Oregon Music News

Carlos Santana

Latino guitar hero Carlos Santana reached new heights in 1999 with his blockbuster break-through album Supernatural. The legendary guitarist who played at Woodstock had reached a crossroads in his career in the 90’s. The album Supernatural revitalized Santana’s career, earned him critical acclaim and brought him main stream success primarily due to “Smooth” which featured Match Box 20 singer Rob Thomas which was unavoidable for at least 12 months afterward. Since then Carlos Santa has released Shaman in 2002 with moderate success, All That I Am in 2005 which was virtually ignored, in 2010 the album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time got him noticed however for all the wrong reasons.

On Guitar Heaven tackled songs from some of the greatest guitar oriented songs of all-time. He failed miserably. The song selection was great; however he was out of his comfort level. Look no further than Santana’s renditions of Def Leppard’s “Phoyograph,” Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” and AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” All were equally horrendous. There was a glimmer of hope with Van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away” which has a good melody that complimented Santana brilliantly. Another Standout was Santana’s rendition of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” which he owned.

Eagle Rock Entertainment 2012

Which brings us to the tour that followed in which Carlos toured behind the Guitar Heaven album; one of the stops on that tour was at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Eagle Rock Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray and DVD of Santana’s performance entitled Live at Montreux 2011. Like previous releases in the series this is jam packed with hit after hit and shot in superb high definition for your viewing pleasure. Santana is the a jam band nothing more nothing less; they are a fun, skilled group of musicians that are having the time of their lives just like their enigmatic leader and namesake.

Before you ask, “Black Magic Woman,” “Oye Como Va,” “Jingo,” “Evil Ways” are included as is the radio hit “Smooth.” I also have to point out that he found the need to include “Back in Black” in the set, however it was canceled out by “Sunshine of Your Love” and the guest spot by Derek Truck and Susan Tedeschi on “Make Somebody Happy” and “Right on Be Free.” There’s a very cool moment on this DVD where Carlos brings his lovely wife on stage for her to showcase her drumming skills–that is among one of the highlights.