Happy 65th birthday (on July 20) to the world’s greatest guitarist, Carlos Santana!
It seems like yesterday that he was 22 and playing “Soul Sacrifice” at Woodstock and “Fried Neckbone” at Fillmore West in San Francisco.
Santana is doing a
two-year residency at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, along with a tour this month in the Midwest and East. The tour includes five shows that he’s co-headlining with the Allman Brothers.
My continual hope is that Santana will do a one-night residency here in Albany as the headliner of a Northwest Art & Air Festival concert in 2013 or beyond. I’d gladly volunteer to help the Albany Parks & Recreation Department try to book him.
Fox should also consider at least a season-long residency for Santana — on “American Idol.” He’d be a good replacement for Steven Tyler, who stepped down last week as one of the show’s judges. Las Vegas is just a short hop to “American Idol” in L.A.
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Here are three YouTube videos: “Novus,” (2002) featuring Santana and Placido Domingo; and two versions of “Soul
Sacrifice,” one by Santana at Woodstock in 1969 and the other by the Karimski Club at Poland’s 40th anniversary Woodstock celebration in 2009.