Author:Carlos Santana with Ashley Kahn and Hal Miller
This was a lot better than I was expecting.
His recent tours feature some fairly incomprehensible hippie spiritual babble so I was not sure what the book would be like but in a bargain bin for $10.00 I thought what the heck.
Yes you get quite a bit of his evolving spiritualism but a. I am a bit more receptive to those themes than I might have been a few years ago and ,for the most part, it is explained reasonably well. Perhaps that is the work of the co-authors. Kahn has written a book on Coltrane and Miller is a long time friend of Santana , jazz drummer, lecturer and collector of jazz videos.
So what makes this a good book? I like the style. A friend said it was too simple but Santana doesn’t strike me as an overly sophisticated sort of guy, he talks to you in simple language, very down to earth like he is in the room chatting to you.Also, he has had a pretty interesting life.
Consider this, family moved from a village to Tijuana, learns violin to play with his father’s mariachi band ( Carlos hates Mariachi but credits learning violin as a key element in formulating his sound), then at 14 he is playing in a crack band at an all night strip joint. The family moves to San Francisco, is uninterested in studies, can’t speak much English and is underwhelmed playing Louie Louie with a local high school band. So he goes back to Tijuana for 2 years and lives there by himself ,back playing at the strip club – not backing the strippers but alternating. The family looks for him but he hides, starts hitting the piss and the weed and eventually goes back to San Fran. His mother is a really tough old woman and quite a bit of the book returns to this fractured relationship.
His first love is the blues – BB. Freddie, Otis etc but even though they were first called the Santana Blues Band I’ve never really thought of him as a blues guitarist and this is despite him resurrecting Hooker’s career with The Healer. Perhaps a guitarist can explain why he is a blues guitarist.
Anyway lots of detail about getting known in SF, the relationship with Bill Graham , growing up on Mission in the hippie era, the famous Woodstock performance when he was on mescaline and thought his guitar neck was a red snake etc.
I really enjoyed his discussion of other musicians and the records he was listening to – explaining what he liked and didn’t and why. Quite a bit on Peter Green and Black Magic Woman. he credits drummer extraodinaire Mike Shrieve with introducing him to jazz and especially Coltrane and Miles Davis. To this day their music are what he returns to and apparently has a massive collection of rare recordings of both.
There is enough about the making of each album without it being a discography but he doesn’t go into his guitar sound a lot. He currently plays a Paul Reed guitar and credits Boogie amps for a lot of his sound.
My interest in Santana started with the 3rd album and fizzled after the Alice Coltrane, McLaughlin collaborations. He regards the Caravanserai,Welcome, Borboletta albums as a set. Reckons the band of that period as his best and is really proud of the Lotus album as a triumph. I’m with him on all 3 points. If any Afterworders saw him in Christchurch in 73, he reckons that was the best concert of that tour -so lucky you.
He can be a tough prick ,kicking band members out ( offering them the opportunity to develop themselves elsewhere!1) and gradually taking control of the whole thing but he has come up the hard way.
I was surprised just how close he was to Miles Davis both in terms of musical mutual respect and personal friendship.
My interest waned towards the end as he focusses more on life lessons, relationships and, i guess, albums that hold less interest for me but he still had something to say.
Length of Read:Long
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Santana, the history of rock and Latin rock in America through the late sixties and seventies.
One thing you’ve learned
Guys at his level of playing do a hell of a lot of practise. When a late teenager, he would sit in a small room just playing this one blues song til he got the sound right. He would stay in there for 6 or so hours – but get this : he would sit in there playing…in the dark. Now that is commitment.
Junior Wells says
Santana did his first big show back in Mexico for the Sacred Fire tour. He claims Prince told him that he would get his band to watch the DVD of that concert before they performed.
Hmmm
Anyway it is pretty good later period Santana
Junior Wells says
Re Christchurch concert.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/blogs/rock-and-roll-mother/8429625/Can-you-help-Carlos-Santana
Someone must have provided one as he now has another.
Junior Wells says
Surprisingly Santana makes little mention of Song Of The Wind given many think it one of the finest solos in rock. Here’s a guitar wiz nailing it followed by a tutorial on how to play it.
Junior Wells says
Hmm continuing this monologue- guess he plays it down coz it was Schon’s showpiece.
Johnny Concheroo says
Sorry JW, missed this and only found it due to the Mousey thread. These reviews often slip through the cracks.
Really good review and spot on with the “incomprehensible hippie spiritual babble”. I saw him in Perth a few years ago and there was plenty of that. When he starts playing though, all is forgiven.
I have one of those BBC4 documentaries about Carlos and there’s a lot of sad stuff about the racism he encountered when the family moved to San Francisco.
Colin H says
I read and appreciated your review at the time JW! I’m sorry I didn’t comment, if only to keep the balloon aloft for others to see it. I have a bit of a blind spot with Carlos – I can appreciate he’s a real original, in several ways (musically, culturally, spiritually…), but his pseud-ish/po-faced-ish persona puts me off a bit and the percussion-heavy Latin feel just isn’t really my thing.
I don’t even own the LP he made with McLaughlin in 1973 – two people playing too fast at the same time, with a load of congas rattling away. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
That said, I REALLY like the ‘Invitation To Illumination’ Montreux 2013 DVD featuring Santana and McLaughlin with an expanded band. Somehow, against the odds, CS helps JMcL to play in a more accessible ‘rock like’ style/sound than he has for years and JMcL somehow tempers CS’s tendency to sanctimony – the two of them are obviously really enjoying playing together and they have a great and unusual one-off repertoire and solid arrangements (several classic rock hits by others, eg. Zep, Dylan; some jazz classics by others, eg. Coltrane; stuff by Tony Williams Lifetime).
I’m holding my breath for their announced ‘supergroup’ this year with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Could be terrible, could be surprisingly good…
Don’t think I could stomach the man’s autobiog, though.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Herb n’ Wayne have already guested on a Santana album 1980’s Swing Of Delight, alongside Tony Williams and Ron Carter. Give that a listen, why don’cha. Got a lot of flak from fans, because jazz. He can do nothing right. Attempts spirituality, plays straight ahead Latin pop, plays jazz, gets no hits, gets massive hits …
As to his spirituality – give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s hardly been a cash cow for him. If we allow Van Morrison a little leeway and credibility when it comes to mystical concerns, there’s no reason why we should call Santana a fake.
Junior Wells says
As per my review I have much more time for his spiritual stuff now he is committed and supports a lot of causes. I tried the later stuff and it was ordinary. Happily take the third alum thru to borboletta and bin the rest.
He regards the swing album as a solo record. It is good.
Junior Wells says
Edit function. Full stop after now. New sentence commencing He is committed.
Junior Wells says
No….. NO, it’s TOOO LATE.
Nah seriously it wasn’t a gripe so much as an illustration.
I love that Mac / Carlos album. In the book he chipped J Mac saying when they did their first shows to support the record that it was too full on fast and no light and shade. They mixed it up more. J Mac said no one had spoken to him like that not even Miles.
Archie Valparaiso says
It’s all about the name, isn’t it, hmm? . If Santana he’d been called what his name means (“Charles St Anne”) our view of him would be as being less lofty. I’ve often thought the same about Frank Zappa, if his name had been Ron Slapper or something.
Wow. That was a cracker of a comment, wodnit.
H.P. Saucecraft says
No. It’s not about the name, although it’s a goodie. He attracts some racist comment in the US from people who think that Mexicans are inferior, and that Mexican music is inferior. In terms of global awareness, he’s the most successful guitarist ever. You’ll hear that signature tone everywhere you go on the planet. That’s reason enough to hate him for some.
ianess says
One of the most lyrical names ever for, possibly, the greatest footballer of all time. Alfredo di Stefano. Let that roll around your tongue a few times.
Fred Stephens? Got to be a plumber’s mate.
Archie Valparaiso says
I’m a great believer in nominative determinism. An example: We have before us two female artists, one of whom is destined to be photographed for an album cover sitting on a toilet with her knickers round her ankles and the other of whom certainly isn’t. Their names are Celine Dion and Millie Jackson. Which one does the bog shoot?
Other down-to-earth-with-a-crash translated names, like your Fred Stephens, include
Paco de Lucía, who is “Lucy’s Lad, Frankie”, Paolo Coelho, who is the most unmystical “Paul Rabbit”, and Rita Moreno, AKA Marge Brown.
It can also be a good game in reverse. If Ronnie Wood were Brazilian, he’d be Ronaldinho da Silva.
Bingo Little says
If Gabriel Paulista were English, he’d be Gary Pallister.
Archie Valparaiso says
Brilliant!