February 26, 2010
The Nat Geo Music Interview: Carlos Santana
Nat Geo Music Catches Up With A Living Legend
by Tom Pryor


http://worldmusic.nationa...view/en_US
It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since the legendary Carlos Santana roared back onto the pop charts with his monster album Supernatural; garnering multi-platinum sales, gobbling up a record nine Grammys, and introducing the venerable San Francisco guitar god to a whole new generation of fans.

Since then Santana has kept plenty busy. Last year he released Multidimensional Warrior, a hand-picked, 2-CD career retrospective, and he's currently in the midst of a long residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where his Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through The Hits is still selling out months in advance.

But with the recent release of a new, anniversary edition of Supernatural from Sony Legacy, Santana is back on the charts with "Angel Love" - one of the Legacy Editon's 11 new bonus tracks (which also include guest appearances from Dave Matthews and Eric Clapton).

Nat Geo Music took the release of Supernatural: Legacy Edition as an opportunity to catch up with one of our true musical heroes, to discuss his genre-redefining musical legacy and find out a little more about what he's up to now.

Nat Geo Music: It's been 10 years since the original release of Supernatural, but that album is still yielding new surprises. Can you tell me a little about the bonus material included in the anniversary edition?

Carlos Santana: All those songs were recorded about nine months before the material that became Supernatural, so they were from the same general time frame as that record. But what happened was that [producer] Clive Davis felt at the time that we should focus on more collaborations with guest artists, so we set those aside.

Well with nine Grammy wins, I guess it pays to listen to Clive Davis, huh?

[laughs] No doubt! But I think that life sends us guides when we need them. I was blessed to have the benefit of Mr. Davis' wisdom and experience; and when you have that kind of counsel, it's always a good idea to listen.

So in a way the "new" songs were like a warm-up for Supernatural?

I would say they were part of the same continuum as Supernatural. They definitely share the same spirit and soul.

"Angel Love" definitely sounds like it could have been included on the original release...

Right. That goes back to what I was saying earlier about setting aside some songs in favor of collaborations. "Angel Love" is mainly a Santana song - even though it's written by my great friend Mason Ruffner, He's from New Orleans and I think he gives it that real New Orleans feel. It's got the great jukebox feeling of real American roots rock. It's a perfect jukebox single.



It's interesting that you call it "American Roots Rock" since you've spent a lot of your career redefining what that term means.

Right. But when we talk about "American roots music" we have to remember that this is a big country and a big hemisphere and the roots are very tangled. People have always danced to other peoples' music in this country. Even in the early days of rock and roll you had guys like Richie Valens and Bo Diddley making rock and roll with Latin elements.

You also include a version of the Cuban band Irakere's 70's classic "Baccalo Con Pan," too. Some of your biggest hits have been covers - what makes you want to cover a particular song?

"Bacalao Con Pan" is a great, great song. It's truly multidimensional, full of colors and textures - and, of course, a really strong guitar lead in the original, which is what first attracted me to it. I think that what attracts me to any work of art is that multidimensional quality - it has work in many realms and on many levels. We're multidimensional beings, too, and we crave art that speaks at every level of our being.

To me great music is great music, and it doesn't matter where it comes from or who makes it. I've never been interested in those kinds of labels or limits. If a sound is genuine and it moves me and makes my hair stand up, then I want to find out more about it. It doesn't matter if it's a Mexican sound or an American sound or a Palestinian sound or an African sound or an Apache sound.

Would you say that a lot of your music is about breaking down borders?

Well music is music. It doesn't need to break down borders because it just doesn't recognize them. Borders and nationalities are just brands, like Coca-Cola or Starbucks, and music is multidimensional, [it's] such a fluid medium that it flows right past those borders; it flows under and over and around them, like water; like air.

And I want to emphasize that people are like that, too. We can graduate from these labels and nationalities. It doesn't matter where you're born or what tribe claims you - you can be Hebrew or Peruvian or Irish or Japanese - you're born with the sum of all nations inside you. We are born complete, and we have to learn that we all come with everything already inside us. So when you ask about breaking down borders, I think it's really about breaking down the borders that we create inside ourselves first.

Is that part of the message of "Angel Love"? It's a very spiritual song...

Thank you. I hope that's part of the message of everything I do.

It's kind of subversive how you embed these very spiritual messages into otherwise straight-ahead rock songs that receive lots of radio play?

Well I'm not trying to hide anything - the record is called Supernatural. [laughs]. But realistically, not that many people resonate with spiritual values, so one of my goals is always to simply reach people at the level they're at.

I'd also like to ask you about Multidimensional Warrior, the two-CD retrospective that came out last year...

I'm grateful that you touched on that. That was a very special project for me, since I was able to select all the songs myself. It was like writing a love letter to my fans.

In some ways it was like the other side of Supernatural, which was oriented towards a new generation of fans. I think that Multidimensional Warrior was a gift for the fans who have been with me for the long haul.

Speaking of gifts to the fans, how are the Las Vegas shows going?

The shows are going great, and I can say with a straight face, a clear mind and an open heart that this is the best I've ever played these songs. I feel like I'm playing better now, with this band, than with any other band or group that I've played with before. That's because we're playing every night with genuine, heartfelt emotions and truly honoring these songs. It's the crystallization of intention, motive and purpose that makes this event unique.


Is it weird to play Vegas?

Not at all. We're playing a real rock and roll show and a truly heartfelt concert every night. If you want to come to Las Vegas for the fancy dancers and the acrobats, go to Cirque du Soleil, because they do that very well. But we just play music, and we haven't had any complaints so far. [laughs]

How do you keep such a long run from become stale?

We change things up a bit for each show, but you have to respect the fans who buy their tickets and want to see the hits, so there are some songs that we always include. There's a reason why we love these songs, and it's important to honor that.

A cynical person might look at a sunset and say "oh, that's just a sunset, I already know what that looks like"; but what they miss is that each sunset is unique. And if you think of performances that same way, then you can play the same song a million times and never get tired of it. when you play them genuinely, with real purity and innocence, they're new every time. It's like your first French kiss; it leaves you very vulnerable and naked.

Dag, 10 years.

SoulAlive said:

Irakere...



...Baccalo Con Pan

Great band from Cuba that along with longtime band leader Chucho Valdes (keys), at one point also included Arturo Sandoval (trumpet) and Paquito D'Rivera (alto sax).



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