to pay to hear music that she had produced totally on her own terms."

She also refused point blank to allow the EMI marketing department to release a remixed version of her hit Don't Know Why to radio stations. "It was an up-tempo thing with some of the lyrics repeated and the minute she heard it she said she didn't want anything to do with it," Lundvall says.

Instead she just wants to concentrate on the music in her genes. The product of a nine-year relationship between Sue Jones, a New York concert producer, and the Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, she grew up listening to artists ranging from George Jones to Maria Callas. As a young girl she and her mother moved to Texas and she later studied piano and theory at the University of North Texas. By the time she arrived at Blue Note, Jones had more than 1,000 hours of classical piano lessons behind her.

Her relationship with her father is understood to be frosty at best, but she has recently spoken about a "reconciliation". However there was no mention of Shankar in her acceptance speech at the Grammys.

Lundvall believes Jones's success is founded on lineage as much as dedication. "There are people that are good and there are people that are very good. Then there are people who have a magic you can't even describe. Norah is one of those."

The proud father: Ravi Shankar on Norah's success

I love Norah's music. It is different to the music I perform, but at the same time from childhood I have been very much at home with jazz and country and western and all sorts of pop music. She has something very special in her voice that gets you immediately.

As a baby, she would listen to me practising my music. We gave her piano lessons from a young age. It was obvious that she was tremendously talented. It is the talent in you that is initially important - what style of music you learn comes according to the environment where you're brought up. I'm sure she would have been a great musician in whatever style she adopted. Knowing how popular she has become within less than a year, we were sure that Norah would get a Grammy. But to get five? It was absolutely fantastic.

I have never had the opportunity to give her music lessons myself. Up until she was about eight and a half I saw her all the time, and then her mother moved away with her and I didn't see her again for almost seven years. From the time that she turned 18, however, we have been meeting regularly. She comes to my place in California or India.

The only thing is that, by the time I met her again as an adult, she was already into western music. She had classical piano skills, but was more into jazz piano. There was no question of her doing anything Indian. I might hope that one day she will learn more about Indian music, but it may not be possible. She is so deeply into the music which has brought her such fame and success, that there is no need for her get into anything else. But for fun she might try out some fusion - it's such a big trend now, to combine different types of music.

It was such a thrilling experience to watch the ceremony on television in Delhi. I've not been able to speak to Norah yet, but I have sent her an email and left her a message. There is no rift between us. There have been stories to that effect, but the truth is just that I lost her for nearly 10 years - I couldn't find her when her mother moved away, and Sue didn't want me to be in touch with her. But we are the best of friends now. She is an adoring big sister to [my younger daughter] Anoushka. She is my daughter and I love her.

Ravi Shankar was talking to Emma Brockes

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Bob Chowdhury

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Until his death at the young age of 43 in 1985, Vasant Rai was one of the world's most acclaimed masters of Indian music. Born in Unjha, in the province of North Gujarat, India, in 1942, he began musical education at age seven. He studied vocal music with his father, Govindji Brahmbhatt, and instrumental music with his elder brother, Kantilal. Vasant became proficient on sitar, violin, and flute, and appeared in his first concert at age 11. In 1958, after 13 years of musical experience, Vasant became the disciple of the incomparable guru Ustad Allauddin Khan, and was the last student to receive the Indian maestro's complete musical training. He emerged a virtuoso on the sarod.

The sarod is a 25-string fretless lute. Developed during the Mughal period of India's history, the modern sarod has a body of seasoned teakwood, a goat skin belly, a highly polished metal fingerboard, and is plucked with a plectrum made from horn or coconut. Like its relative the sitar, the sarod's first four strings carry the melody. In addition to three chikari strings, which have drone and rhythmic accompaniment functions, there are three other support strings that serve a similar purpose. Fifteen additional strings, the taraf, act as sympathetic resonators. Like the sitar, the sarod is a delicate, highly sophisticated instrument that is extremely difficult to master.

Vasant studied and practiced under the strict guidance of Ustad Allauddin Khan, residing in his house, for eight years. He taught at the renowned master's famed Music College in Maihar. Between 1964 and 1970, Vasant was given several important awards for musical excellence.
In 1972, Vasant became a visiting professor of music at Columbia University in New York City. He subsequently founded the Alam School of Indian Classical Music in New York, where he taught sarod, sitar, flute, violin, guitar, and voice. He lived in the Chelsea district of New York City infuencing many Western musicians, while carrying on the pure classical tradition of his guru. His son Satyam is an accomplished sarod player, and his daughter Sangita a Kathak dancer.
Vasant also explored new directions. "I am a musician," he said. "I'm following the traditional ways, but I'm not orthodox to the point where I won't do other things." He appeared with electric guitarists Carlos Santana and John McLaughin (in 1974), and was perhaps best known for his remarkable series of "East-West blends" on the Vanguard label-compositions and improvisations recorded with members of the group Oregon. Towards the end of his life, Vasant experimented with the sur-guitar, a fretless sarod-guitar hybrid of his own invention.

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Bob Chowdhury

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The music of India has long crossed over into western pop, rock and jazz styles. Every few years, the press will note a ?resurgence? in this trend, which in fact, appears to have continued steadily since the days of George Harrison's fascination with Ravi Shankar. Jazz has incorporated Indian influences for many years as well, and much has featured the work of guitarists as diverse as Sean Lane, Pat Martino, John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana, all of whom have made that musical journey from West to East. Very few are like Prasanna , who embarked outward from the land of musical mystery, born into that world, becoming extremely proficient with Indian classical traditions relating to composition and time, while absorbing, along a parallel but integrated track, the practices and systems of western classical and jazz music.

An interesting attribute of the world of Indian classical music is that it actually has a system, like professional golf or tennis, where players are grouped into levels and ranked. At 32, Prasanna is the only musician who performs the classical music of India on electric guitar at the highest professional level. Prasanna enjoys the benefit of parallel, sometimes intertwining career tracks; that is, some concerts feature him performing solely Indian classical music, some only jazz and for others, a repertoire drawn from both. Regarding the classical, he performs Carnatic music, or the classical music of southern India, which is differentiated from the classical music of northern India (the kind popularized by Ravi Shankar or Ali Akbar Khan) by the fact that the pieces are composed, analogous to western classical music, like cello suites or string quartets. The thing that differentiates Carnatic music from western classical music is the element that drew Prasanna to jazz-and that in turn, will draw jazz listeners to him - improvisation.

Prasanna plays guitar, quite simply like nobody on the planet. Talk about being able to identify a guy in three notes! Prasanna extrudes incredible fretless and sitar sounds from his array of electric axes- the fact that the fret is there as some sort of guideline or boundary ceases to matter due to his transparently fluid technique. He consciously executes quarter flat, quarter sharp or whatever else microtones, frequently incorporating slurring techniques rendering his left hand a wide ranging blur, all while incorporating western ideas into eastern virtuosity- all on a conventional fretted Les Paul. ?Alternate? tunings seem equally effortless for him, probably because such tunings are recognized as different ?classical? tunings in India. Such are the trappings of western musical thinking. These techniques lend newfound improvisational validity to and bend the ear toward even ?staple? rock phrases, let alone the sophisticated jazz phraseology he's capable of tossing off.

What's most important about all this technique is that it lends the playing, let alone the writing, a transporting quality- rare is the player on any instrument that can so change your headspace and your heart rate in two bars. Once familiar with his playing, you'll be able to identify it within a bar or two of music. If you haven't heard him yet, this interview should foster your curiosity. If you have, it'll certainly shed light on just how it's all happening

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Bob Chowdhury

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CARLOS SANTANA

Long before anyone heard of the concept, "World Music," Carlos Santana was playing it. At a time when the world of traditional, guitar-based rock 'n roll was emerging from the "British Invasion" and reaching new levels of popularity in the English and U.S. markets, Santana infused it with a fresh energy and profound emotional depth that stirred the hearts and souls of millions of new fans around the entire globe. Skillfully blending elements of 12-bar blues, fiery rock riffs and sensuous Afro-Cuban rhythms, and featuring his passionate, instantly recognizable guitar style, Carlos Santana created a unique, magical sound. It is a sound that remains - like the long, sustained notes that mark his distinctive guitar solos - as powerful, as moving and as meaningful as ever, nearly 30 years after Carlos first shared it with the world. And, it is a sound that earned Carlos and the other original members of The Santana Band their rightful place among the legends of contemporary music with their 1998 induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Carlos Santana's story begins in the village of Autolan, Mexico, where, at age five, Carlos was introduced to "traditional music" by his father, Jose. An accomplished mariachi violinist and experienced musician, he taught Carlos the basics of music theory and gave him an understanding of the value of a note. Although Carlos' excitement for music would be sparked by this first experience, he quickly discovered the limits of its traditional form and wanted more. Carlos wanted to play what he heard on the radio: rock 'n roll. When the family moved to the boom town of Tijuana in 1955 eight-year-old Carlos picked up the guitar, studying and emulating the sounds of B.B. King, T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker. Soon he was playing with local bands like the "T.J.'s," where he added his own unique touch and feel to the popular songs of 50's rock 'n roll. As he continued to play with different bands along the busy "Tijuana Strip," he stared to perfect his style and sound. In 1960, Carlo's family moved to San Francisco while he stayed in Tijuana to hone his musical skills in local clubs. When he moved north a year later, he found himself enrolled in school, learning English, and wanting to play music. At the same time, Carlos was immersed in the colorful atmosphere of San Francisco, with its diverse cultural influences and musical styles. It was as if destiny had brought Carlos to the right place at the right time for emerging street bands. Over the next five years, he continued to evolve his own unique musical style - a style that would become the template for a whole new musical genre. In 1966, that music exploded on the streets of San Francisco with the debut performance of the Santana Blues Band. For the next two years, the group was caught up in a wave of popularity that took them from the stage of San Francisco's Fillmore West to their historic appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. With that electrifying performance, Carlos Santana had arrived; and with him came both a powerful new Latin-flavored rock sound and an uncompromising dedication to his music - two factors that would influence people's live for well over a quarter century. The world embraced Carlos with a passion. They were captivated by his music always changing, always exploring, always growing - yet always consistently and clearly Carlos. Every new release - including eight gold and seven platinum albums - became a reflection of Carlos' personal growth and evolution. Fans also loved his messages - the gentle urgings toward peace, compassion, joy and understanding - that have been consistently delivered in a personal, heartfelt manner at performances in more than 50 countries. And, they loved his guitar playing which today remains among the most distinct and recognizable in all the world. Form the Santana Band's double-platinum debut album, "SANTANA," and the quadruple platinum follow-up "ABRAXA," to the comprehensive boxed-set retrospective, "DANCE OF THE RAINBOW SERPENT" released in 1995… from Carlos' successful jazz-influenced solo projects to the moving and highly-personal "BLUES FOR SALVADOR" to his featured performance on John Lee Hooker's "CHILL OUT" album… from the successful launch of his own "Guts and Grace" record label in 1993 and its debut release of "LIVE FOREVER" (which featured songs by Carlos' musical inspiration Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Stevie Ray Vaughn and John Coltrane), to the G&G release of the "GROTHERS" album (which featured the 1996 release of "MYSTIC MAN" by Italian composed Paolo Rustichelli… from the 1988 video retrospective, "VIVA SANTANA!", to the bands 1993 South American concert video, "SACRED FIRE", to the 1997 release of "A HISTORY OF SANTA: THE RIVER OF COLOR AND SOUND" CD-ROM and "SANTANA: LIVE AT THE FILMORE", a double CD that features tracks recorded at the group's 1968 performances at the legendary San Francisco club… it is clear that Carlos had displayed an uncompromising passion for his musical expression. This passion also has allowed him to venture into new musical and geographic territory, including scoring the feature film, La Bamba, embarking on a 1988 tour with jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and participating in the 1987 "Rock n' Roll Summit," the first-ever joint U.S.-Soviet rock concert in history. And, it had been brought to bear to the benefit of numerous worthy causes, such as "Blues for Salvador," San Francisco Earthquake relief, Tijuana orphans and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. In addition to earning the love and respect of millions of fans around the world, Carols' dedication to this musical vision has also brought the guitarist major critical awards. He received a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance 1988 and was the subject of a special tribute concert by N.A.R.A.S. during the Grammy Awards celebration in 1996 in conjunction with his induction into the Hollywood Rock Walk. He has received ten Bammies (including six Best Guitarist and three Musician of the Year awards) and, in 1997, was among the inaugural group, along with the late Bill Graham and Jerry Garcia, elected to the Bammy Hall of Fame. He also was voted the best pop-rock guitarist several times in the Playboy Magazine's annual readers' poll and the Santana band was the first to earn the CBS Records Crystal Globe Award for selling 10 million albums or more. In 1996, Carlos received the Billboard Century Award, billboard Magazine's highest honor for creative achievement, and he was named the Latino Music Legend of the Year by the Chicano Music Awards in 1997. And, in addition to his musical awards, Carlos has received numerous civic and humanitarian commendations as well, including 1997 Arthur M. Sohcot Award for Public Service and Excellence in Performance, and the 1997 Golden Eagle Legend in Music Award from Nosotros, among others. In 1997, Carlos also became immortalized in bronze. He was the subject of a special, limited edition sculpture entitle, "Viva Santana," by noted sculptor, Paul Wegner. The 24"-tall piece depicts Carlos in a familiar pose: eyes closed, face turned toward heaven with an expression of pure joy as he coaxes on of his signature sustained notes from his guitar. Today, with over 30 million albums sold and performances before an estimated 20 million people, Rock 'n Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana had become a global icon. And, through his annual tours, he continues to deliver his special kind of music to fans all around the world. It is music that defies all geographic and cultural boundaries, music that transcends language barriers, music that touches each listener directly in the heart and stirs the soul. For Carlos Santana, it is a constant celebration of the human spirit and universal brotherhood shared by all.

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Bob Chowdhury

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Return of a legend

Carlos Santana in conversation with Metro Plus

BACK TO WEAVE HIS MAGIC Carlos Santana performs at a concert

Carlos Santana's latest album, 'I'm Feeling You' sees him collaborate with

Gen-now artistes like Sean Paul and Black Eyed Peas. He speaks to Metro Plus about the culmination of musical genres, reunion with Michelle Branch and his regard for beautiful India.

You are one of the very few artistes to have a legendary career of 38 albums to your credit. What is the idea behind collaborating with younger, less experienced artistes like Will.I.Am (from Black Eyed peas), Sean Paul and Joss Stone?

Santana: I wanted to expand my fan base and I'm genuinely a fan of all the artists collaborating in my album. Will.I.Am is a genius. He is a professional through and through.

What is remarkable is how music is truly one language and the boundaries that existed between genres don't seem to exist anymore. It is okay now to listen to Santana and at the same time someone like Justin.

Your trademark music has a feel-good vibe running through it, but is mellow at the same time. Is this a deliberate effort?

Santana: I think anything fits with anything as long as the intent is pure.

Look at the whole bootleg phenomenon! I think my music fits with anything- I'm particularly happy this time with the track I've done with Steven (from Aerosmith) and also the one with Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas.

The first single from your new album, 'I'm Feeling You' is getting a lot of media hype since it marks your reunion with Michelle Branch. What should audiences expect from the song?

Santana: When people hear this unpretentious song of young love in the city, they will realize that Michelle Branch is a romantic poet in the tradition of Carole King.

Michelle is like a beautiful diamond. Yes, it's our second time on record together, but it was necessary for me to follow my heart.

Where would the album, 'All That I Am' feature in your musical career? Does it mark Santana who is bringing back all his experiences, or does it project a Santana who is about to begin a new chapter in his musical life?

Santana: Believe me, between the years 1973 through 1997, I had played all kinds of music, but it took Clive to make me realize the importance of going back to a more popular base. Our honeymoon is far from over.

Any particular form of music that has influenced the sound of the new album?

Santana: I pleasantly defer to Clive (Davis). Clive has an ear for hits, but he is also unafraid to send producers and songwriters back to the studio until a song is perfect.

Clive is one of those rare people who knows what a song needs to attract all humans, and I'm just grateful that after first signing me so many years ago, we're still working together. What we do together in the studio is not a gimmick, its grace.

After the success of 'Smooth' and 'Maria Maria,' your fan-following in India has grown tremendously. Any particular message to your Indian fans?

Santana: Well, I will be there soon, but I'll keep it quiet as I like to do, if it's a personal visit. India to me is a great collection of colour - colour in all its definitions and avatars - the people are colourful, the music is colourful too, and even the colours themselves are so colourful.

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Bob Chowdhury

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Carlos Santana, plugged in!

Sumit Bhattacharya | November 10, 2005

Woodstock music festival, 1969. A 22 year old from Tijuana, Mexico, was on hallucinogens. Nothing out of place, just that the mannish boy was about to play his first big show, which had been rescheduled to a day earlier than originally planned.

'I was praying to god to just let be in tune and on time,' he told Guitar Player magazine, years later. By then, his unique sound -- which legendary music promoter Bill Graham called 'about the joy of loving, the joy of giving' -- had made him an icon, a star.

And 36 years since he burst onto the music scene with his unique guitar style fusing Latin rhythms with the blues, Carlos Santana still pulls at heartstrings every time he bends a note.

His comeback album Supernatural made a whole new generation wake up to his magic. Since then, he has been experimenting with newer styles – from hip hop to rap to industrial metal.

Then again, he has never been a frog in the genre well. From jazz rock -- with the likes of John McLaughlin and Weather Report -- to Afro-pop -- with cora virtuoso Mori Kante – to the blues – John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton -- Santana's been there, played that.

But in an e-mail interview with rediff.com, the guitar god says his newest album, All That I Am, is his most personal record yet. Excerpts:

Dear Carlos, All That I Am seems a continuation of what you started with Supernatural -- collaborating with a new generation of artistes. Is it a conscious effort to woo new, younger audiences to your music?

I don't want people to think this is part of some formula. All of the material on this disc comes from the heart, which in itself makes the music special.

What's the story behind the name of the album?

It's my most personal album to date. Hence the name.

When you collaborate with an artiste, does s/he bring the song or do you sit down and write the song together?

It really depends from artist to artist. Sometimes, you work on things together, sometimes you just put in your individual thoughts and come up with something.

When I worked with (legendary drummer) Dennis Chambers on Hermes, we wanted to create a song that when one heard it, you could feel the richness of African soil beneath your feel.

When I am in Africa, I am not a tourist, but an artist absorbing and seeking knowledge. With Hermes, it is some of that knowledge I am sharing.

Who decides who you collaborate with? For instance, how did the jam with (Metallica guitarist) Kirk Hammett materialise? What was it like?

Working with Kirk was okay. Clive (Davis, Arista Records founder) came up with the idea for us to collaborate together.

Sceptics say you are collaborating with big-ticket names to ensure your albums are hits. What is your response?

As I said, these songs are from my heart. My music is all from the heart. I don't want people to think that anything I do professionally is part of some pre-planned programme.

After all these years, is music still a spiritual experience for you? Do you cut an album when you want to or when your label wants you to?

My label and I have always had a very smooth relationship. We work really well together. If there is anything that I want incorporated into the album, then I just try it out and we work together. When the label shows trust in you, it's easy to work together.

Would you mind elaborating a little on what guitars and set-up you used for the new album? Was it the PRS all the way? What kind of microphone placements did you experiment with? Or do you leave all that to the engineer?

I concentrate on the music clearly. I have a team of excellent engineers to figure out the rest. For example, when I worked with (singer) Anthony Hamilton, he had some inputs on the sound element and the clarity.

When I hear Anthony, I am reminded of brothers like Donny Hathaway or Bill Withers. Like water, Anthony Hamilton has all colours in his voice, but still it's so clear.

You are the flagbearer of an era of music and musicians that was all about experimenting, in music and in life. Do you feel the dream of rock, the spirit of adventure and rebellion, has died?

There is a new form of adventure and rebellion in this age. It's a very mature form of adventure. People have had too much freedom. What they are looking for now is a bit of stability.

Can music from the heart compete with music from machines?

Every time and any day of the week.

What new music are you listening to?

I love Maroon 5.

What is the secret of your unique guitar sound?

Just a lot of heart.

What music would Miles (Davis), (Jimi) Hendrix be playing, if they were alive today?

I really have no idea, but something that brings about emotion in them, I would imagine.

Are you a political person? Your Milagro paid tribute to Dr Martin Luther King. Do you think the days of activist musicians are over?

I'd rather not comment on this one.

You have been quoted as saying what George Bush is doing is not conducive for a better world. Do you feel the world is a better place in the new millennium?

All one can do is hope...

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Bob Chowdhury

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By winning three Latin Grammys and nine Grammy Awards—including Album of the Year for Supernatural and Song of the Year for "Smooth"—Latino rocker Carlos Santana staged a comeback of millennial proportions in 2000. At age 52 he fell somewhere between youthful phenoms Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez at one end of the new wave of Latin pop music and the Cuban elder statesmen of The Buena Vista Social Club at the other. Supported by such notable collaborators as pop rocker Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, hip-hop luminary Lauryn Hill, fellow guitar legend Eric Clapton, and former Arista Records head Clive Davis, Santana crafted a pop gem.

Santana was born on July 20, 1947, in Autln de Navarro, Mex., and began playing the violin at age five; by age eight, however, he had switched to the guitar. As a teenager he played in bands in Tijuana, Mex., where he was exposed not only to the local Norteo music but to blues, especially to guitarists T-Bone Walker and B.B. King. Although his family moved to San Francisco in the 1960's, Santana returned frequently to Tijuana. Influenced by the San Francisco Bay Area's burgeoning rock scene, in 1966 he formed the Santana Blues Band, which came to the attention of rock music impresario Bill Graham. The band began performing at the legendary club Fillmore West and, though largely unknown, triumphed at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.

Signed to Columbia, Santana ("Blues Band" had been dropped from the band's name) released a series of hit albums that infused rock with a Latin feel rooted in Afro-Cuban rhythms and that centred on Carlos's extraordinary lead-guitar playing, characterized by the distinctive sustaining of individual notes that became his trademark. Santana, featuring the top-10 hit "Evil Ways," peaked at number four on the album charts in 1969; Abraxas, with the hits "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va," reached number one the next year. Santana III (1971) and Caravanserai (1972) followed. Over the next two decades, however, the group's output was more uneven—and less commercially successful—as Santana led ever-shifting personnel toward a jazz-rock fusion that reflected his admiration for Miles Davis and John Coltrane and resulted in collaborations with jazz artists such as Buddy Miles, Stanley Clarke, and John McLaughlin. Having earlier shown an interest in the philosophy of Sri Chimnoy, Santana became a born-again Christian in 1992. Meditation and mysticism became central to his life, and Santana began to see himself as a musical shaman whose pursuit of songs that offered hope and healing culminated in Supernatural. In 1998 Santana's lasting contribution was marked by his group's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Jeff Wallenfeldt

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Bob Chowdhury

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#10

SANTANA
The innovative Latin blues-rock band Santana formed in the summer of 1966 when guitarist Carlos Santana met keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Rollie at a jam session in San Francisco. The group became a favorite of influential West Coast promoter and Fillmore owner Bill Graham and began performing there regularly to packed houses. A hugely successful eponymous debut was released in 1969, followed by their most widely acclaimed work, 1970's Abraxas, which went to No. 1 on the strength of singles such as "Oye Como Va" and "Black Magic Woman." Adding a second guitarist, Santana collaborated with jazz performer Buddy Miles to produce the improvisational 1971 album Live!. In 1976 Carlos re-formed the band, almost entirely changing the lineup and pursuing a more rock/R&B sound. The group continued to tour throughout the late '70s and early '80s, changing their sound to fit the times: their 1978 album Inner Secrets was a disco-rock disaster, while the next three albums aimed for a more pop sound, even experimenting with synthesizers. In 1999, Santana released the blockbuster Supernatural on Arista Records. The album made an impressive showing at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, winning in the Record Of The Year and Album Of The Year categories as well as landing the Song Of The Year award for "Smooth," a track featuring Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas.