Santana sizzles as season opener for the Oakland East Bay Symphony
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_16668213?source=most_emailed
By Richard Scheinin
Posted: 11/20/2010
As Carlos Santana stepped onstage Friday at the Paramount Theatre --
he was about to play with the Oakland East Bay Symphony -- a woman in
the audience shouted, "Do it, baby!"
Decked out in a charcoal gray suit with a zoot-length jacket, Santana
chuckled. And then he did it: Again and again, he launched his
super-spiritualized guitar solos, jabbing at listeners' ears, like
cosmic bee stings.
Conductor Michael Morgan did it, too. He pulled off a gigantic
happening in the sold-out Art Deco palace.
It was the orchestra's opening night of the 2010-11 season: one that
"will not resemble any other opening night," Morgan cheerfully
predicted at the outset. Indeed: Shoehorned onto the stage were
60-plus symphony members, plus (by night's end) a gospel choir, not
to mention an amplified jazz-rock band with a massive drum kit
blocking the view of an entire wing of the orchestra -- and there was
even a touch of a light show, hippy stuff, thrown in for good measure.
Narada Michael Walden, he did it, too.
Well, almost.
The Marin-based pop producer (number one hits for Whitney Houston and
Mariah Carey), songwriter (Aretha Franklin's "Freeway of Love") and
jazz-rock drummer (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck), had been
commissioned by Morgan and the orchestra to compose a seven-movement
symphonic work, spreading his wings beyond the three-minute format.
It turned out to be 30 minutes of Rock Lite, plus orchestra, but it
was sincere, kind of pretty in a Disney way, and fun, especially with
Santana added in.
So now, let's backtrack.
This program -- which repeats tonight (a few seats are left) --
happened because Morgan enjoys stepping outside the symphonic box to
bring together disparate communities of musicians and listeners. A
recent project, underwritten by the James Irvine Foundation, has
allowed him to commission new symphonic works from nonclassical
composers who would like to try their hand at writing for an orchestra.
Enter Narada Michael Walden, who shares Morgan's interest in building
communities through music. A friend of Santana's going back to the
early '70s, when each began a spiritual practice with the guru Sri
Chimnoy, Walden signed up the guitarist as soloist for his upcoming
piece. And Santana, who has enjoyed a couple of past experiences
performing with orchestras, asked if he might also play a few songs
of his own choosing.
And so the program was born.
Actually, it began with the orchestra, alone, playing "Danzon" No. 2,
a short piece by Mexican composer Arturo Marquez. The performance had
a nice dancing lyricism to it, and was remarkably cohesive, given
that the percussion section must have been 60 feet away from the
conductor. Before beginning, Morgan waved at its members, jokingly,
as if greeting them from the other side of a mountain pass.
After "Danzon," the audience thrummed in anticipation of Santana. Out
he came. His band -- which included Cindy Blackman, a great jazz
drummer as well as his fiancé -- played three tunes with the
orchestra, which was amplified in order to balance the sound mix. It
worked intermittently, the strings sometimes fighting to be heard.
Alice Coltrane's "Andromeda's Suffering" was slow-droning and
spiritual, with a boogie blues-rock shuffle inserted in the middle.
George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" suffered because
singer Nikita Germaine's microphone didn't work.
But "Novus" -- whose five co-composers include Santana and guitarist
Gabor Szabo -- clinched the set. It featured the elegant-earthy voice
of Kalil Wilson, a classically trained tenor, syncing up with
Santana's very different brand of earthy elegance. The co-mingling of
backgrounds and genres had me flashing back to a 1970 concert at
Madison Square Garden, where a baritone named McHenry Boatwright
opened for the Rascals and Jimi Hendrix.
Throughout Santana's set, the guitarist laced his roaring solos with
the special Spanish-tinged filigree that he patented several decades
ago. He is one of the truest improvisers, every note somehow
connecting to his internal power source: Zap! With Santana there are
very few barriers; each phrase ascends toward the mountaintop.
After intermission, drummer/composer Walden walked out in white
tuxedo and tails, even a white top hat -- ready to celebrate the
world premiere of "The Enchanted Forest: Seven Higher Worlds of
Music." It is inspired, he has explained, by a spiritual awakening he
experienced at age 18, while living in Kinneloa Canyon above Pasadena.
The opening movement, titled "First World: The Journey Love," was
like a children's song, full of innocence and the soft echo of
nostalgia. It featured horn and tubular bells, the wordless vocals of
the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and layered strings, playing long
unison notes, with drum colorings from Walden, who had long since
removed coat and hat.
Movement by movement, there might be a brief spiritual reading by
Walden or the addition of new solo singers or some other touch.
"Third World: Surrender," the third movement, was a gentle march,
with sleigh bells and flutes -- and 13 dancers, young girls from the
Oakland Ballet School, twirling streamers in the air.
Santana emerged for the fifth movement, "Fifth World: The Communion,
Coming Together," a kind of neo-gospel, mega-church anthem, and
crunched a brief solo. The sixth movement rode on pop-gospel chords,
somewhat Laura Nyro-ish and played by pianist Minna Choi, who
assisted Walden with the work's orchestration. Santana doubled the
melody line, laying his deep imprint on the song.
The guitarist was being the gentleman, not quite taking it through
the roof, letting his friend enjoy the spotlight. The music wasn't
memorable, but it was well-meaning, unpretentious and had some good
tunes. Walden was just being himself. And by the time he finished, he
had assembled an entire community up on stage -- instrumentalists,
singers, dancing children and a famous rock star -- while the
community out in the auditorium stood up and cheered.
.
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