Carlos Santana—an appreciation

Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Jesse Varela

In the same week that we lost Compay Segundo and Celia Cruz, Carlos Santana turned 56 years old (July 20, 1947). It was a bittersweet reminder of how generations evolve and indirectly influence each other to transition and propel Latin music forward. We're talking about lives that spanned close to a 100 years musically.

Segundo was the troubadour from Oriente who helped popularize the Cuban son as it was transitioning from a rural country music to a big city sound. A contemporary of icons María Teresa Vera and Miguel Matamoros, Francisco Repilado, guitarist and clarinetist, performed with pioneering groups such as Trio Matamoros, Ñico Saquito and others. But it was with the duo Los Compadres, along with Francisco Hierrezuelo, that he became known as Compay Segundo and garnered international fame.

With the advent of radio and records, it was music like his that a young Celia Cruz listened to. Her rise as a vocalist and interpreter of classic sones, boleros and guarachas with La Sonora Matancera would help popularize this traditional music throughout México and Latin America. Later with Johnny Pacheco, she transplanted her old songs and delivered new ones in the United States and around the world under the banner of salsa.

It was in the streets of the San Francisco Mission District that a teenage guitarist from Autlán del Alto, Jalisco would hear Cruz's voice blaring from AM car radios. I wouldn't say that Santana was directly influenced by Celia Cruz, but he was certainly conscious of her. She was part of the Caribbean, Central American and Mexican popular culture that permeated the neighborhood he lived in. And while she was fueling a neophyte salsa movement with Fania Records, Santana was sprouting a new branch of Latin music, based on a fusion of rock and Afro-Cuban beats.

Currently, Santana is easing in as an elder statesman of both rock and Latin music. The rise of the rock en español movement has made him a transcendent godfather. A guitarist who took the blues as preached by BB King and played them with the soul of a violinist in a world-class Mexican mariachi, resulting in an original voice that sings through electric strings.

In North American rock 'n' roll, Santana has lived several incarnations but his spirituality and outspoken viewpoints have made him an important voice for humanity. This past summer, he donated the profits of his "Shaman Summer Tour" with Angelique Kidjo to raise money for ANSA (Artists for a New South Africa), who will use the funds to help fight the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa; a noble gesture in conjunction with his wife Deborah Santana, who also runs The Milagro Foundation.

Since 1969, when Santana exploded onto the national rock scene at Woodstock, he has never stopped to look back. Touring, recording and evolving, he has remained true to the sound he pioneered through thick and thin. He's ridden the roller coaster of pop critic vermin and spoken his mind. Those early hits--Evil Ways, Oye Cómo Va, Black Magic Woman and all the rest--kept him going.

The revival of Carlos Santana to multi-platinum superstar status with Supernatural and Shaman is a miraculous rebound. Now his guitar licks are heard on hit singles and perhaps in their commercialized form seem cliché. But he still possesses the power to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as a guitar improviser, and has evolved into the most recognizable rock 'n' roll Latino musical voice on the planet.

Santana is the torchbearer to the next generation. Playing brilliant guitar, he brings people together with his gift. Jazz great Dizzy Gillespie once said he believed his greatest contribution might not be in music but as a humanitarian. As he expressed, "it's better than money."

The icons of 20th century Latin music are leaving us. We mourn, pray and thank them for bringing a bit of beauty into our lives. But when a tree dies, it dissolves back into the earth to nourish the soil and whatever else is planted there. While Carlos Santana may not have ever performed with Celia Cruz of Compay Segundo, he sprouted leaves from their branches as musical pioneers. Now they are part of the earth that gives him life.