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Music is like Tylenol, where it's a remedy, and it does cure, but it's more of a guarantee than Tylenol because Tylenol-it comes and it goes, it's only temporary, but music can heal, depending on what type of impact you have, it can be forever.
-Salvador Santana |
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By Ken Friedman
While the influence is there, if you go out to see the SSB and hope for searing guitars and Latin-laced, LSD-inspired classic rock like Dad used to make, you may not find what you are looking for. "Well, it's definitely similar because of course I grew up listening to my Dad's music. I find certain little licks or quotes in my playing that I could say - they are not exactly taken from my Dad, but they are definitely inspired by him and influenced by the people who inspired my Dad throughout the years - so with that I feel my music can be very similar. And I think how it's different is that I like to experiment with all sorts of genres of music — actually that's also a similarity as well. The only difference is that I feel his music started out in a specific era, which is like the late '60s and early '70s. He has that influence from when he first started, and he's trying to bring it up until now-a-days. I feel that since my music is now kind of fresh - it's only a couple years old - that it's not necessarily more up-to-date, but it's more 2005."
When most folks hear the name "Santana," they assume Sal is a guitar player, but if you think about it for more than a fleeting moment, it should come as little surprise that Sal didn't choose the axe as his weapon. "Piano was actually the last instrument I learned. I'm starting to get into bass now, but before I had learned drums, then guitar, then piano. And I didn't like guitar for two reasons. One is just an insecurity thing, the pressure, but sometimes there are ideas that I can't figure out on piano but I can pick up a guitar and have a better understanding. Also just playing the guitar, my fingers weren't used to it. I would always get calluses, and I'd start crying and get all angry. But the piano just felt so much more natural to me, the way I could visibly see the notes, that's where 'C' is, that's where 'G' is. And even though guitar is very percussive, it's more of a melodic instrument, where as I view the piano more - I used to see it as a melodic instrument - now I see it similar to the drums and I try to approach it like I'm playing a drum set." When going to see Sal's band, especially when they open for his father's world-rock outfit, it can come as a bit of surprise to hear hip-hop grinding up against soul and funk, but we live in a world where borders are dissolving, distances are shrinking, and genres are melding. "Since I've been exposed to so much music, it's helped me to understand how they are all connected. Like you wouldn't think that jazz and country would be in the same realm, but they are very close together because they both came from blues. So it's been amazing for me to just make those tiny connections and really understand that 'You know what, it's not really about what music sounds good and what music doesn't sound good; it's all based on what you prefer to listen to.'"
Growing up in the shadow of a famous parent has stifled more than one young artist. While it's difficult to pin down, and likely a product of many factors, Salvador has clearly embraced his lineage, and it seems obvious that his parents have both succeeded in giving Sal the necessary tools to believe in himself and to find his own path. "For example, sometimes people will say, 'Oh your father is incredible. He does this amazing work. People love him all over the world. You're going to have a tough time filling his shoes.' Well, that may be true, but he's in the process of filling his shoes, and I'm on my journey and the task of filling my own shoes. I don't have to fill anybody's shoes but my own, so that takes some of the pressure off."
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