SANTANA with STEVE WINWOOD
UNIVERSAL TONE TOUR 2010
July 23, 2010 at COMCAST CENTER in Mansfield, MA
SANTANA and STEVE WINWOOD Live Photos & Review by Lena Lamoray
July 30, 2010
SANTANA brought his UNIVERSAL TONE TOUR to the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA and although it was pouring outside it didn’t stop people from getting their grove on. Steve Winwood opened the show and performed a pretty laid back set of his hits including “Roll With It” and of course “Higher Love”. Steve and his band sounded incredible.
SANTANA exceeded my expectations live. Carlos Santana features so many guest artists on his albums I thought I would miss them not being there live but not a chance. Santana’s band is just so amazing live that I didn’t care. I was bummed that I didn’t get to see LOU DIAMOND PHILLIPS shake his maracas on-stage like I heard about on twitter. I guess he didn’t land a touring spot on the tour, perhaps next time, Lou! Seriously, I don’t know what to say about Santana’s band other then, wow! His live band consists of Paul Rekow, Tony Lindsay, Andy Vargas, Benny Rietveld, Freddie Ravel, Dennis Chambers, Karl Perazzo, Bill Ortiz, Jeff Cressman and Tommy Anthony. I’ve seen three piece bands that couldn’t keep their set together but I didn’t detect any flaws only smoothness.
Santana had a dynamic stage set up with plenty of room for his guitar dancing and spectacular band. I could not have asked for more in the light show department. It was beautifully done with the perfect amount of everything. The background lighting would change to look like a nighttime sky, all lit up with stars. Carlos set the mood with incense
Carlos Santana has collaborated with too many artists to name but here are a few to quench your thirst, Rob Thomas, Everlast, Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Jennifer Lopez, Sheila E., Dido, Chad Kroeger and Steven Tyler. Everyone has at least one favorite Santana song no matter what type of music you are into. My absolute favorite Santana song is “Maria, Maria” so I was stoked that was one of the songs I got to photograph. I rarely ever get to photograph my favorite song from an artist but Santana’s hit song list is just so immense that he can give the people what they want throughout the whole show without worrying about saving “the best” song for last.
On a side note, Carlos Santana and I have a lot in common because not only do we share the same birthday but we both love shoes. In case you didn’t know, Carlos Santana has his own shoe line. His shoe collection is very classy and tops my list of must haves for any season. Don’t get me started on the red peep toe high heels! He even offers them in a size 5 which is great because not many designers think about those of us with petite feet. Thank you Carlos Santana for not only making killer music but sensational shoes as well! Make sure you check out his shoe collection.
I would recommend that you check out SANTANA live and if you can’t make it to a show make sure you pick up a copy of his concept album, “Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time” that is coming out September 21st.
Official Press Release:
Santana's Brand New Album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time - arrives September 21st
Carlos Santana and Clive Davis, Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment, collaborated on the brand new concept album, GUITAR HEAVEN: THE GREATEST GUITAR CLASSICS OF ALL TIME, arriving in stores September 21st on Arista Records. The album was co-produced by Carlos Santana and Clive Davis with tracks produced by Matt Serletic and Howard Benson.
GUITAR HEAVEN: THE GREATEST GUITAR CLASSICS OF ALL TIME:
“Whole Lotta Love” featuring Chris Cornell (Led Zeppelin)
“Sunshine Of Your Love” featuring Rob Thomas (Cream)
“Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” featuring Scott Weiland (The Rolling Stones)
“Dance the Night Away” featuring Pat Monahan (Van Halen)
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” featuring india.arie and Yo-Yo Ma (The Beatles)
“Bang A Gong” featuring Gavin Rossdale (T. Rex)
“Smoke On the Water” featuring Jacoby Shaddix (Deep Purple)
“Photograph” featuring Chris Daughtry (Def Leppard)
“Back In Black” featuring Nas (AC/DC)
“Little Wing” featuring Joe Cocker (Jimi Hendrix)
“Riders On the Storm” featuring Chester Bennington and Ray Manzarek (The Doors)
“I Ain’t Superstitious” featuring Jonny Lang (Howlin’ Wolf, Jeff Beck Group)
“Fortunate Son” featuring Scott Stapp (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
A very special dedication to George Harrison comes together on GUITAR HEAVEN…, with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” featuring singer India.Arie and master cellist Yo-Yo Ma. “Listening to the song,” Olivia Harrison told Carlos, “it made me jump for joy and cry at the same time.”
Along with these stars, Carlos offers “supreme validation and compliment” to his full-time band for their work on GUITAR HEAVEN…, their first entire full-length studio album recording together. Band members who join him on the album include Dennis Chambers (drums), Benny Rietveld (bass), Karl Perrazo (timbales), Tommy Anthony (rhythm guitar), Freddie Ravel (keyboards), Andy Vargas (background vocals), and Raul Rekow (Congas). Bill Ortiz (trumpet) and Jeff Cressman (trombone) also appear on the record.
“To create these songs,” said Carlos, “it took an incredible amount of trust – from Matt Serletic, and from Howard Benson, and all these incredible singers, all these incredible musicians, they had to trust me, and I trusted Clive, so it’s a chain reaction of love, because that’s the highest form of love that there is on this planet: Trust.”
“The cuts are special and the guest stars are special,” said Clive Davis. “But what is unique and why this album stands for more than just the individual songs or titles, is that they were indeed chosen because they’re guitar classics. And they celebrate the guitar because of the performance of Carlos Santana.”