Posted : Thu, 21 Feb 2008
Author : Legacy Recordings
Category : PressRelease
A decade after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame
(in January 1998), the hypnotic power of Santana -- to mesmerize
crowds of tens of thousands in the world's biggest stadiums, or to
cast the same spell on a single listener in their solitude --
continues to be one of the enduring and mysterious pleasures of the
band's music. That meditative power has coursed through Santana's
recordings for four decades, but has never been the exclusive focus
of any one collection -- until now.
Multi Dimensional Warrior is a unique project, with every track
personally selected and sequenced by Carlos Santana to create an
engaging journey through a soundscape of moods and feelings. In an
unprecedented concept, disc one comprises 14 vocal performances
chosen from albums spanning the 1970s, '80s, '90s, and '00s, while
disc two comprises 14 instrumental performances from albums covering
the same years. Multi Dimensional Warrior is the first anthology to
include tracks from the band's three major label associations:
Columbia, Polydor/PolyGram, and Arista/BMG. With just three
exceptions, all of the albums represented on disc one are different
than the albums represented on disc two. Carlos Santana supervised
new overdubs to five tracks on the set. He personally added guitar to
"Spirit" and "Right Now," Santana band member Chester Thompson
contributed piano to "Let There Be Light," and Barbara Higbie added
harp to "Praise" and "Let There Be Light."
Multi Dimensional Warrior will arrive in stores April 1st on
Columbia/Arista/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT,
in advance of a one-month schedule of North American tour dates
across the U.S. and Canada. The tour opens April 4th at Agganis Arena
in Boston, and concludes May 4th at the annual Jazz & Heritage
Festival in New Orleans.
On March 31st, the Monday before the album release date, Carlos
Santana will join millions across the U.S. in observance and
celebration of the birthday of United Farm Workers activist and labor
leader Cesar Chavez, who died in 1993. The movement to win a Cesar E.
Chavez National Holiday has long been held dear by Carlos Santana. He
has agreed, along with Martin Sheen and Edward James Olmos, to serve
as National Co-Chairs of the effort. To date, 40 cities in 25 states
will be holding events.
"It's supremely important that a day be selected to honor the life of
Mr. Cesar Chavez for his quality of service to all humanity. His
supreme cry of 'si se puede' will forever resonate as a positive
motivator as words of light," stated Carlos Santana. He helped
organizers wage a successful signature campaign during his 1999
Supernatural tour, which led the State of California to establish a
legal holiday for Chavez the next year, the first time that a Latino
or labor leader was honored in this way in our nation. Since then,
several states have established Cesar Chavez Days on March 31st
including Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Rhode Island,
Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. For more information please go to:
<http://www.cesarchavezholiday.org/>http://www.cesarchavezholiday.org/.
History swirls around Santana, signed to Columbia Records by Clive
Davis in late-1968. They began recording in January 1969 -- although
the follow-up sessions of May 1969 were the ones eventually used for
their debut album. That self-titled release came out on August 19,
1969, the day after the end of the Woodstock Music & Arts Fair, where
they performed on Saturday afternoon. Warrior includes one of their
oldest signatures, "Samba Pa Ti," the B-side of their fourth single,
"Oye Como Va," from the second Santana album, Abraxas (1970).
At the far end of the Columbia timeline are the final three albums to
bear the Santana name -- and the only three albums on Warrior to be
represented by one track each on disc one and disc two. Early 1987's
Freedom -- which reunited original band members Gregg Rolie on lead
vocals and keyboards (after his 1975-85 founding stint in Journey),
drummer Mike Shrieve, and percussionist Jose 'Chepito' Areas -- is
the source for "Praise" and two instrumentals, "Bella" and "Love Is You."
At the end of 1987, Carlos Santana delivered Blues For Salvador, his
final Columbia solo album, which won his first GRAMMY Award for Best
Rock Instrumental Performance. Warrior includes the closing title
instrumental, as well as the opening vocal medley of
"Bailando/Aquatic Park." A long hiatus ensued before Santana released
its final Columbia studio album in 1990, Spirits Dancing In The
Flesh. That album's opening track, "Let There Be Light," featuring
lead singer Alex Ligertwood (Santana's longest-running vocalist, from
1979 to 1995), is the appropriate opening track of Warrior. An
instrumental track from Spirits, "Full Moon" appears on disc two.
Santana's two decades at Columbia Records encompassed some 25 studio
and live album releases, comprising band albums and solo projects by
Carlos Santana. On the vocal side, Warrior also revisits Festival
(1976, with "The River"); Moonflower (1977, with "I'll Be Waiting");
and Beyond Appearances (1985, with "Brotherhood," "Spirit," "Right
Now"). On the instrumental side, Warrior includes tracks from
Marathon (1979, "Aqua Marine") and Zebop! (1981, "I Love You Much Too Much").
Santana had a brief but productive three-year stay at PolyGram,
starting with the May 1992 release of Milagro (which means
"miracle"). The album was dedicated to two close friends, Miles Davis
and long-time Santana manager and booking agent Bill Graham (who died
respectively in September and October, 1991) and contained tributes
to four of Santana's inspirations, John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Marvin
Gaye, and Bob Marley. From that album, Warrior offers four vocals on
disc one: "Life Is For Living," "Saja/Right On," and two Santana
originals, "Somewhere In Heaven" and "Your Touch."
Milagro was also the name given to an important charitable foundation
created by Deborah and Carlos Santana, who believe that children are
divine miracles of light and hope for the world. With funds generated
by concert tickets, donations and generous individual and corporate
donors, the Milagro Foundation makes grants to tax-exempt
organizations that work with children and youth in the San Francisco
Bay Area, the United States and countries around the world touched by
the music of Santana. The Milagro Foundation can be reached at PO Box
9125, San Rafael, CA 94912-9125.
Attention focused on the Milagro album as Santana toured through 1992
and mourned the April '93 death of Cesar Chavez. Later that year,
Sacred Fire, a live album was released. Santana returned in 1994 with
a final PolyGram album, Brothers, essentially a trio collaboration by
Carlos, his brother Jorge, and nephew Carlos Hernandez. Three of its
instrumentals are included on Warrior: "Blues Latino," "En Aranjuez
Con Tu Amor," and "Luz, Amor y Vida."
A five-year hiatus from recording followed, ending in 1999 with the
release of Supernatural. It was Santana's first album for Arista
Records, and a welcome reunion with Clive Davis, who produced the
album with Carlos. Supernatural was an industry phenomenon --
15-times RIAA platinum in the U.S. alone, the #6 best-selling album
in Soundscan history, with nearly double that number of sales
worldwide. The album spent 102 weeks on the Billboard chart including
12 weeks at #1.
Most significantly, Supernatural generated an all-time
record-breaking nine GRAMMY awards including Album Of the Year and
Best Rock Album. Among the instrumentals on Supernatural (and
included on Warrior) is "El Farol," which won the GRAMMY for Best Pop
Instrumental. ("El Farol" was also the B-side of the worldwide smash
hit single and triple-GRAMMY Award winner "Smooth," co- written by
and featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty).
Supernatural was a hard act to follow -- but 2002's Shaman gave
Santana a second consecutive #1 multi-platinum album. The album's
title alluded to traditional and primitive religious figures who are
in touch with the spirit world, an atmosphere that is conjured up
with "Victory Is Won," the closing track on disc two of Multi
Dimensional Warrior.
For more information, visit
<http://www.legacyrecordings.com/>http://www.legacyrecordings.com/.
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