Multi-Grammy Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Carlos Santana has announced that his passion-filled retrospective album, Sentient, is out today on Candid Records and available everywhere.
Sentient is composed of 11 dazzling tracks – three of them previously unreleased – compiled by the virtuoso guitarist, remastered and sequenced in a way that allows a new and dramatic story to emerge. As is often the case when the spark of musical magic strikes, Santana was surprised, delighted and receptive. “I’m always driven by passion, emotion and inner instinct,” he says. “When I first heard these tracks floating around in the house, I said, ‘Why don’t we put these all in one place?’”
The songs that make up Sentient are complex compositionally, but they float by like a dream. There are brilliant collaborations with Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Miles Davis, Paolo Rustichelli, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Cindy Blackman Santana, but no matter the mood or genre – whether it’s lush pop or high-intensity cosmic jazz – it’s all part of a common thread. As Santana says, “From Stravinsky to James Brown, it’s all the same song, meaning it’s all connected to the umbilical cord of humanity and planet Earth.”
The previously unreleased tracks include a live instrumental take on Michael Jackson’s haunting ballad, “Stranger in Moscow,” recorded in 2007 with producer and drummer Narada Michael Walden’s band. It’s a devastating masterclass performance – Santana’s guitar playing is by turns soulful and poetic, blitzing and blinding, and always breathtakingly imaginative.
And “Please Don’t Take Your Love,” a heavenly slice of funky, soulful seduction that pairs Santana with the incomparable Smokey Robinson. The original version, featured on Robinson’s 2009 album, Time Flies When You’re Having Fun, saw Santana contrast Robinson’s shimmering vibrato with searing, soul-shaking soloing. The alternate take on Sentient is no less emotionally wrenching, but as Santana notes, it boasts a never-before-heard guitar performance.
With the album release today, fans will get to hear “Coherence” for the very first time. It’s a tantalizing preview of Cindy Blackman Santana’s next album. A remarkable musical exchange between two peerless players – Carlos reaching for points unknown with wah-drenched, fearlessness, and Cindy locking down an epic groove while also breaking out lethal jabs, uppercuts and hooks.
“Get On,” a jazz-groove masterpiece from renowned composer Paolo Rustichelli’s lauded 1996 album Mystic Man, featuring the extraordinary collaboration of Santana with the iconic Miles Davis, was #2 Most Added at Smooth Jazz Radio.