The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
| Posted: 19 Apr 2013 03:21 AM PDT Latin music great Santana reminisces about music from the 1960s. GUITAR icon and Latin music's biggest rock star Carlos Santana has little love for modern popular music. The 65-year-old Mexican-American musician says that he does not listen to mainstream radio. "Not at all," he says. "I think right now in 2013, the majority of what I hear on the radio is kind of monotone. It's not really profound, it's not exciting." He reminds you that back in the 1960s, the decade that he started out, he and his peers stood up for important issues and protested against conflicts such as the Vietnam War. He likens pop singers of today to "a baby going 'Aaaaaah' before they go to sleep". He explains: "We were saying something in the 1960s, our music, our sound, we were trying to say, 'Let's create peace on Earth'. Right now, it's more like 'Buy my CD, I need a new house, I want to get a car'. When I listen to a song, it's more like complaining than really wanting to bring a change. And so I'm not enthusiastic about the sound of music right now." The multi-Grammy-winning veteran certainly felt differently back in 1999 when he released Supernatural, the comeback album that thrust him back into the limelight. His 17th and most successful album to date, it featured some of the most popular contemporary singers at that time, including rocker Rob Thomas, R&B duo The Product G&B and soul singer Lauryn Hill. He ended up selling 20 million copies and picking up nine Grammy Awards. His latest release and 22nd studio album released last year, Shape Shifter, features mostly instrumentals. It peaked at No.16 on the mainstream Billboard charts. Revered for his distinctive guitar tone and playing style, Santana has much praise for younger guitar players, such as Greek female player Orianthi and American bluesman Joe Bonamassa, whom he says are pushing the envelope with their innovative playing. He also singles out 33-year-old Grammy-winning American guitarist Derek Trucks, his favourite among the lot. "I think Trucks is more important than all of them. He is hungry for different kinds of expression, the same way as John Coltrane and Jeff Beck. "We don't want to be rabbits in a cage. We want to break the cage and come out. I think a lot of guitar players, sometimes they imprison themselves by playing a certain way and they don't reach out to be free. It takes courage to be free actually." Born in Mexico, Santana and his family moved to San Francisco during his teenage years. It was there that the budding guitarist was exposed to various genres of music, including jazz and folk, as well as the burgeoning hippie movement of the 1960s. He formed the Santana Blues Band in 1966 and the band's unique mix of rock, Latin, jazz and African rhythms soon garnered them attention and led to a now-legendary slot at the iconic Woodstock festival in 1969. Popular throughout the 1970s, his album sales started to wane from the mid-1980s to the 1990s before Supernatural made him a household name again. Besides touring and working on the follow-up to Shape Shifter, he is also working on a memoir, set to be published in English and Spanish next year. Santana, who is married to drummer Cindy Blackman, 53, and has three children from a previous marriage, emphasises that it will be different from other celebrity autobiographies. "A lot of books are written about the same stupid stuff, people losing money, too much drugs... I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about the beauty of inspiration and creativity." He learnt a lot from his peers and other iconic musicians whom he counts as friends - people such as jazz legend Miles Davis, blues veteran B.B. King and Latin jazz great Tito Puente, and he wants to share these lessons in his book. "I want to talk about that, how there is a way to share with people positive things that people can do so that you don't become a victim of yourself and you don't become a tragedy and a boring statistic." – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network |
| Jay-Z, Kate Middleton, Beyonce among Time's most influential people in the world Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:10 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Jay-Z, Pakistan teenager Malala Yousufzai, Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence and SpaceX founder Elon Musk were on Thursday named among Time magazine's most influential people in the world. U.S. President Barack Obama got his eighth entry on the annual list of the 100 top global titans, leaders, artists, pioneers and icons, along with his wife Michelle, newly installed Pope Francis, British royal Kate Middleton (pic), Beyonce, Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun and basketball player LeBron James. Former PayPal entrepreneur Musk was named to the list as his SpaceX devlops space transport with an ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. In the international field, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Philippines President Noynoy Aquino, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and China's glamorous new first lady Peng Liyuan were among those making the list. Time said that for the first time it is issuing seven separate covers for its 100 Most Influential People edition, which is published in the United States on Friday. Chinese tennis player Li Na, 31, the first Asian woman to win a Grand Slam title, and Bollywood actor and political activist Aamir Kahn, will be featured on the front of international editions, while Jay-Z, Lawrence, Musk, Yousufzai and U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul will be featured on five different U.S. covers. The list is not ranked, but Time managing editor Rick Stengel said the seven cover portraits "reflect the breadth and depth of the list." Jay-Z, 43, a recording artist and entrepreneur with interests in sport and fashion, was described by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as embodying the American Dream. "In nearly everything he's tried, he's found success. (He even put a ring on Beyonce.) And in doing so, he's proved that the American Dream is alive and well," Bloomberg wrote of the Empire State Of Mind singer. Yousufzai, 15, has become an international symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women rights after she was shot in head in Pakistan in October 2012 for speaking out on the importance of education for girls. Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, said the Taliban "almost made Malala a martyr; they succeeded in making her a symbol." Lawrence, 22, won an Oscar in February for her role as an outspoken young widow in movie Silver Linings Playbook and is the star of young adult movie franchise The Hunger Games. |
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