Santana

[sambo]

Let me tell you about Carlos Santana.

He lives here in San Francisco and I have had many a change to see him. His fame of course is legendary here as well as his immense support of the Latin community for which I have the greatest respect.

One day I found myself with tickets to see ol' Carlos out at the Greek Theater which is a great venue for such a player because it is very intimate and it is out doors (the best way to see music in my opinion).

Needless to say I am very excited to be seeing The Legendary Carlos Santana, however I am really looking forward to Alphonso Johnson who is, at the time, playing in the band and quite a legendary Bass Player in his own right (I play bass by the way )

So the band starts playing and the Greek is really heating up with the ferver of these musicians, but there is no Carlos to be seen... In fact they make their way through an entire song before The Great One honors us with his presence...

Well, that is forgiveable since he is Carlos Santana and all, I'm sure he has better things to do the PERFORM AT HIS CONCERT

This is when things go seriously wrong you see, it seems that ol' Carlos had been back stage snorting something that is best used to clean with and he no longer has any sense whatsoever of where he is or even what song he is playing. He enters the Theater to a raucus ovation nearly drowning out the band, only to begin playing in a different key, with a different meter that the rest of the band... This of course causes the entire band (being the consumate professionals that they are) to quickly alter what they are doing to suit the particularly shrill sound that Carlos has for the day.

As the show goes on everyone realizes that Carlos is a wash and it becomes a gig of passing bliss while the band is allowed to play unfettered by the musings of the speed freak we came to see, only to be stepped on when ol' Carlos comes back on stage to noodle his shrill guitar and walk all over the great work of his band (who were visibly disturbed by his presentation).

Now this isn't to say that I feel Carlos performs like this all over the world, in fact I am convinced it was at the end of his drug use since he took nearly 4 years off shortly after this particular gig. Also the fact that it was held so close to his home town I am sure that he was celebrating homecoming a little too early.

So there you have it, every reason you should get out to see Carlos and enjoy his powerhouse band of musicians. Next episode "How Neil Young took over the Pearl Jam Concert"