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Santana and the Metaphysics of Tone

Santana and the Metaphysics of Tone

Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
Melinda  Latour
Abstract
Throughout his career, Carlos Santana has used music to express his idiosyncratic spiritual beliefs. Pursuing the guidance of guru Sri Chinmoy in the 1970s and subsequently seeking his own spiritual path, Santana sought to channel a higher power through his guitar technique and tone, describing the process of music making as a mystical endeavor. In order to attain these goals, Santana used amplifiers that prioritized depth of sound (described by himself in synesthetic terms), feedback loops for his signature sustained tones, an avoidance of hypermasculine performance, and a peaceful stage presence. This chapter investigates the role of timbre in Santana’s spiritual journey from the 1960s to the present.

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