An evening with Carlos Santana

The soundtrack of my teenage years, and in fact even now, was the music of Santana - a unique combination  of Latin/African/salsa/jazz that was always playing in the background somewhere, and I leapt at the opportunity to go and see him live in concert here in Cape Town. There is no other like Santana and he certainly did not disappoint us. From the moment the lights went up and the 11-piece band assaulted our senses, there was no letting up of incredible energy from this tightly controlled outfit of professional musicians, each a master at his craft, with the guitar-playing genius of Carlos Santana pulling it all together.

It wasn't long before the crowd was on its feet, unable to resist the lure of the rhythm, and by the time the show ended some two and a half hours later, we were all exhausted by our inability to sit still. Santana must have quite a sense of humour, as old favourites were punctuated with excerpts from various movie themes and songs by other artists, almost as if testing the audience on their musical knowledge of his repertoire, and he played a particularly emotional tribute to the late Paco de Lucia  (Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez).

The bass guitarist played an incredible version of John Lennon's Imagine, and each member of the band was given his moment to shine. The two vocalists were outstanding.

Carlos Santana has lost none of his talent with age and it is notable that he was only 22 when he appeared on stage at the Woodstock Art and Music Festival in 1969 with an 11-minute set of Soul Sacrifice that blew everyone away - who could ever forget that? It was before he had even released his first album and propelled him into international stardom simply from the film footage of the event.

Those who missed the concert are unfortunate.
Without doubt, an evening to remember!