Carlos Santana Talks Reuniting Santana IV, New Band With Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin & Herbie Hancock

Gary Graff reports: Carlos Santana is getting closer to the finishing the Santana IV project, which reunites members of the 1971-72 lineup of the band. But that’s not the only band he plans to launch in 2015.

“Definitely spring recording and summer touring in Europe and maybe America. Can you hear it? It’s kind of like playing with, sharing music with Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, ’cause Wayne and Herbie, they’re at that level of genius, genius, genius, genius.”

The guitar legend tells Billboard that he and his wife Cindy Blackman Santana are forming a jazz fusion group called Supernova that will also include saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and guitarist John McLaughlin.

“I’m just grateful that they accept it and want to do it. And every time I play with Cindy, it goes viral. People go crazy. The energy between Cindy and I is very, very supernova.”

“Definitely spring recording and summer touring in Europe and maybe America,” Santana says of their plans. “Can you hear it? It’s kind of like playing with, sharing music with Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, ’cause Wayne and Herbie, they’re at that level of genius, genius, genius, genius. I’m just grateful that they accept it and want to do it. And every time I play with Cindy, it goes viral. People go crazy. The energy between Cindy and I is very, very supernova.”

[Read the full story here, at Billboard]

That said, Santana acknowledges being a bit skeptical as to how well a group like Supernova will play in his homeland. “America is still into ‘Tutti Frutti’ and that kind of stuff,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »