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Legendary Guitarist Carlos Santana Releases “Whiter Shade of Pale” Feat. Steve Winwood.

LOS ANGELES, CA (September 21, 2021) – Today, multi-Grammy Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Carlos Santana releases the third single off his star-studded, masterful new album, Blessings and Miracles (out via BMG on October 15), a collaboration with the legendary vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, Grammy winner and BMI Icon Steve Winwood on the classic “Whiter Shade of Pale.” Pre-order Blessings and Miracles HERE.

 

Taking on a classic is sometimes risky, but Santana’s pairing with fellow legend Steve Winwood on the Procol Harum gem “A Whiter Shade of Pale” puts all fears to rest. It’s a resplendent, marvelously realized retelling, a nourishing hymn for the modern age, on which the two musical giants discover new pockets of beauty at every turn.

 

As it was on the original, there’s an elegiac feel throughout, but there’s also a romantic element that never existed before. Winwood’s voice, a wondrously singular instrument, is stirring and deeply moving, and Santana channels Matthew Fisher’s original organ lines on guitar with reverence while putting his own unique stamp on the timeless melodies. With each passage, he lifts us higher and higher into bliss.

 

Santana recalls how he and Winwood were at a show in London’s Hyde Park, and he went up to him and suggested they record the song. “I said, ‘You and I have to do it, but we’re going to do it very sexy, like a Hare Krishna but with congas.’ I played the components in his ear, and he said, ‘I hear it, Carlos. You’re right.’ So that’s what we did – it’s Santana, Cuban, Puerto Rican in an African way. And man, you talk about sexy. Steve’s voice is so sexy and beautiful.”

 

Winwood says, “Carlos has been doing what I’ve been trying to do for the last fifty years, namely combining elements of rock, jazz, folk, and Latin Afro-Caribbean music. Carlos’ genius comes in large part from a wonderful combination of rock music with Latin-Cuban rhythms. I’ve played with Carlos on numerous occasions over the past fifty years and I’m very excited to be working with him again still.” In addition to “Whiter Shade of Pale,” the album’s first single “Move,” featuring Rob Thomas and Zac Barnett from American Authors, and Santana’s collaboration “She’s Fire” with Diane Warren and G-Eazy is available now.

 

Blessings and Miracles is one of the most ambitious, inspired, and magical albums of Santana’s storied career, on which the legendary guitarist aims higher than ever. “The title of this album comes from my belief that we’re born with heavenly powers that allow us to create blessings and miracles,” Santana says. “The world programs you to be unworthy of those gifts, but we have to utilize light, spirit and soul – they’re indestructible and immutable. Those are the three main elements on this album.”

 

In addition to the above talents, Blessings and Miracles sees Santana collaborating with a diverse host of brilliant artists, writers and producers including Chris StapletonChick CoreaRick RubinCorey GloverKirk HammettAlly Brookeand Narada Michael Walden, among others, on genre-bending, hook-filled knockout musical celebrations.

 

The record also features bravura performances from members of Santana’s touring band (including drummer Cindy Blackman Santana, singer Tommy Anthony, bassist Benny Rietveld, percussionist Karl Perazzo, and keyboardist David K. Matthews), as well as impeccable vocals and keyboards by the guitarist’s son, Salvador Santana, and stunning lead vocals by daughter, Stella Santana.

 

Santana and his band are on tour this September and October, with upcoming shows in Jacksonville, FL, Simpsonville, SC, Tuscaloosa, AL, Augusta, GA, Brandon, MS, Chattanooga, TN, Franklin, TN, Tulsa, OK, and Durant, OK. Santana will continue their multi-year residency at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas with upcoming dates from November 3 thru December 11. For tour schedule see here. 

 

Credits: Martine Ehrenclou / https://www.rockandbluesmuse.com/

5 Reflections On George Wein: How It Felt To Be Around The Architect Of The Modern Music Festival

George Wein wasn’t just at the ground floor of Newport Jazz Fest, Newport Folk Fest and New Orleans Jazz Fest. He arguably crafted the archetype of the modern music festival—and was a stouthearted and unforgettable character to boot. Despite being perhaps the most important concert producer to ever live, George Wein didn’t disappear behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz.

 

Anyone who’s been to Newport Jazz Fest probably remembers the suspenders-clad senior citizen zipping around the grounds in his golf cart, nicknamed “The Wein Machine.” The image seems to sum him up: Public-spirited, lovably avuncular, and darn near universally beloved. But as close compatriot Danny Melnick remembers, he wasn’t only zipping around looking for handshakes and hugs: Sometimes, Wein was on his way to yell at him about something.

 

“He would get driven backstage and go [Faux-screams] “Dannnyyy!” Melnick tells GRAMMY.com. “I would come over and he was like, ‘The goddamn craft vendors are too close.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he’s like, “Go over there and look.’” Eventually, Melnick says, he would have to excuse himself and deal with the crowd-congestion issue.

But although Wein could be “a tough boss,” their conflicts were always constructive and familial, never malevolent. “He deserves all the accolades and all the love and all the credit, but, definitely, he was a human being,” Melnick continues. “And for those of us that were close with him, we’ve definitely had all of those human experiences.”

Wein passed away suddenly in his Manhattan apartment on September 13, 2021, drawing to a close a seven-decade career. He was 95. The important information about Wein is out there, both in myriad obituaries and in his memoir with Nate Chinen, Myself Among Others: A Life in Music.

 

The pianist and concert producer wasn’t just at the ground floor of Newport Jazz Fest, Newport Folk Fest, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest; he arguably crafted the archetype of the modern music festival, both on a creative and structural level. His record on civil rights is unassailable. But what no Wikipedia rundown of accomplishments can elucidate is how he became himself: The raw intelligence, people skills, business acumen and adoration of music that enabled him to inhabit a once-in-a-generation role.

 

While it would take hundreds of interviews to get to the bottom of who Wein was and what he meant to multiple entire musical communities, GRAMMY.com rang up five musical figures with unique perspectives on him: Large-ensemble leader Darcy James Argue, trumpeter Gregory Davis, Preservation Hall creative director Ben Jaffe, jazz impresario Danny Melnick and the Recording Academy’s Senior Membership and Project Manager, Reid Wick.

 

Below are their heartfelt and sometimes surprising expressions about George Wein, whose likes we’ll never see again. All of them answered questions about the man through the same emotional lens: “How did he make you feel?”

These as-told-to quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity.

He saw so much of the evolution of the music over the course of his life and presented so much of it and documented it and was a real curatorial force in a way that I don’t think is truly possible for anyone to ever replicate.

Why was he the one to take on that role in the world? What made him the antenna to pick all this up?

 

I could not really say. Obviously, being a musician himself—a pianist—I think, gave him a perspective on the music. You know, there aren’t a lot of presenters who could get up there on the stage and play a few choruses.

So, I think that aspect of George’s love of the music, coming from a certain amount of lived experience as an actual player, is a big part of it. All I can really speak to is my own particular interactions with him.

 

But for me, the striking thing was when I first met him, when he came down to the old Jazz Gallery to hear Secret Society in person. This was a very small venue and audience. He might have been one of 40, 50 people in the room. Just the fact that he was still doing that. At that point, he was in his eighties and still getting out to hear new music.

 

At a time when most people would be more than happy to rest on their laurels after an entire career of presenting the highest possible musicians in jazz—Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and that same person who had such incredible long-term fruitful associations with those artists was also coming down to our little Jazz Gallery show.

 

Having that sort of insatiable curiosity and desire to hear things with his own ears, just blew my mind and blew the mind of everyone in the group.

 

Why was he the one to take on that role in the world? What made him the antenna to pick all this up?

I could not really say. Obviously, being a musician himself—a pianist—I think, gave him a perspective on the music. You know, there aren’t a lot of presenters who could get up there on the stage and play a few choruses.

 

So, I think that aspect of George’s love of the music, coming from a certain amount of lived experience as an actual player, is a big part of it. All I can really speak to is my own particular interactions with him.

 

But for me, the striking thing was when I first met him, when he came down to the old Jazz Gallery to hear Secret Society in person. This was a very small venue and audience. He might have been one of 40, 50 people in the room. Just the fact that he was still doing that. At that point, he was in his eighties and still getting out to hear new music.

 

At a time when most people would be more than happy to rest on their laurels after an entire career of presenting the highest possible musicians in jazz—Why was he the one to take on that role in the world? What made him the antenna to pick all this up?

 

I could not really say. Obviously, being a musician himself—a pianist—I think, gave him a perspective on the music. You know, there aren’t a lot of presenters who could get up there on the stage and play a few choruses.

So, I think that aspect of George’s love of the music, coming from a certain amount of lived experience as an actual player, is a big part of it. All I can really speak to is my own particular interactions with him.

 

 

But for me, the striking thing was when I first met him, when he came down to the old Jazz Gallery to hear Secret Society in person. This was a very small venue and audience. He might have been one of 40, 50 people in the room. Just the fact that he was still doing that. At that point, he was in his eighties and still getting out to hear new music.

 

At a time when most people would be more than happy to rest on their laurels after an entire career of presenting the highest possible musicians in jazz—Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and that same person who had such incredible long-term fruitful associations with those artists was also coming down to our little Jazz Gallery show.

 

Having that sort of insatiable curiosity and desire to hear things with his own ears, just blew my mind and blew the mind of everyone in the group.and that same person who had such incredible long-term fruitful associations with those artists was also coming down to our little Jazz Gallery show.

 

Having that sort of insatiable curiosity and desire to hear things with his own ears, just blew my mind and blew the mind of everyone in the group.

 

Gregory Davis (trumpeter, Dirty Dozen Brass Band) had to say…

Of course, I met him as a promoter—a festival producer and all that stuff. But as I got to know him personally, I personally became more and more impressed with him just as a human being, beyond music.

 

I lived by myself. I was doing well, earning money here in New Orleans as a musician. And my wife, at that time, was teaching school, but we couldn’t get approved for a loan to buy a house, because I was a musician. I was making three or four times what she was making, but primarily because I was a musician, we couldn’t get approved.

 

George caught wind of it and he put me in touch with a banker, who made sure that I was able to get the loan to buy the land but then get the money to build a house. And although he did that as a human being, he never brought it up again. He never made me feel obligated. He never made a big deal about it.

 

And then even after that, I attempted to buy some rental property and I had problems again. And then I mentioned it to him. He said, “Hey, go see that same banker. He’ll take care of it.” He made it possible just for me to do things. Maybe those things would have happened later on, but he just stepped in.

 

Speaking with the woman who was his caretaker, I later found out that he had done similar things for other musicians that had a hard time paying medical bills or mortgages. That kind of stuff you’re not going to find on the internet.

Hardly anybody has a bad word to say about the guy. His legacy spans the latter half of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st.

 

It’s a rare occurrence that you would meet a person that just checks so many boxes on the humanitarian side. OK, yeah, he had an effect or played a part in furthering jazz just because of his involvement as a performer, producer, promoter, whatever.

 

But what we go through—what musicians go through on a personal level—affects what happens to them musically, whether or not they even sustain just playing music. He affected that greatly, and it’s just rare in life that you meet a person that checks so many boxes.

 

There was no pretense about how much money he might’ve made or what he meant to the festival world, to the music world, whatever. For me, personally, that was the best quality about him—his humanism that he just exuded. That’s the thing that I will always remember and cherish about him for the rest of my life.

 

Morgan Enos – Grammys

 

Bluesman Selwyn Birchwood Releases New Video “Searching For My Tribe”

Groundbreaking young blues visionary Selwyn Birchwood today announces the premiere of his attention-grabbing new video for his original song, “Searching For My Tribe.” The passionate, thought-provoking track appears on Birchwood’s recently released, third Alligator album, Living In A Burning House. According to Birchwood, Searching For My Tribe is about his personal journey for self-actualization. “I had always been a loner from a very young age.

 

At 19 years old, I discovered an entire world of blues music that felt like ‘home’. I knew then where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. Just when I thought I had found my place in the sun, it appears as though all of the people and sounds that brought me in have been replaced with other trends. This music video allows me to tell that story, visually, from a different perspective as it showcases the state of the ‘art’ in the environment we see today.”

 

Selwyn Birchwood delivers a ton of sweet, funky blues on his new track and video “Searching For My Tribe.” His guitar work and vocals are both hypnotic and strong and his artistic evolution is impressive and obvious. The video clip enhances the song and puts down a bit of commentary on the music business as a whole. It’s a stance that’s sure to cause some discussion and strong opinions, which is what all great art does. Selwyn Birchwood shows the depth of his talent in a fearless way on “Searching For My Tribe” and uses that depth to fly high.

 

“Searching For My Tribe” is from Birchwood’s celebrated album, Living In A Burning House, produced by Tom Hambridge and released on Alligator Records. Birchwood calls his original music “electric swamp funkin’ blues,” defined by raw and soulful musicianship played with fire-and-brimstone fervor. His gritty, unvarnished vocals draw his audience deep inside his unforgettable tales of love, passion, pain, and pleasure.

 

No other band on the current blues scene is built quite like Birchwood’s. In addition to Selwyn’s electrifying guitar and lap steel playing, the other featured instrument is Regi Oliver’s driving baritone sax. The group is rounded out by bass, drums, and keyboards. “This singer-songwriter continues to leap forward…intent on both working in the blues idiom and expanding on it. His vocals are as tough as these funky, surprising sounds demand. The 13 original songs are constructed for drama stories and sounds combine to haunt beyond their specific references, as the best blues songs will.” —The Wall Street Journal

 

Since the 2014 release of his Alligator Records debut, Don’t Call No Ambulance, Birchwood’s meteoric rise from playing small Florida clubs to headlining international festival stages is nothing short of phenomenal. The album received the Blues Music Award and Living Blues Critics’ Award for Best Debut Album Of 2014, and he won the 2015 Blues Blast Rising Star Award.

 

Rave reviews ran in publications from Rolling Stone to The Wall Street Journal, from The Chicago Tribune to The San Francisco Chronicle. He followed in 2016 with Pick Your Poison. DownBeat said, “There’s a deep-seated power about Birchwood’s singing and six string/lap steel guitar work…and there’s an unmistakable emotion and honesty linking him to forebearers like Muddy Waters.”

Credits: By Martine Ehrenclou – www.rockandbluesmuse.com/

 

Rod Stewart Previews New Album With Lead Single 'One More Time'

Rod Stewart has released “One More Time,” the lead single from his upcoming 31st album, The Tears of Hercules, and an accompanying video. Announcing the new record, Stewart tweeted, “I’ve never said this before about any previous efforts, but I believe this is by far my best album in many a year.” The album is due out on November 12.

 

The upcoming album, which will contain nine original tracks and three covers, is Stewart’s first since Blood Red Roses, which came out in 2018. “Touchline,” the closing song in the new album, is Stewart’s tribute to his father, Robert,

 “who taught him and his brothers to love football,” a press release explains