Guitar players don’t come much more legendary than Woodstock veteran Carlos Santana, the man from Tijuana who virtually invented Latin rock fusion more than 40 years ago. The fact that he can still attract such a relatively young audience is undoubtedly due to more recent collaborations with contemporary artists. Tonight, with the help of a ten-piece backing band (including a pair of magnificent vocalists), he showcased not only his unique guitar style but also his abilities as a band leader. After a somewhat shaky start, due to feedback problems, the first spine-tingling moment came with his version of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Black Magic Woman’, featuring that familiar sustained guitar note. He continued with his infectiously danceable version of Tito Puente’s ‘Oye Como Va’ and from then on could do no wrong. There was certainly a lot of love in the room mostly emanating from Mr Santana himself, who is given to hippy-dippy pronouncements on love, peace and suchlike. In fact he even “proposed” again to his fiancée, drummer Cindy Blackman, following her marathon solo.
You certainly couldn’t call it a greatest hits show: there was no room for favorites like ‘Samba Pa Ti’, ‘Europa’, or his hugely popular version of the Zombie’s ‘She’s Not There’. Nor was there much from his zillion-selling multi-Grammy Award winning Supernatural, apart from the hits, ‘Smooth’ and ‘Maria Maria’. There was, however, familiar fare of another kind: current album Guitar Heaven features versions of rock classics and from that he gave us versions of Led Zep’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’, Cream’s ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ and the Stones’ ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’, which, while superbly executed, seemed a tad pointless, given the omission of so much of his own catalogue. Few complained, however, and the 63-year old impressed with the sheer energy of his two and a half hour performance which encored with the Woodstock highlight ‘Soul Sacrifice’.