Element Of Consciousness
Musical icon Carlos Santana talks jazz, rock, pop and beyond
by Tim Wassberg
For more than 40 years, Carlos Santana has traversed the musical solar system. Revolving around elements of fusion, jazz, rock, pop and beyond, he has bent the cosmos to his own rhythm. His styling’s from the beginnings of “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman” to “Smooth” and “Game Of Love” in later years shows a creativity moving by leaps and bounds yet always staying outside the pocket and keeping it loose.
Santana’s accolades are endless. With more than 100 million records sold, 10 Grammy Awards, three Latin Grammy Awards, a Bill-board Century Award, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Billboard Latin Music Awards’ Lifetime Achievement honor, cited by Rolling Stone as #15 on their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” and the list goes on, this celebrated guitar icon has done more than simply entertain fans worldwide with six strings and an amp.
Santana has devoted much of his life to social activism and humanitarian causes. In 1998, Santana and his family established The Milagro Foundation (Milagro is Spanish for Miracle) which has granted more than $5 million to non-profit programs supporting under served children and youth in the areas of arts, education, and health.
Having recently received a Kennedy Center Honor and played for a massive crowd at the World Cup in Brazil, Carlos is still at the top of his game. Continuing his relevance and residency at the House Of Blues at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Carlos sat down to talk to Casino Player about the element of consciousness, happiness, confidence and the gift of playing music.
Casino Player: The chorus of different music styles seems to interweave in your mind and transcend into your playing. Can you talk about that fusion?
Carlos Santana: That is a pretty beautiful question. I take a deep breath and trust that, where the band is with me now, we are going to immediately in the first note, the first beat, arrive at collective commonality with everyone. For example, when you hear Bob Marley’s “One Love”, when you hear Mike Jackson’s “Save The World,” there is a commonality with everything. Gravity disappears. Age disappears. Fear disappears. Time disappears. And the only thing that remains is an incredible energy of celebration. We need to spend more time celebrating in this planet the pleasant [moments] and the miracles instead of the stupid shit—excuse me—that we focus on. I call this “stupid shit” fragmented fear. It is the best name for the United States. I call the United States the United States but when we get to show in Las Vegas what happens around Las Vegas…[that feels good]. [People like] Andre Agassi with his center and school. Julie Mary. Three Squares… these people around Las Vegas whom I call weapons of mass compassion. They roll up their sleeves everyday with zest and enthusiasm to help other people. I’m trying to get people to promote the other side of Las Vegas beyond The Strip. The Strip is beautiful but what a lot of people need to know is that a lot of people who have deep pockets and big hearts in Las Vegas, like the casinos, they also invest millions of dollars into the people of Las Vegas. We need to promote this. That is the hidden secret of Las Vegas. How there are many thousands of people, this army of mass compassion…[who get the job done]. I lost my train of thought but I’m so glad that I did. There is that side of Las Vegas that most people don’t necessarily see in the rest of the world.
Casino Player: What for you dictates happiness?
Carlos Santana: Well, the time I am the most happy is when I can really reveal gratitude to God for who I am and the people for what I have. A friend of mine sent me a thing this morning. It says that there is a very important highlight in the measure of a man in that your gratitude dictates the quality of your peace of mind. That is really powerful. You can put that in Congress. You can put that in any high school, at the beginning of homeroom; that sets the tone for you being a completely astute person or an asshole. Right to the quick. The measurement of your gratitude dictates the quality of your peace of mind. Words have an incredible power to bring something from within people so that people can have more consideration, more gentleness, more humility, more diligence, more brilliance. We, as humans, are capable of divine behavior. Thanks to you, what you write in big letters, people can say “Wow, I was feeling dysfunctional, fragmented and angry with the ‘little me’ and I had a lack of self worth!” And then those words ust jumped out [at me]… and it made me realize afterwards that I, like an actor, was investing in the wrong role.
Casino Player: Where did your confidence as a performer and, as a person, come from?
Carlos Santana: When I discovered I could chant over and over “I am that I am”… “I am the light”…“I am a beam of light that comes from the mind of God”… I say that over and over and over. And all those voices that are really, really loud can hurt you—like the voices that killed Robin Williams. It is the same voices. Everybody has the same voices. But then you have the one voice who says “If you want to stop the monkey chatter, the monkey screaming, just take a deep breath and say, with very resoluteness, and this the antidote for suicide or depression and frustration and lack of self worth: “I am what I am. I am the light. I am a beam of light.” This comes from the mind of God. “I can make a difference in the world.” You keep saying that and then the voices… they shut the heck up.
Casino Player: Your musical style has always been about the blending of voices and ideas. Where did that style originate?
Carlos Santana: For me, it is just something I was born with. I didn’t have to think about jumping up and down like a dolphin because I am a dolphin. Or flying like an eagle because I am an eagle. With some of that, you have to stand back, watch yourself and unglue yourself from the stickum, because the wrong attachment or the wrong possessiveness and, indeed, too much obsessiveness [can cause] self destruction. You need to stand back and say “Wow, that was interesting. But I don’t want to invest anymore emotionally. I think I am going to play this other role now.” American Indians say “I am going to take the high road. Take the aerial view and see the big picture.” (pause)I am giving you a lot of clues here. You know what I mean. And it is for me too. I am going to read what you say so as soon as I say it, I forget it like everybody else. But when you do say [what you mean] in a very tangible solid way, I am going to take the high road, look at the aerial view and see the big picture. I know that everything that I see, I am with beauty and grace. That sets the tone for being able to show up [and play] anytime, anywhere with [someone like] Rod Stewart, Celine Dion—anyone. And so they invite you to play, and you take it to the next level with them. It is not a formal competition or comparing, but a form of complimenting. I can go to any club in Las Vegas and not be out of my element.
Casino Player: For you, is playing an intellectual or emotional experience?
Carlos Santana: Fortunately, it is not one that is intellectual. There is just pure trusting with emotion. The word “intellectual” is preconceived, cold and calculated.
Casino Player: You could call that technique…
Carlos Santana: Yes. But the best music is beyond technique. It is grace. That is a different kind of technique, a different kind of cadence in grace than human stuff. For example, the stuff we create as humans is very limited. It is sometimes fine and cute like time. God didn’t invent time. We invented time. It is based on day and night going around the sun. Once you take a spaceship and go out beyond the stratosphere, you don’t need time anymore. What time is it? (chuckling) NOW! Only. When you see it in that form, it is the same thing as when you play the most beautiful solo. You’re not counting bars anymore, or this finger goes over there or the volume is in this mode. No. You’re not thinking like that anymore. You’re outside of thinking and outside of time. And those places do exist. They are called a “state of grace.”
Casino Player: Is art a state of grace or is living?
Carlos Santana: That is the most beautiful question anybody has ever asked me. And they’re both the same. The answer is the same. Life is art and the best part is when you enter consciously into a state of grace. What the hell is that? That is where the beauty lives! Wonderment and orgasms and all that stuff lives there. There is that place.
Casino Player: Despite your enormous experience, you still seem to be a student of the world, learning and striving…
Carlos Santana: Whoever you are, wherever you are, however you do it, the only thing that is important is to elevate and transform with a smile, with your hands—washing windows, running a casino, parking the car, cooking the most delicious meal, playing music. No matter what you are, we are all here to serve one another. Elevate and transform, just as the way you come into a room.
Casino Player: I take it you still get that from an audience.
Carlos Santana: Yes. They know when we come in and we enter, we are going to remind them of something that is really significant and meaningful with a deep sense of self worth inside them. I am not an entertainer. I am a sila gesture (a notion of the transcendent as represented in meditation). Like Bob Marley. And like Michael Jackson. We are sila gestures. We utilize music in entertainment but that is not who we are. That is what we do.
Editor’s note: Santana gears up for a November return to the House Of Blues at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on November 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 18. Addtional2015 performances are schedule for January 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30 and 31; and May 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 29, 30 and 31. Tickets for An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live start at $99.50,plus applicable fees. Tickets are available at www.House of Blues.com/Santana,Ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000. A portion of all tickets sold will be donated to The Milagro Foundation. Another contribution will be made to The International House of Blues Foundation(www.ihobf.org) which is dedicated to supporting youth music and arts programs and providing educational programs and resources that draw upon the arts to teach youth about history, culture and social change.
