Put his songs in malls and elevators, the guitar virtuoso says, and it would “pierce the heart of the beast.”
Few artists embody the peace-and-love ethos of Woodstock in 2017 quite like Carlos Santana, who went into the festival a relative unknown and led the San Francisco band that shares his name in a career-defining, LSD-enhanced performance.
Nearly five decades later, the man remains a true believer in the healing frequencies of music, still preaching the “Power of Peace, ” as he titled a new album that finds him collaborating with the Isley Brothers and Cindy Blackman Santana, the drummer he proposed to on the Universal Tone Tour in 2010.
As Santana explains it, “From John Coltrane to John Lennon, the music that I love is about inviting people to remember that you are divine, that you have light in you and that you can create miracles and blessings. That’s what I’ m about.”
Here’s what else he had to say in an interview.
So Cindy and I, we were in the frequency of doing something in the future with Ronnie and Ernie. And that opportunity presented itself when we met him, for the first time, in St. Louis. His sister was singing background with Rod Stewart and we were on tour with Rod Stewart.
She said, “You know, Carlos, Ronnie is actually a big fan of you.” So we got together backstage and I told him that I wanted to do this CD and the songs that I wanted to do.
I keep saying with total certainty the future of music on this planet is coming from Africa. And it’s a language that I absolutely love and understand. I feel really grateful that God gave me the facility to articulate it.
There’s something magnanimous about them because peace is more powerful than fear and hate.
What’s happening in Paris and London and everywhere, I think that if this music was played in shopping malls and elevators everywhere, you would see a difference because its frequency would change the heart. It would pierce the heart of the beast.
Anyone, whether it’s Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, everybody that I love, in one note, you know who they are. Whether it’s Stevie Ray Vaughan or all the Kings, Albert, Freddie, B. B., John McLaughlin, all the guitar players that I love, in one note, they remind me of these universal principles.
It’s not how fast you play or how clever you are, it’s how deep you penetrate the heart of the listener. As Les Paul would say, “Nice playing, kid. But would your mother recognize you in one note on the radio?”
I just turn his a– right off. And I listen to birds. I listen to the clouds passing. I don’ t give him anything at all from my attention, energy or concentration. I just zap him right out of my house. He has no power over me. And that’s how I stay positive.
