About the album "In Search of Mona Lisa" (2019) by the legendary Santana (Carlos Santana)

The musician has a mini-album out in 2019 "In Search of Mona Lisa" and a 50th anniversary tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of the famous Woodstock festival.

Meet Mona Lisa

Santana's most significant encounter with Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece took place in 2016. The guitarist, whose performances in Paris began in the seventies, had never visited the Louvre before. When his family asked him if he wanted to visit, the musician merely asked what there was to see. After hearing about the variety of exhibitions, from various Egyptian exhibits to the Mona Lisa, and the fact that one could spend ages in the Louvre, Santana decided to visit the museum.

The queue for the picture, comparable to queues for performances by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Rihanna or Adele, clearly testified in favour of the masterpiece's worldwide popularity.

The musician was equally surprised by the large number of tourists taking pictures of the painting. Finally, when the crowd thinned out, he was able to see the Gioconda. Between the portrait and the musician, as he admitted, there was immediately something like a mystical connection. According to the musician, he heard the voice of the Mona Lisa asking if he remembered how they were lovers in another life. This struck Santana deeply.

About compositions, their meaning and general idea....

Four months later, the musician heard the Mona Lisa again. It happened in Baltimore, where Cindy Blackman Santana, his wife, was giving a concert. According to the guitarist's recollection, he woke up at night and heard Mona Lisa's voice. She was speaking to him in Spanish. The lyrics "Mujer, eres mi diosa" inspired Santana to create the lead track on the new album Do You Remember. It's a slow and sensual guajira-style track, with a five-minute guitar solo in the intro.

"I know a lot of people think my imagination is too vivid, -admits Santana," but as I say in every interview, "My fantasy works great. How does your reality work for you?"

https://youtu.be/mOstRH9nZ_I

Mini album In Search of Mona Lisa is a triptych about the unusual relationship between a musician and Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. The album's use of guajira style was suggested by Santana's friend Narada Maile Walden, who sometimes plays as a drummer in the Mahavishnu Orchestra. In his opinion, guajira is the most effective way to get into women's hearts, making them open up like a flower. Producer Rick Rubin, with whom Santana recorded the new full-length album, heard the track Do You Remember, was really touched. It was he who suggested that Santana make a full album of ballads.

The second track of the mini-album In Search of Mona Lisa contains an updated version of Bo Diddley's famous rhythm and sounds like a hip-hop twist with Carlos' soulful vocals and guitar. According to Santana, Bo Diddley's music, which sounded like African jungle music, scared quite a few white people in the Midwest. The third track Lovers From Another Time was the result of Santana's collaboration with jazz bassist Ron Carter. The initiative to involve Carter belonged to Santana's wife. When the guitarist told her that he was going to use some of Coltrane's and Yusef Latif's tricks on the album, Cindy suggested doing it more organically. So she contacted Ron Carter.

These three tracks are the preamble to Carlos Santana's next full-length album, titled GlobalRevelation. This album, about which not much is known yet, was recorded by the guitarist with producer Rick Rubin. According to the musician's recollections, Rubin, who became famous through his collaboration with Johnny Cash, Metallica, Chili Peppers and other rock and hip-hop legends, asked Carlos what he was interested in. The musician replied that only in African music. It's hard to believe, but in 10 days they recorded 49 songs, most of them - from the first take. The workflow was like a hurricane, with six or seven tracks a day. As Santana had often invited different artists and singers to collaborate with him in the past, Rubin asked who the musician wanted to hear now. Only two women - Laura Mvula and Buika - needed a guitarist. Both performers responded by agreeing to the invitation.

Details of the new album will be fully revealed at a later date. However, Carlos Santana informs that he wants and knows exactly how to make his music influence people. In his opinion, it is necessary to always move forward and discover something new, as Picasso, Einstein, Miles Davis did. The musician includes himself in this range, as he is always in search and development.

"I don't see any definite frameworks and boundaries for myself. Carlos Santana is a man of the world." - explains the guitarist.

The "Supernatural Now" tour

The legendary Woodstock Festival, which went down in history as one of the great music events, featured such stars as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and many others. The guitarist recalls how intimidated Crosby, Stills, and Nash were about playing in front of so many people. However, Carlos himself doesn't remember being scared.

"Because of the mescaline taken as a doping drug, the effect of which is similar to LSD, everything around me was as if in an amoeba state. "For a while I went into a stupor. I even seemed to forget the lyrics, - says the musician. - But as far as the "Santana frequency" goes, it's all my imagination. Even as a kid I could see myself in the future with Eric Clapton, and Sting, and Prince, and Steepie Ray, here on this plane or the next. I don't have to please people, I have to please my spirit."

In addition to the recording studio, Santana hopes to evoke the same spirit on stage. The 71-year-old's three-month U.S. tour this summer is called the Supernatural Now. In this way, the musician will celebrate both the 50th anniversary of his breakthrough concert at the Woodstock festival and the 20th anniversary of the release of his iconic album Supernatural. Each of these events was a milestone in the musician's career. The performance at the legendary festival, which struck a crowd of half a million people with the composition Soul Sacrifice in 1969 brought Santana to fame.

Released in 1999, the album Supernatural became the band's most successful album, topping the charts in dozens of countries for a long time. Having received nine Grammy statuettes, Supernatural ranks alongside such legendary albums as. Thriller Michael Jackson, Greatest Hits of the Eagles.

Reflecting on the upcoming anniversaries, Santana notes that both events were defining moments in his life.

"Both Woodstock and Supernatural opened doors for me to new opportunities that I could not have dreamed of before. As the best lessons in trust, cordiality and relationships, they will be in my heart forever. And I can't think of these events without remembering Bill Graham and Clive Davis. These men are the angels in my life who have helped me in my career." - Santana says.

The guitarist believes that people can expect "more power" from his band than from other bands, including his own band in the past. In Carlos' opinion, few modern bands play as well as Santanawhose music is like a volcanic eruption.

As Santana points out, many performers are stuck in the sixties, seventies or eighties.

"I call it a 'nostalgia burp' and I don't want to do it." - says the guitarist.

Santana learnt a valuable lesson from Miles Davis, which is to play something familiar, but in a different, new way. Santana believes that old songs need to be worked on, to make them modern, fresh, to add passion and new emotions, to take them to the next level. Therefore, the upcoming tour will not be just a nostalgia trip. In addition to already known and favourite tracks, the musician will present to the audience compositions created by him in recent years.

"I remember the sixties when Buddhist monks poured petrol on themselves and lit fires. Over and over again. Monk after monk after monk. It was their sign of protest against the Vietnam War. I'm doing the same thing on stage. I'm burning myself in the fire so people miles away can see us burning." - Santana explains.

The guitarist especially hopes to bring back this extraordinary feeling this summer. His performance at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Woodstock festival will take place in New York City. The guitarist says the band is looking to change the lineup, but he wants to honour those who are still with them and perhaps invite rappers like Canrick Lamar and Common.

About hippies these days

Like Miles Davis, Santana is very interested in connecting with people between the ages of 7 and 33. The guitarist emphasises that he doesn't want to be like a jukebox in the twilight zone, stuck in the sixties.

The musician has a lot of hope for the younger generation, which has a spirit he has overlooked in recent years. Santana is encouraged by students marching to protest gun violence in schools, people protesting war in the Middle East. "These are the new hippies." - he believes. Between the days of Woodstock and today's generation, there are apathetic people, in Santana's opinion, who look the other way. Or on their mobile phones. And they don't care what's going on around them. The new young people, on the other hand, are active and concerned about the future of the world.

"It's not very popular to say anything against the National Rifle Association of the United States or about presidents, whether it's Trump or anybody else, even though we know they're a problem right now. We know that the solution - is what the sixties were all about. And it consists of promoting love instead of fear. Donald Trump promotes fear in the Bible, "You must fear God." No, no, no, no, no. The reason the Woodstock hippies are still relevant is because we promoted peace and love. That's something that is very much needed on this planet right now. So Santana is still a hippie, man." - says the musician.

Carlos Santana hopes that his appeals will resonate with young people because he feels their principles and aspirations coincide.

"We believe we should, as the saying goes, 'make the table longer, not the wall higher.' That didn't work with the Great Wall of China. And, you remember what a blessing the fall of the Berlin Wall was, -Santana reasoned. - There is enough air, water, and everything else for everyone. I have never seen Jesus collect as many guns as the National Rifle Association of the United States. Many people misrepresent the things he said. That's why I feel the Bible and the Constitution, just like your mobile phone, need a serious update with love. Because love is the only frequency."

Sounds convincing.