Photo by Erik Kabik Photo by Rob Shanahan
CYNTHIA BLACKMAN-SANTANA I B Y R A N DY PAT T E R S O N , B O O M E R O C I T Y. C O M
T’S OFTEN BEEN said that behind
every great man is a great woman. This is literally the case with Carlos Santana with his wife of eight years, Cindy BlackmanSantana. Cindy is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s touring and studio drummers. Astute music fans will know Cindy as a phenomenal musician who stands quite well on her own. Having cut her musical teeth on hard-core jazz, she has played with a long list of jazz artists, including Sam Rivers, Angela Bofill, and Sonny Simmons. She’s also quite the rock drummer, first hitting it big as Lenny Kravitz’s drummer and performing on his huge 1993 hit “Are You Gonna Go My Way.” She’s pretty much played with him ever since. Her work as a rock drummer invaded her personal life when, in December 2010, she married Carlos Santana. The marriage is rocking along beautifully both personally and musically. I recently caught up with Cindy to chat about the new CDs and life with Carlos. At the beginning of my chat with Cindy, I congratulated her on her recent wedding anniversary and asked her if it has been anything at all like she envisioned it eight years ago. “Um, no, it’s not. Ha! Ha! It’s not in some ways, and in other ways, it’s gloriously like I envisioned it. I really like monogamy, because I love growing with a person. I’ve always been that way my whole life. I like that. I like seeing the growth of a person – doing things together, growing with somebody. We’ve certainly done a lot of that. It’s a beautiful thing, because we still have our freshness. We still have playfulness, and we still have fun.” About the new CDs coming out, Cindy said: “He’s got a great CD coming out called Africa Speaks, and it’s with the Santana band
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EVERYTHING KNOXVILLE Februar y 2019
plus this incredible singer who Carlos came across by the name of Buika (pronounced BWEE-kah), and she’s SO amazing! This music, as the title would suggest, is based off of a lot of music that Carlos heard that is from Africa – with some different kinds of African rhythms, but also with music that comes from Africa that was initially influenced by American music. American music – or classical music, which is jazz – comes in part from African music. We took the rhythms of Africa, and we took the harmonies of Europe and developed on both of those things and expounded on both of those things and created jazz music, which is what I call American classical music or American CLASSIC music. Carlos heard all those things and took them and did something else with them. It’s a nice back and forth influence, if you will, for what we come up with for this record. It’s really incredible. “That record is coming out. Prior to that, my record will be released. I’m really, really proud of the music that we’re doing. I recorded a lot of music with some musicians. There’s SO MUCH music at this point that I have basically two sides of the record. One is going to be, for the most part, instrumental. The second side is featuring my vocal debut. Those songs are more on a commercial/pop side, where the instrumental part is very
electric and kind of a jazz/rock/funk vibe. Both sides feature a guitar-heavy roster. “John McLaughlin is on one track on each side, so he’s on one instrumental and one vocal track. Carlos is on both sides. Vernon Reid is on the instrumental side, as is Kurt Hammet. So it’s really got those heavy hitters on guitar. “On the second side, with the main vocal things, they were produced by Narada Michael Walden, who is in his own right a great drummer, but he’s also a very great producer as well. Narada is very sweet! A very kind individual. Wonderful to work with.” How does Cindy want to be remembered, and what does she hope her legacy is? “I have a song on my new record called ‘Change Is in Your Hands.’ I believe that it’s a true title. I believe that we can all make change happen, and we’re all responsible for it happening or not happening. I want to be an instrument for change for the good; change for the better; change for the higher level of awareness; change for the higher level of everyone’s life circumstances. It’s not the ‘crabs in a barrel,’ and I know that that exists, especially in our society. But I don’t take on the energy of the crab in the barrel. I just take the energy of upgrading and uplifting. I’m not going to be the crab that’s going.” You can read the extended interview w i t h C i n d y a t w w w. b o o m e r o c i t y. com the learn latest about her at www. cindyblackmansantana.com. Randy’s first interview was at the tender age of 13 with none other than Col. Tom Parker. Thirty-six years later he founded the webzine, Boomerocity.com, and has conducted close to 200 interviews with some of the most interesting people in music.