When Spirits Dance and Angels Fly

Let there be light
Let there be joy
Let there be love and understanding

Yes, this is the Kingdom within
still you know
sometimes I miss seeing and feeling
the spirits dancing in the flesh.

- Carlos Santana

Within the community of faith artists have a very specific role. These creative channels of God speak the truth in ways that resonate with our own inexpressible longings, hopes, and joys. God offers them as gift to us.

In the community of faith, theologians define realities and provide a language for God; artists push and stretch this language and challenge commonly held notions of what is. Artists turn up the soil of our souls, preparing us for transformation.

The vocation of the musician - like the poet, the painter, and even the mystic - is a call to push at the edges of what has been revealed, always showing life to be more abundant than otherwise thought. The musician is a messenger of God who continually works the ocean of the heart - fishing for the expression that perfectly conveys the revelation of God at that moment in that place. What results is a new creation, a new revelation - something that always takes us a little farther along in the knowledge of ourselves, our neighbors, and God.

Art has the power to transform the living. It helps us transcend the obstacles and barriers in our life that hide God from us. Artists are midwives in the passage to a new world.

STEPPING OUT OF the elevator on the second floor of Washington's Wyndham Bristol Hotel, we are hit with the clear, sweet smell of incense. The aroma becomes stronger as we make our way toward Santana's room, overcoming us but also settling our spirits. Jorge Santana, Carlos' brother, personal manager, and rhythm guitar player, meets us with a smile and Carlos, shy and somewhat embarrassed, greets us with a handshake - soft, gentle, and as soulful as his music. Musicians are known by their hands.

Carlos' blue guitar lays in the corner and a small arsenal of recording equipment is sprawled across the small table. As we start the interview, Jorge exhorts his brother, "Hold on to those ideas, there were some good ones there." 10:30 a.m. on the road - the hunger of creative spirits never ceases.

Sojourners' ever-precarious recording equipment promptly gives up the ghost as soon as we ask Carlos the first question. The Santana brothers graciously offer us use of their audio equipment. "New batteries," Jorge says. We trust them; sound is their business.

BORN IN the quiet village of Autlan, Mexico, in 1947, Carlos Santana was initiated to the power of music while still a child by his father, José, a mariachi violinist. In 1955, the Santana family moved to Tijuana, a poor border city of emigrants that is rich with a mestizaje culture of both Mexico and the United States.

Carlos recognized his calling upon hearing the electrified blues of African-American artists B.B. King and John Lee Hooker played by the Mexican guitarist Javiar Batiz in the plaza of Tijuana on a Sunday afternoon. "I could hear the music bounce off the trees and the cars and everything and I knew that that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

Carlos' exposure to rock and roll transformed him and changed the direction of his life. He gave up the mariachi violin for the electric guitar. During the late '50s, Carlos gained experience, and helped support his family, playing American R & B tunes for tourists in clubs on the infamous Revolución Street in Tijuana.

In 1960, Carlos and his family crossed the border into the United States, moving north to San Francisco. Carlos brought the passion and sensuality of Mexican music into a cultural scene in San Francisco that was exploding with the vitality of the new and exploratory. Santana, strongly influenced by both Latin and African-American music, as well as popular rock, was able to blend a variety of musical currents into a coherent and unique style that resonated with the youth culture of the 1960s.

The "big break" for the Santana Blues Band, which was formed in 1966, came at the landmark Woodstock Festival in 1969. Without a record to their credit and virtually unknown outside of the Bay Area at the time, Santana made it on the bill through the smoke-filled-room maneuvering of rock promoter Bill Graham, who had taken a special interest in Santana's mix of Latin and rock rhythms. Santana electrified the 400,000 people at Woodstock with a powerful, Afro-Cuban-inspired rhythm section and Carlos' soaring, searing, and sustaining guitar solos.

With the release of "Black Magic Woman," "Persuasion," "Evil Ways," and their cover of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," Santana became a standard of the American rock scene. Having been awarded nine platinum and 14 gold albums, Santana has become one of the most loved musicians around the world - with a special place in the hearts of young people in Latin America.

Santana was one of the first bands to make it internationally (with sales of more than 30 million albums worldwide) by playing music that crossed a number of genres. While the band's American rock numbers became big hits in the United States and Europe, some of their more Latin-influenced music, songs such as "Samba Para Ti," "Se a Cabo," and "Guajira" were well-known throughout in Latin America. Music like Santana's easily crosses borders, sometimes finding its most natural context outside of the United States.

THE APPEAL OF Santana's music has hovered near the edges of American mainstream tastes his entire career. In addition to ethnic and international boundaries, Santana also crosses musical ones. The influence of jazz artists such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter is heard increasingly in Santana's music today, as well as that of his personal prophets, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix. Santana continues to expose his audiences to important artists from other musical genres.

During his recent concert at the Washington-area Wolf Trap theater (where he was performing with another legend, Bob Dylan), he invited one of his inspirations - blues guitarist Bobby Parker - on stage for a seamlessly woven combination of "Oye Como Va" and the rhythm-and-blues song "El Pito (I'll Never Go Back to Georgia)."

"It's a natural role," Carlos says. "I learned from Bill Graham that if you put Buddy Rich in front of Ten Years After or Miles Davis in front of the Grateful Dead, when people go home they will have more latitude - which is something that we always could use more of.

"I resent people having classical stations that only play European males. Classical music means something that is good yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Why shouldn't John Lee Hooker, Billie Holiday, and Miles Davis be there? If Mozart was around he probably wouldn't have swung as hard as James Brown.

"So don't make comparisons like that because you don't know who might end up losing. I'm trying to change not only the spiritual but the practical, so we can look at each other without so much distance and resentment toward each other.

"To me that is part of spirituality. It's setting it straight, balancing, evening it out. To me your magazine or my music can educate the viewer to stick our heads out of the water so we can see further."

CARLOS' own music has often been noted for its ability to defy categorization, seeming to float between the worlds of rock, Latin, blues, and jazz. Yet it isn't glib fusion. Santana's music celebrates its various cultural elements without muting their distinctiveness. Rather than pigeonholing, this is music that broadens our horizons to the world and opens us to the beauty - in all of its forms - that is found there.

"When people ask me, 'What kind of music do you play?' I have gotten into a place now where I can say, 'Music from the heart, for the heart.' Music is the perfect combination of two lovers, the melody which is the female and the rhythm which is masculine. The bed does not matter; it can be reggae, or country and western, or jazz, or blues. The people who have to sell albums make it complicated, saying, this is white gospel and this is black gospel - as if we couldn't tell the difference! Just say from the heart for the heart, and you can immediately tell what's happening.

"I consciously don't try to perform for Rolling Stone or Billboard or anything like that because I know that's the system. I'm anti-system because I come from the street. I have always looked at music like a huge feast, and if you're really hungry, enjoy yourself."

SANTANA EXUDES a very spiritual presence on and off stage. He is striking in his centeredness and in the seriousness with which he pursues the things of God. He has a quiet, calm face and carefully measures each word as he speaks, slowly and gently. During our interview he focused on his thoughts by staring out the window, digging deep for words to express what he normally expresses through music.

Carlos Santana has always been unique among musicians because of the strong focus on spirituality in his life and music. During the 1970s he was a follower of Indian guru Sri Chinmoy. Always following his heart, Carlos left Chinmoy and was baptized at the Christ-ian Life Center in Santa Cruz, California, in the early 1980s. Carlos' baptismal statement was a heartful, soulful expression of deep devotion to Christ that startled some in our congregation and awoke others to a breadth of God rarely broached within the institutional church.

Santana sees his mission as helping others reach their highest potential through his music. Primarily an instrumentalist, this spirituality is expressed less in the lyrics of his songs and more in the tone of each note.

"It's a natural process. If you eat garlic that's what's going to come out. If you think good thoughts or bad thoughts, that's what's going to come out. My tone - it doesn't matter what amplifier or what guitar I play anymore - it comes out of my being, out of my emotions, my feelings. Your fingers will tell the truth - or not - the same as your tongue. Even Charlie Parker said it: If you don't live it, it's not going to come out. My tone is my faith. My music is the sum.

"I think it is a matter of grace and it's a matter of how you embrace that grace. Maya Angelou said it best, 'Grace is not something that comes once in a while like rain. Grace is something that you choose to walk into or not everyday.' Ninety-nine percent is God's grace and 1 percent is personal effort. I couldn't do this without God helping me through every cell, and without the angels to put my thoughts together.

"Spirituality is the purest water you can drink. It's a connection between you and the Creator - you don't have to go through anybody or anything. If it's true that God thinks our innermost thoughts, then surely we don't have to open our mouths for God to hear it. But the least we can do is direct our attention to that higher force and say, like the American Indians did, I need your strength, I'm weak - help me come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.

"To me, church is in the streets. Church is playing congas and watching God. Church to me is not putting on this garb and making it sound like Gregorian hoodoo-voodoo or a scary movie. You know, it really gets me down when Christians call the traditions of Africans or American Indians superstition or voodoo, when Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrificial 'voodoo.' Isn't he the only sacrificial lamb? That's voodoo to some. Jesus Christ was probably just as much a rebel as Ché Guevara or Bob Marley. That's why they killed him.

"Real gold is to light a candle and some incense, take a nice shower, and breathe in knowing that when you breathe in, God breathes in, and when you breathe out, God breathes out. Go bring flowers to the people you've offended, or go take a walk by yourself in the forest and talk to God. God will hear you. I go directly to God to be fed with inspiration."

ON THIS YEAR'S tour, a mural by San Francisco artist Michael Rios lit the stage in yellows, greens, and reds - the colors of African unity and liberation - depicting graphically all the people of the world as one family. The sacredness of unity is a principle Carlos Santana promotes through each concert.

"I'm convinced that sounds and colors will help us make faster progress toward embracing that golden era when we don't have to deal with politics or borders or the national anthem. If we're going to sing one song, it should be "Glory to God in heaven and peace to his people on earth." That's the only thing I pledge to.

"I encourage people to see beyond flags and borders and money. To divide and conquer is the lower part of humanity. If we look at it from an angelic point of view, it's always the same: For the highest good of all people. Then we all benefit because we never leave anyone out.

"Aside from music, my highest goal is to help the American Indians be recognized as a government and be put in the United Nations so that they can teach us how to heal the land. From the American Indian tradition comes a saying about what is important: clean air, clean water, clean conscience. I don't know anything more spiritual than that."

THE SANTANA SHOW included a reggae-induced version of "Somewhere in Heaven" (from the band's 1992 album, Milagro), dedicated to Arthur Ashe, who Carlos says struggled for the liberation of all people with a tennis racket instead of weapons or politics. Carlos draws inspiration, both musical and spiritual, from a number of different sources.

The Santana band performs clad in vibrant, colorful images of some of these inspirations - Hendrix, Davis, and the numerous angels that Carlos believes are helping us along our spiritual journey.

During our interview with him, Carlos wore a brilliant, multicolored T-shirt emblazoned with the intense countenance of Miles Davis. His Delta-blues fedora, marching-band leader coat, and black slip-ons embroidered with the continent of Africa alluded to the guitar player's other muses.

"Each of us has a heart, and I think if you feel with your heart you will feel the same thing that Martin Luther King Jr. or Robert F. Kennedy or Bob Marley died for - they were visionary prophets that wanted the same thing that Jesus Christ wanted: One love, one family.

"I don't know any woman who is more beautiful than Mother Teresa. She has real inner beauty; she's consistent in how she serves the physical body of God, which is humanity. That makes you attractive and beautiful in life.

"And I don't know anybody who can arouse more fervor in your heart than Nelson Mandela. Here's a guy who gave 27 years of his life in prison and came out with no poison and no anger, but just wanted to heal the relationship between blacks and whites and everybody else. Nelson Mandela has more dignity and more softness than anyone I know - if he played a kazoo he'd probably be the greatest musician in the world because what he lives for is the best harmony you can play!

"I was always drawn to people like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong because they were our first peace ambassadors. Every time this country would screw up and offend another country, they would send these guys over there and they would play "When the Saints Go Marching In" and people would forgive America. We need more peace ambassadors, but it's not an ability that is bought. It's awakened and that means it's earned.

"There are only two kinds of people on this planet, artists and con-artists - nothing in between. Do you complement life? Whether it's washing dishes or playing music - can you bring the best out of a situation? Can you cook the most delicious meal and satisfy your family or write poetry that puts wings on people's hearts? That's an artist; you don't have to be Beethoven, Charlie Parker, or Michelangelo.

"Sometimes when I feel dry as a bone and I want to feel juicy, I'll take a walk and I see the condition outside. I see children, I see flowers, I see a homeless guy in the street. Certain things make me cry, and then I know I can play because I'm soaked in emotions. I don't mean I whine, but I really cry because I want other conditions for humanity."

CARLOS SANTANA'S love and respect for children is evident in his words and during his performances. Often he brings young people on stage to celebrate their love for music before the crowd. During the Wolf Trap concert, Carlos called a young man (later introduced as "Scott") up from the front row where he was ecstatically jamming to the music and put him to work with a tambourine. Slightly embarrassed, Scott rocked a little more lightly with the group and hung in there to take the final bow with them.

Carlos and his wife of 20 years, Deborah, are the parents of three children; Salvador (after whom Santana's 1987 album Blues for Salvador was named), Stella, and Angelica Faith. Carlos' extraordinary seriousness softens slightly when he speaks of his family, a sincere joy filling his face. He says that at this stage in his career his mind is filled mostly with thoughts of his family. "When I'm playing a solo now, I'm thinking of combing my daughter's hair before she goes to bed, and I have to do it in a special way so I don't make her cry.

"I try to teach my children the difference between fools' gold and real gold. Those of us who have children must have discipline and compassion. I mean if you don't discipline your children, the warden in San Quentin will; it's just that simple. Let them know what's righteous and what's unrighteous. And then they'll make their own decisions and always come back to that.

"I guess the most nuclear thing you say to a teen-ager is that freedom comes from discipline. Teen-agers will think that's the biggest horse pill they have to swallow. But they'll realize if you want to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, if you want to play tennis like John McEnroe in his prime, you have to have discipline.

"Being on the road to me is a balance. This year I've spent a lot of time at home, so now I'm spending one month in Europe and two in America. It's not bad because I get to see my wife and children on the road a lot - as long as I get those hugs from them it's OK, I can come here and compliment life and I don't feel lonely or like a worn out shoe. It's a pleasure being on the road for me because I get to be touched and touch people - spiritually."

IT HAS BEEN 24 YEARS since Santana released the first album, and Carlos' face shows the creases of a soul who has worked years in profound seriousness to share faithfully the gifts of goodness and mercy that God seeks to express through him. Now 46 years old, Carlos is beginning to consider the legacy he will leave beyond his music.

"Human beings, like spiders, always leave a web behind. And either it's a good impression or a bad impression. That web is called consciousness. Once you teach people that, they can choose what kind of web they want to create, and who or what they want to catch in it.

"I would like to see that I stimulated enough artists to create a big cause and effect of people waking up to get their own wings. Instead of being turkeys, people wake up to be eagles. That's how I would like to be remembered, so somebody can say, 'You know, that guy woke me up and filled my life with potential. He taught me how to go inside to my heart like a mine and bring out different jewelry and different thoughts.' That turns me on more than anything."

Carlos lightened up as we finished the interview, laughing and chatting with us and Jorge about the admiration Carlos and Deborah Santana have for Sojourners and about a forthcoming album that features the two hermanos. Frequent Sojourners photographer Rick Reinhard asked perhaps the most pertinent question of the day regarding Santana's Washington concerts: "So, are you going to bring Clinton in to play sax with you at the show?" Carlos' eyes lit up mischievously as he responded, "Well, I don't think so. He hasn't got the chops."

Sojourners staff members Aaron Gallegos and Karen Lattea interviewed Carlos Santana in Washington, D.C., during his 1993 concert tour with Bob Dylan. Photographer Rick Reinhard accompanied them, taking numerous pictures and asking good questions.

Guts and Grace

Carlos Santana's musical vision comes alive in three recent re-leases that celebrate the juncture of spirit and humanity in sound. The Santana band's Sacred Fire: Live in South America (Polydor, 1993) - a CD dedicated to the life of César Chávez - and a corresponding 97-minute video, Sacred Fire: Live in Mexico (Polydor, 1993), both feature live performances of some of the group's biggest hits as well as previously unreleased material from Santana's 1993 South American tour.

Also just released is Live Forever (distributed by Polygram, 1993), the debut album of Carlos' own "Guts and Grace" label. This disc contains never-before-released live performances by Santana inspirations Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and John Coltrane.