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Rating: Seeing a music legend with your own eyes doesn't happen often.
It's like listening to the Treccani section dedicated to the "six strings" narrated by a master, playing right there, just for you. Like audiobooks, but an extra luxury outing with the guitarist in the flesh. That was the Carlos Santana concert, Monday night in a packed Verona Arena. The only Italian date for the Mexican musician who grew up in San Francisco was sold out for weeks.
The amphitheater was boiling: sure, from the heat, more typical of Central America, however, than the Bel Paese. The event started at 9 pm sharp, and the special effect was the music, with a capital M. What a magnificent view could be enjoyed from the stands, with the last latecomers still taking their seats until all the chairs were occupied. The guitarist appeared in pure white and a straw hat, backed by his mini-orchestra composed of two singers, percussion, electric bass, trombone, and trumpet, churning out the big hits of Samba, Merengue, Rumba, Mambo, and Smooth Jazz.
The beginning was just a warm-up, then the sonic tapestry woven by Santana won over the amphitheater's audience, where filling the air weren’t the notes of Giuseppe Verdi's "Traviata", but those of "Oye Como Va", "America", "Black Magic Woman". The studio execution of historical pieces, like "Samba Pa' Ti", an instrumental masterpiece from the '70s album "Abraxas", is never entirely respected, but much is left to improvisation: Carlos is familiar with the canons of jazz and blues, which throughout his career he has known how to reinterpret in a pop key, thanks to which he reached the masses. Beyond his majestic talent, which allows him to play continuously for ten, fifteen straight minutes, filling the ears and eyes of those present with the dreamlike landscapes of his land.
Seeing with the ears, listening with the eyes. At a certain point, during "Corazon Espinado", one of those songs you recognize from the first notes and that make you jump out of your seat, those who had settled into the front seats started dancing wildly, legs bouncing and arms spinning above heads, completely seduced. The power of one of the world's top 15 guitarists, in the list of the magnificent 100 compiled by Rolling Stone.
There was time for a little skit, in which our star made a slip-up, promptly forgiven by the audience: "Today is a holiday in Latin countries, Spain won the Europeans!" Ehm, Mr. Santana, that's a sore spot. "But you are the World Champions." There we go, that's better. A triumph.
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