Carlos Santana has persistently given off vibes that he's all about two things: music and spirituality. But is the man behind the music the same one we see on stage? Here's what his bandmates have said.
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00:00Carlos Santana has persistently given off vibes that he's all about two things — music
00:04and spirituality. But is the man behind the music the same one we see on stage? Here's
00:09what his bandmates have said.
00:11At the 2000 Grammys, Santana's collaborative album Supernatural won nine trophies. Among
00:15those wins was a Grammy for Best Group Rock Performance for Put Your Lights On, composed
00:19by the song's vocalist Eric Schrodi, aka Everlast, a rapper who became a singer-songwriter after
00:25House of Pain disbanded. Despite Supernatural winning so many awards and eventually selling
00:29more than 30 million copies, Everlast doesn't think the success spoiled or even changed
00:33Carlos Santana in any meaningful way.
00:36Just after the Grammys that year, he told the Hartford Courant,
00:38"'His vibe is the same no matter what. He's just the most gracious, spiritual dude you'd
00:42ever meet. He's happy, but I don't think this is affecting his energy.'"
00:46Santana enjoyed the biggest individual success of his career in 1999 with the hit Smooth.
00:50A smash hit across multiple radio formats that spent 12 weeks at number one on the Billboard
00:55Pop Chart, Smooth was the lead-off single from Santana's comeback album Supernatural,
00:59and featured Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas on vocals.
01:02The Thomas-Santana team-up was short-lived by design, but working alongside Santana for
01:06only a little while left Thomas with a new approach to music. He told Rolling Stone,
01:10"...that the record was put together just so, through sound, it could change people's
01:14molecular structure. And he sat me down and explained to me that, that as a musician,
01:18it's what we do. You can play one note and change the way people feel."
01:22"...he taught me when I first met him that there's a big difference between being a famous
01:25musician and being a celebrity."
01:28Talking about collaborating and being in the studio with Santana, Thomas added,
01:31"...I don't know any other way of saying it, but I always just felt a little bit better
01:34after being with Carlos."
01:37Regarded as one of the best-living conga players in the world, Puerto Rican-born Pajali Mejimas
01:40formed his Pajali Mejimas Latin Jazz Quintet in 2005. He paused work on that project in
01:452013 when he was asked to play the conga and various percussion in the touring version
01:49of Santana. Replacing a succession of musicians at Santana didn't feel were quite right for
01:54the job.
01:55Libing with the boss and all the other musicians on stage is extremely important in Santana,
01:59and to Carlos Santana himself. Mejimas told Bienvenidos in 2018,
02:03"...this is a big organization led by a megastar, and it requires certain energy, a positive
02:08attitude on stage, and they found this in me. Carlos says that he sees the light in
02:12me. Those are his words, not mine. He told me that he sees in me, the idea is that this
02:16energy projects itself on the stage to the audience."
02:20Timbales are freestanding, two-headed drums traditionally played in Latin American musical
02:24styles. Nicaraguan musician José Chapito Arreaz is one of the most accomplished timbale
02:28players in the world, and in the late 1960s, he left the popular San Francisco Latin rock
02:33band the Aliens to join the Santana Blues Band at the behest of its creator. He was
02:37still a part of the group, then renamed Santana, when it played Woodstock and recorded its
02:41first self-titled album.
02:43After that incarnation of Santana began to splinter in the 1970s, Arreaz continued working
02:47with Santana. However, when that initial lineup reunited in 2016, Arreaz wasn't asked to participate.
02:54In a 2017 interview, Arreaz hinted that Santana might be holding a grudge against him, though
02:58he didn't specify what it was about. He explained,
03:01"...it's been hard trying to get close to Carlos throughout the years, even in the early
03:04days. I feel he's been somewhat distant even though he's been there. We've had a love-hate
03:08relationship."
03:10Santana is one of the few bands named after a frontman in which that frontman doesn't
03:13usually sing. The group requires a vocalist, and in 2016, Ray Greene was tapped to be one
03:18of two alternating lead singers for the band on tour, a job that began immediately and
03:22ended his previous run as a vocalist for Tower of Power. Within weeks, Greene was bewitched
03:27by Carlos Santana and caught a glimpse into how the guitarist approaches his art. Greene
03:31told Berklee Today five months after he joined the band,
03:34"...Santana sees music way differently than a lot of people do, which is cool. He's never
03:38settling. He's always trying different things. As long as you can be on the same wavelength
03:42with him, it can be a really cool experience. You get the sense that all he wants to do
03:45is play. He just loves playing the guitar."
03:49On all the early Santana hits that established the band's sound and reputation in the late
03:531960s, Carlos Santana's guitar meshed with the vocals of Greg Raleigh. An original member
03:58of Santana, Raleigh left the band to form Journey in the 1970s. But despite leaving
04:02the group, Raleigh has had nothing but good things to say about his time in the band and
04:05the man himself.
04:06In 2016, four decades after his initial departure from Santana's group, Raleigh returned as
04:12part of the original lineup. That year, he told the Hudson Union Society,
04:15"...Carlos plays from his heart, period. And if it doesn't have that, it won't have anything
04:19for you. You can see him when he plays. If we give that to him, he gives it to us. If
04:24we all have that, we give it to you."
04:26"...He's not playing with his head, he's playing with his heart."
04:29When Greg Raleigh left Santana, his absence created an opening for a singer to share the
04:33front of the stage. Greg Walker of the pop group A Taste of Honey stepped in to fill
04:36that void. In 1975, he made the move and sang on albums like Inner Secrets and Moonflower.
04:42From his decade or so with the group, Walker finally remembers Carlos Santana's leadership
04:46skills — and how he would routinely and naturally take great pains to make his musicians
04:50feel comfortable, welcome, and valued. Walker told Museum of Making Music,
04:53"...If he thought that you were under, maybe a little shy, he'd do something. He'd start
04:57telling jokes, or something to make you come out of whatever you was in."
05:01"...That's Carlos Santana, man. He'd just try to lift you up in any way he possibly could."
05:08After staging one of the biggest comebacks in rock history with Supernatural, Santana
05:11embarked on its biggest tour in years — the Supernatural World Tour. At that point, singer
05:16Andy Vargas was hired to provide the vocals for all the classic Santana songs on stage.
05:21Vargas went on to front Santana on around 20 different tours, and recorded occasionally
05:25with the band, too. Still getting his career off the ground and forging his musical identity
05:29at the time, Vargas found a guiding force in Carlos Santana. Vargas told Sound Arts,
05:34"...Carlos has been an amazing mentor to me both in music and personally. He has pushed
05:38me — well, he has pushed all of us in the band to reach greater limits with our talent."
05:42Vargas also discussed Santana's unique musical process while talking about the song,
05:46"...Do You Remember Me?" saying,
05:48"...I remember when Carlos brought this song to us in rehearsal. It was not long after
05:52it came to him in a dream."
05:54An acclaimed percussionist from Cuba sought out for his bongo and conga playing, Armando
05:58Parraza brought an authentic Latin American sound to Santana. Parraza enjoyed a particularly
06:02strong bond with Carlos, and he'd become one of the longest-tenured musicians in the band,
06:07playing live and on albums from 1972 to 1990. He returned briefly in 1992 and several times
06:13into the 2000s, before passing away in 2014. The artist shared a mutual respect. Santana
06:19considered Parraza a mentor and idol, and Parraza thought highly of Santana, too — particularly
06:24his tendency to bring in overlooked musicians. Parraza told Congahead in 2007 that Santana
06:29is always looking out for the underdog and fostering their talents.
06:32"...Carlos Santana let you play. The better you play, the more he has you."
06:38A go-to drummer for R&B, jazz, and rock bands, Dennis Chambers has spent time supporting
06:42bands like Parliament Funkadelic, Steely Dan, and George Duke. And from 2005 to about a
06:47decade later, he performed as a touring drummer in Santana. While aware of Carlos Santana's
06:52reputation as an exacting bandleader, his lasting image of the guitarist is of an artistically
06:56voracious and driven individual, and one with whom it can be hard to keep pace. He told
07:01All About That Jazz,
07:02"...Carlos listens to a lot of music, a lot of different types of music. He would hear
07:06something he liked, and it would inspire him to incorporate a sound or idea into his music.
07:10It wasn't unusual for him to bring us these changes and want to incorporate them into
07:14our shows right away."
07:16It's no big secret what Cindy Blackman thinks of Santana. After all, she married him. A
07:21solo act, jazz bandleader, and session musician, Blackman found some fame when she joined Lenny
07:25Kravitz's band as a drummer in live gigs and in music videos. She held the job from 1992
07:30until the mid-2000s. In 2010, Blackman got a call to play drums for Santana in the place
07:34of double-booked regular Dennis Chambers, and was struck by the group's vibe from the
07:38very beginning.
07:39I was like, wow, this feels really free. I mean, it was, you know, within a certain format,
07:45but it felt like there was a nice, beautiful freedom there."
07:49It didn't take long before their professional relationship blossomed into a romantic one
07:52built on their shared interest in spirituality and philosophy. Late in 2010, after Santana
07:57and his first wife split after 30 years, he married Blackman. In 2016, Cindy Blackman
08:02Santana joined Santana full-time.
08:05When Carlos Santana was ready to record the first album under the Santana moniker, he
08:09solidified his band's lineup and installed Michael Shreve on the drums. Shreve's persistent
08:13percussion can be heard in all the early milestone moments in the band's history. Talking with
08:17the Hudson Union Society in 2016, Shreve recalled the moment he realized that he was
08:22part of something special and unique.
08:24Shortly after joining the band and participating in a grueling rehearsal session, Shreve asked
08:28Santana to attend a movie with him. They set out on foot, but Santana abruptly stopped
08:32on the way. Shreve recalled Santana saying,
08:35"...Man, what do I want to go to the movies for? I want to be the movie."
08:38It's true. I realize this is a different cat.
08:42Shreve remains in awe of Santana's musical aptitude and passion. He told The Jack Feinberg
08:47Show,
08:48"...what he was searching for, he had that same — and still does, by the way — the
08:51same sort of searching for the right note and the right tone and a master of melody.
08:55He's like an encyclopedia of melodies."
08:57Supernatural was a gift that kept on giving, with Maria Maria spending 10 weeks at number
09:02one on the Billboard pop chart. The song featured the vocals of David McRae and Marvin Moore,
09:07otherwise known as the hip-hop act, the product, G&B. McRae and Moore weren't all that excited
09:11about the collaboration with Santana at first, because they didn't know anything about the
09:14guy.
09:16They met him for the first time in a recording studio to create Maria Maria, and had no idea
09:23what to expect. Recalling the moment, Moore told Billboard,
09:26"...he came in with magic marker drawn on his sneakers, and we were thinking, he's a
09:30guy who brings in the guitars or something, and he's actually Santana. You would have
09:34thought he was somebody's grandfather coming from the bus stop."
09:37But when they started making music together, it was magical, according to Moore, who added
09:40that it, quote, "...was a genuine mesh, a synergy, and it just worked."
09:44For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org