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 Entertainment | July 2005 
Santana Gives Audience a Sampling of His Career
 Laura Emerick
You can count on certain constants at a Santana concert. The invocations of spirituality. Moments of speechifying. The presence of an overwhelming '60s vibe. And an abundance of guitar wizardry in a jam-session context.
Performing Saturday night as part of the Taste of Chicago lineup at the Petrillo Music Shell, Carlos Santana certainly fulfilled expectations. For the uninitiated, it might have been a meandering, sometimes indulgent experience. But for fans, it was 2-1/2 hours of pure bliss.
Above all, his performance once again underscored an unlikely truth: how a Mexican kid who grew up in the San Francisco area became one of the foremost rock interpreters of the Afro-Cuban tradition.
Starting off with the instrumental "Jingo," from his 1969 debut disc, Santana and his 10-piece band stretched out majestically as his stinging guitar lines led the way. Then, with Andy Vargas ably handling lead vocal chores, they swung into "Put Your Lights On" and "Maria Maria" from "Supernatural" (1999), the album that transformed the respected rock veteran into a bona-fide superstar.
Santana, 57, also previewed a few tunes, including the cumbia-flavored "I Am Somebody," from his upcoming disc "Here I Am." Another all-star effort in the manner of "Supernatural" and its follow-up "Shaman" (2002), his latest release was due in early June but has been delayed until Sept. 6.
Though he's one of the most distinctive guitarists in rock, Santana was matched in instrumental excellence by his bandmates, especially longtime collaborators Chester Thompson on the Hammond B-3 and keyboards, Karl Perazzo on percussion and timbales, Bobby Allende on congas and Benny Rietveld on bass.
Dressed in white, with his usual knit cap and sunglasses, Santana appeared appropriately deitylike as he invoked the words of Maya Angelou: "God's grace is all around us; we are the ones who have to get to it ... to transform our planet and create peace in our lifetime."
That message received a roar of approval from the overflow crowd of fans -- many of whom looked as if they might have witnessed Santana at the original Woodstock.
Then he continued in his oratorical mode, calling on "Curtis Mayfield, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King ... my body resonates with their spirit."
After a shoutout to his brethren at the Live 8 concerts, Santana added, "I owe no allegiance to any flag, only to the heart of humanity" -- which sounded out of place on the eve of Independence Day.
Fortunately, he ended his spoken-word interlude by inviting Los Lonely Boys, who had opened the program, to join him on John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Woman." Henry and JoJo Garza's Tex-Mex licks meshed smoothly with their mentor's blues rock riffs, as Santana managed to interpolate the Irish standard "Danny Boy" into the mix. (Elsewhere, he cleverly worked in snippets of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love," Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart," Sly Stone's "Dance to the Music" and even the Gershwins' "Someone to Watch Over Me").
In the show's standout segment, Santana and crew segued from one early hit, "Black Magic Woman," with its still-powerful racing conga line, to another, Tito Puente's riotous "Oye Como Va."
For the encore segment, he dedicated the comeback hit "Smooth" to Luther Vandross, who died Friday, calling him "a brother who has passed over to the other side of the light." It started with a slowly percolating keyboard solo by his son Salvador Santana and surged full bore into the lines, "Gimme your heart, make it real or else forget about it." After 40 years in the business, the always passionate Santana certainly follows his own advice. |
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