Santana - do you have ?

[Kan Win]

Pray tell me members…..

Anyone have a ticket to Santan’s Concert in BKK  next Monday 3rd November 2003 ?

If so, see you there in the maddening crowd.

They reckon around 100K people will be there……… AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Give me a break – if that is true – maybe the Black Magic Woman will come back to life once again. And just after Halloween.

Anyway, Happy 70th Birthday to SINGHA, main sponsor

“Your (Thailand) Country, My Beer” (Just changed it a little for me.)

For all of you who do not know that advert above, it was

"My country, My Beer".

Hic Hic Hurray

‘Happy new beer” (Kan Win quote)

 :laugh:  :cool:

[Kan Win]

   

Musical shaman

CONCERT: Santana, the godfather of Latin rock, is set to play in Bangkok next month. In this exclusive interview he gives his insights into the transcendental power of music

KONG RITHDEE

Carlos Santana: "My music is an effort to touch people's hearts". Santana and his 11-peice band will rock Bangkok on November 3.  

They say that his guitar breathes fire, that his fingers are a dancing millipede, and his melodies a flowing river of souls. People say they've made love to his music, to its rhythmic sanctity, primitive and supernatural. And one thing is certain: You won't mistake notes, riffs and verses from a Carlos Santana song with notes, riffs, and verses from any other song in the world.

It's neither black magic nor evil ways. It's honesty and respect, belief and generosity. So when Santana and his carnival of fiery congas and good-humoured bongos take the stage at Impact Arena on November 3, Bangkok hipsters are promised a joyride in that melodic river with the shaman-artist who belives in musical transcendence. As part of his Shaman Tour 2003, the godfather of Latin rock will play in Hong Kong before throwing a gig in our capital, his third visit after his previous _ and truly unforgettable _ trips here in 1994 and 1996. Here's a spectacular journey spanning more than half a century.

Son of a Mexican violinist, Carlos Santana immigrated Stateside with his family to San Francisco's Bay Area in the 1950s. His early kicks came from blues heavyweights like BB King and Muddy Waters, inspiring him to take up the guitar. He formed a blues-based band, rhythmically decked with African percussions. Santana's legendary break came when he performed the soul-screeching Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock in 1969, parting the curtains for his brand of spitirually-soaked, jam-heavy Latin rock.

Early hits are enduring impressions _ Black Magic Woman, Jingo, Oye Como Va, Samba Pati, Evil Ways. Like a few lucky others, Santana survived the tumultuous trips of the 1960s counter-culture, and wound his fingers around jazz, funk, dance, R&B, with subsequent albums like Caravanserai, Amigos, Swing of Delight. The rise of mainstream pop in the 1980s pushed his Third-World flavours to the edge, while the band experienced difficulties like line-up changes and sale slumps.

Carlos Santana: "Be careful what you want, you will attract it."

But in 1999, to his own surprise, Santana staged an astonishing reincarnation with Supernatural, an eye-opening record in which the guitar-god collaborated with guest musicians like Rob Thomas, Dave Matthews, Lauryn Hill and Eric Clapton. Fuelled by smash hits like Smooth and Maria Maria, the album went platinum 25 times worldwide and earned him nine Grammy nominations.

Last year Santana followed up with Shaman, his 37th album, another buffet of jam-sessions with eclectic talents, from prim-rocker Michelle Branch, Brit-popster Dido, and opera prince Placido Domingo.

As Bangkok crowds prepare for the Samba party on November 3, Carlos Santana took time off to speak to the Bangkok Post in an exclusive phone interview from his office in San Francisco. Sounding like his songs _ passionate, soulful, energetic _ the talkative Santana shows why he remains a song-for-life guru with an unwavering faith that music can really change the world.

Real.Time: You entertained Bangkok crowds twice back in 1994 and 1996. How does the prospect of coming here again make you feel?

Carlos Santana: I'm very happy to come back. As always, our message is "God Bless Humanity", we never say "God Bless America". So my band is different from some American performers like Bruce Springsteen and The Beach Boys who wrap themselvs in America's flag. I don't want to have a flag. I'd rather be like water, clear for all people, than being a nation. I understand that some people need the dimension of patriotism, but that doesn't do anything for me. Therefore, when we come to play, we only wish that we could touch people's hearts whether you're Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, whether you're rich or poor, dumb or brilliant, deep or shallow. We're not here to push any American agenda, because we don't even see eye-to-eye with America ourselves anyway.

Actually, President Bush was in Bangkok this week for the Apec summit, and some people said he was trying to push America's agenda into the event.

His agenda is different from ours. His agenda is basically about benefits of rich, greedy, ignorant people. But there are rich, enlightened and spiritual people out there too. For me being rich or poor is not important, what's important is whether you're deep or shallow, and deep people want to do something that benefits life on the planet. To me, George W. Bush doesn't have any power anyway; he's just someone who reads a cue that somebody writes for him _ somebody who's even richer than him.

Like I said, our agenda is different. He sells fear. We push joy.

Let's come back to music. Your music has this fresh, spontaneous energy, so for me it's best to hear it live rather than recorded.

This is true. My band is a very live band. And I tell you this with a deep sense of gratitude: I've been playing since 1967, but the band I have now is the best I've ever had. Dennis Chambers on drums, Benny Rietveld, who used to play for Miles Davis, on bass, Carl Perazzo and Raoul Rekow on percussion. Altogether there are 11 of us this time. [Our mix] is not like the United Nations, but more multi-dimensional. It's an acute representation of earth people.

On your last two albums you collaborated with many vocal artists, like Rob Thomas, Michelle Branch and Dido. I'm curious how you'll manage that in a concert. Can you still do songs like Smooth and The Game of Love and the Dido song?

Yes, we can do all that. If people just raise their hands when they want to hear something, we're not too proud to fulfill request.

But perhaps the Placido Domingo song, an opera aria, is a bit difficult.

Not really. We play that every night! We normally close the concert with that song, Novus. Tony Lindsay [santana's band vocalist] sings it. We always open with Jingo and close with Novus. Apart from that, we change everything else in between all the time.

I see a concert as having an enter door and an exit door, and the two songs serve that purpose.

How does Shaman differ from Supernatural?

They're both an effort to try to touch people's hearts, to make people happy. With Supernatural we had the element of surprise because nobody expected that we would be able to create the music that would reach grandparents, teenagers or children.

With Shaman, I try to achieve what I call a healing resonance. Because shaman, you know, is the name of a healer, a natural doctor _ a different kind of PhD. Instead of pills, a shaman gives you a resonance, a vibration, a sound. That's why we love Handel and Beethoven so much because their music has a resonance that does something to our cells. Supernatural may appeal more to teenagers, while Shaman should attract adults. Our next album will try to reach young people again.

Were you surprised when Supernatural became such a huge success?

Very surprised. It went up to phenomenon dimensions. When you sell 25-times platinum, it's not something you can duplicate. To me it's God's grace and chemistry that made it work.

You've done many collaborations in your career. How do you do it? Do you pick a collaborator and then a song, or do you have a song first then look for a collaborator?

We pick the song first. Songs are like glass slippers, we find our Cinderellas to wear them. I loved recording with John Lee Hooker, Placido Domingo, or Justin Timberlake. To me it's all the same because I have to do my best to complement _ just to complement. If I arrive at your house and you invite me to play with your grandma or your mom or your brother, my role is to complement, not to compete.

I bet there are still many artists out there whom you'd like to work with but haven't had the chance to do so.

I'd definitely like to know about new artists that are coming out from your side of the world. Also [i'd like to work with] Tina Turner. And I wouldn't mind working with Sting or Prince or Michael Jackson. But I'd have to create something totally different from what they normally do or what I normally do.

You have a very inclusive idea about music since you've done everything from blues to jazz to hip-hop. Is this a kind of musical journey you're taking?

I'm 56 but I'm still very hungry for wonder. When you look at a child who's learning to walk you can see that his eyes are so full of wonder.

I'd rather stay like a child and feel hungry. I don't want to play it safe _ I'd rather just die than play it safe.

You once said something about how rock and Latin music all have African roots. Do you think Third World music or World Music has grown in importance?

World Music and African music are very close, and I still find [Oriental music] interesting and mysterious. You know that in the 1950s the beat was Elvis and Chuck Berry, in the 1960s it was The Beatles and Rolling Stones and Jimmy Hendrix, but today's beat is hip-hop, so [what we can do] is put hip-hop as the basic, like wheels, then we can put different kinds of cars on top _ whether it's Malay music or Thai music or jazz or reggae, and we can call that World Music. But still the root is African. Hip-hop definitely has an African root.

Your music has a lot to do with love and peace and respect and how we should open up our minds. Do you believe that such music can still make a difference now in the age of confusion and injustice and global politics?

Yes. Look at songs like John Lennon's Imagine, Bob Marley's One Love, or John Coltrane's Love Supreme. These songs are the new hymns for the new millennium. I dream of a world where everyone has free water, free electricity, and free education. My band represents _ and even Bob Dylan told me so _ my band represents the principle of the '60s that are still alive today. A lot of hippies have become corporate people, but I don't want to smell like a corporation, man, I don't want to smell like Coca-Cola or Nike. I can work with them only if they want to give something back to the people, say, if they want to put a concert from which the benefits go to support children's education.

I want people to understand that they, too, have the capacity to heal themselves and the planet. Music for me is to motivate people to participate and co-create heaven on earth.

The music industry has changed a lot during the past few decades of your career. What makes you angry or sad about the music industry today?

It doesn't make me angry or sad any more. It's like when you see a monkey play with a diamond. You have to be patient, you have to teach the monkey to value the diamond. Likewise the music industry doesn't know that it has value to utilise this medium for helping humanity to reach a higher plateau of consciousness. And when everyone told me we were too old, or we weren't relevant anymore, we did [what we always do] and we went platinum 25 times, then all of a sudden I don't feel anger or sadness anymore.

I feel like a child who's being educated to direct all that attention and energy for something more constructive to the next generation.

Since we've heard so many variations of Santana for the past 30 years, what is it that makes a Santana song so distinctive, so recognisible that you won't mistake it for other people's songs?

It's the melody. And our melody is a language of light, the kind of light that doesn't blind you or scare you, but the light that reminds you that you're also a multi-dimensional spirit. You're more than what your wallet says you're worth, and you're capable of creating impossible things. I can say from my personal experience that when you believe in something, it comes to you. So be careful what you want, you will attract it. Be careful of what you're craving, because if it's not the right thing, it'll get you in trouble.

If a shaman is a healer, can we all be a shaman one way or another?

Everyone has a shamanic power. But a man who says he's a shaman, he's not a shaman. Tricky, isn't it?

- Santana's "Shaman Tour 2003 Live in Bangkok" concert will be held at Impact Areana, Muang Thong Thanai on Monday, Nov 3 at 8:30pm. Tickets at 800, 1,200 , 2,000 and 2,500 baht are available at Thaiticketmaster, tel 02-204-9999 or visit thaiticketmaster.com.

[Kan Win]

It was FAN-TASTIC last night. I was there.

[chonabot]

Nice one!

I much prefer his earlier stuff , but the guy deserves all of his current success!

King of the sustain.