Carlos Santana performed at the legendary “Woodstock” festival, invented Latin rock and has sold more than 100 million albums. Now the American-Mexican “guitar god” is 75 years old.
Carlos Santana has been touring the world for decades and releasing one album after the other – but it wasn’t all work.
“Nothing was ever a job. It was a gift. It wasn’t work, it was wonder,” the “guitar god” recently told Billboard magazine. On Wednesday (July 20) Santana will be 75 years old – but he’s already “immortal”, says the superstar. “When I see myself, how people treat me around the world, it seems very otherworldly.”
By the end of the year, the musician has another packed tour schedule, with concerts mainly in the USA and Canada. He has released two new albums since 2019, and according to the industry platform “Variety”, a documentary about him, directed by Rudy Valdez, is currently being made. But Santana has had to struggle with health problems again and again: a heart operation last year, a corona infection, and only recently he collapsed on stage at a concert. Great heat and lack of fluids were the reason and he was feeling better again, the singer said afterwards.
Music is his natural element
Getting into music was completely natural for him, Santana once told the German Press Agency. “I don’t even know what the word career means because my father, his father and his father were musicians. So for us it was always a way of life, not a career or a job.”
Born in 1947 in the small Mexican town of Autlán de Navarro and raised in Tijuana, the musician wanted to be just like his father as a child. “I was drawn to music because I saw everyone – children, the elderly and especially women – look at my father. Every time he played, the women would say, ‘Oh, Don Jose!’ And I wanted that, too. I didn’t know what to call it at the time, but now we call it adoring.”
Little Carlitos started playing the violin, his father gave him lessons. His mother, meanwhile, taught him “the pursuit of excellence.” “My mom said, ‘Yes, we’re poor, but we’re not dirty and gross, clean the house.'”
Santana later switched to guitar. When the family moved to San Francisco in the USA, the teenager was able to see many of his musical role models, such as BB King, live on stage there. In the 1960s he founded the “Santana Blues Band”. When the 22-year-old Santana played “Soul Sacrifice” at the “Woodstock” festival in 1969, bathed in sweat and with tousled curls in a skin-tight vest, he and his band became famous in one fell swoop – although the band’s first album was only released two weeks later. “It was scary looking at a sea of people without even having a record out. And suddenly you’re on stage with Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, The Who and all the others.”
Soon the “guitar god” with hat, mustache and shoulder-length curls was at least as famous as “all the others” – he is considered one of the most virtuoso guitar players of all time, has received numerous music awards, and his more than 40 albums have sold millions .
Sounds like a heartfelt hug
His music is just a “kind of good service,” says Santana. All he needs to do is strike a few notes and millions of people around the world will recognize his very special sound. “The sound I stand for is recognized with the first note,” says the father of three, who lives in the western United States with his second wife. “Sometimes you have to hold a note for a long time in order to sink deeper into it. It’s like loving someone and there’s a heartfelt hug when you meet again after a long time.”
Santana played with a band, with guest musicians or alone and always integrated new influences into his music: jazz, classical, African and Indian elements. Despite everything, he remained true to his Latino guitar sound – after all, this had become his trademark. Songs like “Oye Como Va” and “Samba Pa Ti” became classics. After some albums went worse, Santana made a sensational comeback in 1999 with “Supernatural”, which won nine Grammys and sold 25 million copies – and made songs like “Smooth” and “Maria, Maria” world hits.
But hits are no longer so important to him, says Santana. It’s about the music itself. “I want every note I play in my life to be heavenly and correct.” (dpa)