MAKING MUSIC

CARLOS SANTANA June 21 Prudential Center, Newark NJ

By Dave Gil de Rubio

When Carlos Santana released 1999’s “Supernatural,” it represented the Mexican native’s commercial pinnacle, selling 15 million copies and racking up eight Grammy Awards including Album of the Year.

The spark for this wildfire of crossover success was the smash single “Smooth,” a songwriting collaboration with Matchbox

Twenty’s singer Rob Thomas. Twenty-two years later, the duo has gone for a second act.

The first single off of Santana’s recently released album “Blessings and Miracles,” is an other Santana/Thomas collaboration, called “Move.”.

In a press conference with Santana and Thomas (who joined via video), Thomas said after “Smooth,” he and Santana, who is touring this summer with another rather legendary act in Earth, Wind & Fire, kept in touch, played live together on occasion and worked on some songs. But business concerns sidetracked any efforts to release other collaborations.

“The thing was that there was a difference between people who worked at record labels seeing revenues off of what we were doing and wanting us to do something and having something come naturally to us that we felt was something we wanted to do,” Thomas said. “This song happened while we were all in lockdown and we were all finding creative ways to be creative.”

Like “Supernatural” before it, “Blessings and Miracles” has an eclectic array of talent contributing to the proceedings. This batch of 15 songs finds Chris Stapleton, Corey Glover, Steve Winwood and Kirk Hammett and the late Chick Corea contributing. The biggest difference was that COVID-19 circumstances demanded remote creativity, a factor that didn’t faze Santana at all.

“The procedure for me is very simple—I close my eyes, hear [who I’m playing with] and [they’re] right next to me,” Santana said. “That’s how I function. Where I am, being 74, my imagination is infinitely more intense, so I can just close my eyes and I’m right next to [whoever I’m recording with]. I know not to step on their voice, honor their space and know when to come in. How much passion, emotion and energy to put in there to make it real. It’s such a phenomenon to work with artists and we have yet to shake hands or be in the same room, but that didn’t stop us.”

If You Go

Carlos Santana

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2023 Rainbows Tour Prudential Center Newark NJ June 21st, 2023

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