SANTANA

Road Blog - (10/14/08) Live Your Light Tour (The Surprises Never End)
10/20/2008 -
Take the average band nearing the end of a five-week tour and you’d have every right to expect some slippage, a lessening of intensity and a tendency to go on automatic pilot. None of this is intentional but five weeks of a nomadic existence playing the same songs night after night simply take a toll.
Take the Santana Band nearing the end of a five-week tour and you’ll probably see and hear the band at its very best. Why, because after forty years in the music business, Carlos Santana understands the rigors of the road and consistently does his utmost to prepare the band and himself to give their very best every time out.... (Read more...)

Road blog: Santana: The Surprise Factor (San Diego 9/30/08)
10/1/2008 -

Before every concert, Carlos Santana prepares a song list that is distributed to each member of the band. That list is a reflection of various elements and one of the most important of these is whim. Yes, sometimes Carlos decides to play a particular song simply because he’s in that kind of mood, or, not unusually, because someone during the day has suggested or asked for it.

To be sure, there are other considerations. As one might expect, there are certain must-play songs-e.g. Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen”, “Oye Como Va”,”Smooth”, and “Maria Maria”et al-whose absence might well provoke a minor revolt at the very least from hardcore Santana fans. And then there are some songs that are just beginning to develop and whose potential excites both Carlos and the band.... (Read more...)

Road Blogs - Oklahoma City 9/16/08 (Chester Thompson Night) & A Night In Denver (9/13/08)
9/17/2008 -
For everyplace else in the United States, yesterday was September 16, 2008, but for the thousands who attended the Santana concert in Ford Center in Oklahoma City, last night was Chester Thompson Night as keyboardist extraordinaire and supreme, Chester Thompson, returned to his hometown with Santana for only the second time in the past two decades. Last night was truly a festive occasion and a celebration of a musician who has been the harmonic heart and soul of Santana and Carlos’ chief collaborator ever since he joined the band in 1984 after a well-known and highly influential career with the Bay Area’s Tower of Power.... (Read more...)

Road Blog - 9-11-08 A Day With Carlos
9/11/2008 -
Perhaps there is no such thing as a typical day with Carlos Santana on the road because something unusual and unanticipated almost always seems to occur. And there's simply no predicting what kind of folks he'll encounter and what will transpire in these usually brief and sometimes memorable meetings.
Unlike many other celebrities, Carlos refuses to become a recluse on the road in order to avoid the hoards of fans and well wishers, each of whom invariably wants an autograph, a photo with him, or a few minutes to tell him how much they enjoy his music and/or how affected they were by one particular concert. "Carlos, I saw you in Des Moines in 1972 and you were great. I was the one wearing the green and red t-shirt in the front row. Do you remember me?"... (Read more...)

Santana Tour European Tour Blog - Part 3 (By Gary Rashid)
8/18/2008 -
It was a warm summer evening with, gratefully, no rain in sight. The stage was set facing a beautiful plaza and surrounded by many classic examples of old European architecture, a spattering of green trees and a gorgeous old church. Among the highlights of this particular performance, Carlos would improvisationally explore Led Zepplin's "Stairway To Heaven" (which obviously delighted the German fans)...... (Read more...)

Santana Tour European Tour Blog - Part 2 (By Gary Rashid)
7/3/2008 -
On Sunday June 29th, 2008 Carlos and the band returned to Bratislava, Slovakia anxious to deliver their special brand of musical illumination that was abruptly forced into postponement by the fierce display of thunder, lightning an intense rain mentioned at the end of the last blog.

On this day, the sun shone warmly. Shango, the Yoruba God of thunder and lightning, is nowhere in sight and it promised to be a warm, uninterrupted evening of intense, joyful music, which the band was anxious to deliver...... (Read more...)

Santana Tour European Tour Blog - Part 1 (By Gary Rashid)
6/27/2008 -
Much like the Boeing 747 that delivered Carlos and the band to Europe for the current leg of the 2008 world tour, Santana is a large, powerful and complex vehicle. Both are constructed to carry the designated passengers to far distances via near stratospheric altitudes (in the case of Santana, the audience will be in orbit for, usually, 2 to 3 hours!)....... (Read more...)

Santana Tour Blogs - Chicago - 4/21/08
5/30/2008 -

Midway through the Spring 2008 Live Your Light Tour, the Santana Band is catching its collective breath in Chicago as it looks forward to the next stop of the tour in Omaha. It’s been quite a while since the band played Omaha and the locals had better brace themselves for a veritable music storm because Santana is Hot! Maybe it’s the mild and welcoming weather of Chicago following on the heels of the un-springlike conditions of the Canadian cities the band visited, or maybe it’s simply the fact that the band’s momentum after a fabulous Chicago show is at its peak, but whatever the reason, Santana is leaving audiences almost stunned at their intensity and the sheer virtuosity of the performances.

As always, Carlos Santana continues to surprise- not just the audiences but also the band, itself. At the Minneapolis concert in the middle of a solo segment, he went into “Misty”

... (Read more...)

Santana, USA September Tour
9/25/2006 -

The final 2006 Santana tour that began quite notably in Boston at the Tweeter Center (Mansfield, Ma.) on 9/15 really picked up steam on the 16th at Jones Beach, N.Y. when the Salvador Santana Band and Los Lonely Boys were added to the bill. Ever since, concert attendees have been getting a dynamic triple bill with additional surprises almost nightly.

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Montreux 7/12/2006
7/12/2006 -

July 12th was the final night of the Santana Montreux trilogy and it was planned as a showcase for Santana and special guests Draco, Sean Paul, Eagle Eye Cherry, Herbie Hancock, Beverly Knight, and longtime Bay Area musical juggernaut Tower of Power. Like its predecessors, The Beat of My Drum and My Blues Is Deep, Montreux Santana Night was another resounding success and, as Claude Nobs, himself, stated afterwards, another page added to what is fast becoming a Santana Montreux legend.

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Santana European Tour: Final Week
5/31/2006 -

As the Santana European tour enters its final week here in Milan, the band seems to have found new energy and new ways to delight the audiences who have been turning out in substantial numbers all through the tour.

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Santana, Europe, 2006
5/15/2006 -

The Santana Band has just completed the first third of its 2006 European tour. Starting in a chilly Helsinki, Finland, on April 28th, this swing through Europe has gone exceedingly well with packed arenas and enthusiastic audiences welcoming the band at every stop.

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Airports to Elbows
3/24/2006 -

I am in Peru, and it's Tuesday morning - last stop on a seemingly endless run of South American airports. One last show, three more airports, and we’ll be home.

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Emissaries For Peace: The Japan Tour - by Hal Miller (July / August 2005)
8/5/2005 -
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The Official Web Site of Carlos Santana