For his latest album “Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time” released September of last year, Carlos Santana tackled the gargantuan task of covering iconic rock tunes such as Led Zeppelin's “Whole Lotta Love,” “Can't Hear Me Knockin'” by the Rolling Stones, and “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors, among others. Although Santana, with his band, has created some contemporary rock classics of his own, even the acclaimed guitarist got nervous reworking the songs on his all-covers album.“Because to go on a date with one beautiful woman is scary. To go on a date with 15 of them is kinda scary, you know,” Santana told Yahoo! Indonesia last week when he headlined the Jakarta International Java Jazz Fest this year.
“To me, all the songs from The Beatles or Eric Clapton or Jim Hendrix or AC/DC, they're.. to me I look at songs like women. They have a life of their own. And these women, they're not only women, they're like Mona Lisas. So at first it was a little bit intimidating, you know. And then I said, hey, take a deep breath, relax, and trust that you can make this woman happy.”
And why does he compare songs to women, considering his audience is largely male? For one, Santana said it's because he was surrounded with extraordinary women all his life.
“I grew up with an incredible, very strong mother, four sisters, I was married for 34 years, I have two daughters, so I was always been surrounded by women,” he said.
Santana added he knows the male audience “are gonna show up” if he can make women happy.
“ Females have a certain essence that makes me learn what I do and who I am in a way that is very appealing... For me it's just very easy, I love to make women happy. At least with music,” he said.
Santana elaborated on his approach: “For example, I pay attention to how women like to dance or to walk. So the beat, the tempo, and the groove has to be correct because when you play music a certain way, women.. it seems that they drop the guard and they start going like this [dancing] and this means I'm vulnerable, I'm beautiful. So I go to the studio, I work on the bass, the drums, and the congas to make the music appealing to women. And when that's happening, piece of cake.”
Natural high
The main act of the this year's Jakarta Jazz Fest, Santana helped the yearly music event achieve record numbers in terms of attendance. According to the Jakarta Globe, Santana's Friday, March 4 performance attracted 10,000 people, a sold-out crowd. The whole festival itself sold more than 150,000 tickets, surpassing the attendance of last year's Jazz Fest, the Jakarta Globe report.
For Santana, considered to be among the world's best guitarists, performing for a live audience gives him a “natural high.”
“One thing that real musicians know is the less you think of yourself, the more you sound like you. And music is do-re-mi-fa-so-la-si-do [singing], but some musicians go me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me [singing]. So when you hear it, you don't know who it is,” he said.
Santana further explained: “Okay, it sounds like Jeff Beck but it's not Jeff Beck. It sounds like Eric but it's not Eric. You get your tone, you get your identity, your fingerprints, and your voice, the more you become transparent and you let the holy ghost play through you. And then you sound like you. It's almost crazy but it's not. When you move your ego out of the sight, the best part of you comes out. And everyone recognizes you for you, but that's because you move out of the way.”
British artist Corinne Bailey Rae and jazz guitarist George Benson also performed at the Jakarta International Java Jazz Fest's Friday show.
