Carlos Santana: life and musical career

¶ … Carlos Santana's great music album named Supernatural. This paper emphasizes on the music produced by Santana in collaboration with other artists. This paper highlights the type of music in Supernatural and its affect on the general audience.

Supernatural

Carlos Santana is considered to be a legend in music. The great guitarist owes to himself record-breaking hits after hits. The Mexican born artist managed to win one Grammy award and other countless awards in his thirty years of career. Santana's music which is a fantastic combination of rock n roll with blues music integrated with sensuous Afro Cuban rhythms and other types of music from all over the world has intrigued generation for five decades.

Carlos Santana made a comeback with the production of his hit album called Supernatural.

The word of mouth was the No. 1 thing on this album, said Arista Records president

Clive Davis, who signed Santana to Columbia in the late '60s when he was president of that label. Davis came up with the idea to sign Santana again and put the guitarist together with a string of guest stars, including Thomas, Dave Matthews, Everlast,

Lauryn Hill and Eric Clapton (Fred Shuster, Something Supernatural; Carlos Santana

Hooks Up With Next Generation Of Musician On His Rejuvenating New Album).

Santana's charismatic album managed to attain nine Grammys ranging from best songs to best album of the year.

Just like all his other music, the songs in Supernatural had the presence of Afro-Cuban elements. During the time when this album was released, the audience could easily feel the steamy corrugation of his Latin flavored masterpiece. The second song in the album called Maria is an infectious Spanish-textured stroll fusing Latin, African and pan-Caribbean sounds-its multi-genre appeal won it ten weeks in the top slot on the Hot 100 as well as a Grammy for Best Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocals (Carlos Santana).

Being a great fan of Santana, I favor both his early music and the music he has incorporated in Supernatural. Supernatural, like his previous music is a beautiful creation of Santana's passion and admiration for music. His music to me has always bridged the cultural and the generational gap between people. Listening to his music has always proven to be a glorious experience for me. Even though Supernatural is a blend of other artists' style of music, it does not in any way pulls Santana's other albums down.

Out of fourteen songs in the album, nine of them feature guest performers such as Eagle Eye-Cherry, Dave Matthews, Everlast, Lauryn Hill and Eric Clapton. All of them seem have loved working with the legendary musician. Before this album, Santana had never played with anyone other than his band. The integration of all these artists in Supernatural produced a music that was very different. Some even said that, it was a better sounding music (Carlos Santana's Supernatural Album). The artists contributed their different taste of music in the album in a positive manner. All the artists cooperated greatly with Santana.

The infusion of the other bands' styles has led to a totally different type of Music. Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band says that playing with Carlos was one of the best experiences he's ever had. Sometimes it's this cooperation between artists that produces great hits, feeding off each other's enthusiasm and adrenaline.

When one artist performs well, it helps the others perform even better. Santana is a great example of this, it seems as if every time he plays with another artist, his music gets even better (Carlos Santana's Supernatural Album).

Hence, Carlos Santana proved to be a great inspiration to all the other artists in his album.

I think that Supernatural is a very strong album. I think that the collaborations are great! They add a slightly different flavor to the mix. Looking back, even Viva Santana varies from rock to progressive to Latin etc. So, I see no problem with collaborating" (Review).

The integration of other Artists with Santana was not Santana's decision but the record company's. Clive Davis, president of Artista Records had previously signed Santana in the late 60's. It was Davis who came up with the idea of resigning Santana with other artists.

A love the directions Santana's music has taken. It is simply enigmatic in effect. The music is so great because it combines the talent of the great Santana and many other versatile musicians. "The Santana Supernatural album is the sort of project Grammy voters can latch on to. It was an artistic and commercial triumph from a veteran artist who managed to unite two generations of rockers in a communal effort" (Rick Bird, Santana's Still Supernatural Rock Veteran Up For 10 Grammys).