Carlos Santana
People often speak about left and right-hand technique, but for Carlos Santana, playing the guitar is an act of mind, body and soul. He made his bones in the San Francisco music scene of the late 60s, his cresting genius consecrated with a legendary afternoon performance at Woodstock, whereupon he leaned into the psychedelic dimensions of an ill-timed acid trip to deliver a jaw-dropping set, bejewelled by a helter-skelter jam during Soul Sacrifice that opened up rock’s third eye to musical possibilities beyond blues-inspired sounds.
You can spot his guitar playing within seconds, that warm, quasi-horn tones of saturated overdrive, the conversational phrasing and instinctive modulation between major and minor. And yet it somehow accommodates all who collaborate with him, as proven on his new album , a Zoom-facilitated all-star jam featuring Chick Corea, Steve Winwood, Kirk Hammett and more – a trick he pulled off to brilliant effect.
