COVER STORY
I’d like to accommodate you, but I also have to
play my music. In the middle of the performance
all this stuff is going and I’m sussing things out.
I don’t think I found my center, or my peace,
or my bullseye. The basic example is that a lot
of musicians don’t give you the true sound. It’s
because their mind is too much in the way. If they
are in Paris they can hardly wait to be in New York.
If they are in New York they can hardly wait to be
in Japan. So they are never [in] one place at the
same time. That’s what I call getting grounded and
centered. When you are grounded and centered
and you can be here now. Then all of a sudden I
hit the note and I could feel that I’m getting all the
way inside the note – because before that it was
slippery. My mind had too many things on it.”
The song where Carlos Santana first heard his
own voice – the one he had been searching for –
was “Samba Pa Ti.” He explained, “It sounded very
different from Michael Bloomfield, or Peter Green,
or Eric Clapton. The first time I heard that I said,
ooh that sounds like somebody really personal
“THE FIRST
TIME I HEARD
‘SAMBA PA TI’
I SAID, OOH
THAT SOUNDS
LIKE SOMEBODY
REALLY
PERSONAL AND
DEAR TO ME.”
“Samba Pa Ti” by Santana
42
DIGITAL EDITION
AUG/SEPT