"Nobody wants to be predictable," says Carlos Santana, who's preparing for a fall tour and the November 1st release of All That I Am, his band's latest studio album. "You can hear Santana on the new album, but I'm not the same Santana I was in the Sixties."
All That I Am is sleek and groove-heavy, and like Santana's last two discs, it's studded with big-time guest stars, ranging this time from Anthony Hamilton and Mary J. Blige to Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am and Metallica's Kirk Hammett.
A similar mix helped Santana achieve a critical and commercial comeback with 1999's Supernatural. But Santana, who is again teaming with executive producer Clive Davis, says, "I want people to understand that it's not a schtick, a gimmick, a formula or anything like that. Santana is basically a big buffet, and I'm the maitre d' guy."
Among the standout tracks on the new album is the sinuous "I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love," a collaboration with Los Lonely Boys, who opened for him on a June leg of his tour and previewed the song during their frequent onstage jams with Santana's band. "I love 'em -- the force is strong with them," Santana says of the young Texans. "The song they wrote for me has the Tex-Mex Santana thing, with a tinge of Afro-Cuban stuff."
Another key song is "Cry Baby Cry," a duet between Joss Stone and Sean Paul that Santana describes as "kind of a charanga with a little bit of the Clash in it." And the instrumental track "Trinity" boasts harmonized guitars from Santana, Hammett and pedal-steel virtuoso Robert Randolph.
Randolph and the Family Band will open for Santana's fall tour, which kicks off September 15th in San Jose, California. Supernatural collaborator Rob Thomas helped write the hooky R&B track "My Man," with OutKast's Big Boi and Mary J. Blige on vocals. And Michelle Branch, who sang the hit "The Game of Love" on Santana's 2002 disc, Shaman, reappears to sing what Santana calls a "summer pop song," "I'm Feeling You," co-produced by hitmaker John Shanks.
Also in the works from Santana are a return-to-roots all-instru-mental CD, along with a DVD of his July 2004 "Hymns for Peace" performance in Montreux, Switzerland, where he jammed with Steve Winwood, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and others.
"To me, if you want to stay young, stay open," Santana says of his wide-ranging collaborators. "I never want to be a guy that's been there, done that. That's poison."
