Introduction
Carlos Santana was born July 20, 1947 at 2:00 am in Autlan De Navarro, Mexico, with the Sun, the heart of consciousness, in the tradition-loving sign of Cancer. No sign is more aware of its roots than this one. Cancers are rarely detached or aloof. While circumstances may occasionally drive them into their protective shells, they tend to be acutely sensitive to themselves and those around them. They're natural nurturers. Santana was born with the Moon in Leo, a sign of creativity and self-expression. This is ideal for an artist whose goal is to open hearts as much as it is to entertain.
Santana's interest in social causes, diverse cultures and spirituality provides a healthy outlet for his artistic talents. His participation in Live Aid, Farm Aid, Concert for Salvador and many other charitable concerts/events illustrate this. Together with his wife Deborah, he has set up his own charitable organisation Milagro to help out poor children. Throughout his career his open hearted approach, always willing to help others less well off than himself has led to his pioneering Rock concerts and festivals in almost forgotten corners of the world. There was a festival in Turkey which he headlined for a number of years, till he attracted other artists like Sting to help out by participating.
I had a close look at his style of operating in 92 when we in Gibraltar wanted to host a major rock act to try and attract tourists from the neighbouring coast and the Expo in Seville. We wrote to about 50 top acts apart from George Benson who showed a little no body bothered to answer. That is apart from Carlos, who emphasised with this little bi-lingual, English/Spanish speaking colony on the Southern tip of Europe gave orders to his management to be flexible and not too worry to much bout the money, cause he really felt like playing here. After Carlos's successful concert in a territory unknow to rock's mainstream, floods of requests came over from many top artists, who were now willing to consider playing on the Rock.
I have been tempted to borrow part of the above description from the website below, because even in its abbreviated form it captures what this extraordinary guy is all about. U may want to visit Carlos Horoscope for more detailled information.
Jeff Jawer http://www.stariq.com
I have included the shot below of 1985's Live Aid performance, firstly because of the music which is great, secondly because Beyond Appearance the album he had just released marked his ascenscion, from my humble opinion from a very patchy period (but then its just my opion,I wish I could have a musically productive period half as good as this one!!) with probably lots of tennis one of his fave pastimes and lots of pressure and interference from his then record company CBS/Sony. Time has shown all of its AR staff to have done a very shody job with Carlos over the years. Polydor was an improvement but 'Mr Clive Davis' & Arista have shown what could have been done ages ago with this 'living legend', but none of them had really understood Carlos or had such faith in him .
A fine recovery, a clean mirror!, a new steady key collaborator and keyboard player Chester Thompson (which he had lacked since the brilliant Tom Coster left the band in 77)and the start of a very fertile period. The song is actually the last of 4 numbers played for the Live Aid show, its called Right Now, but typically Carlos unselfish and generous his moves off centre stage and allows another 'Great' guitarist Pat Metheny to take centre stage in front of an audience of millions. The song finishes on TV with a shot of Pat Metheny soloing on guitar backed by Carlos and the rest of the band on percusion and Orestes Vilato brillint Afro/Cuban Macumbe' chant. What a guy, where is his superstar ego!!!
Live Aid photo left to right Carlos,Al Lighterwood, Pat Metheny red and white stripped shirt, Greg Walker maracas, Alphonsio Johnson and his famous red beret, not in the picture CT keyboards, Graham Lear drums, Raul Rekow congas,Orestes Villato and Sterling Crew keyboards. |
