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La guitarra en el cielo de Santana

From el periódico, http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20101020/cultura/179879/

This article discusses Carlos Santana’s new album, called Guitar Heaven in English, which has been put together using old songs by artists such as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck. He believes that it takes courage to play such classics again now, but since he grew up in their time and has songs of his own featured by many of the bands mentioned, it seems that he is a fitting person to do so. The tracks themselves also feature many younger and popular artists of today, many of which I grew up listening to such as Linkin Park, Papa Roach, and even NAS. The album, furthermore, is already circulating in Guatemala.

Aunque Santana nació en Mexico, me parece interesante que un renacimiento de canciones de Gran Bretaña y los Estados Unidos tiene una audiencia tan grande en un país como Guetamala. Aun más interesante es que muchos de los artistas con los que trabaja Santana cantan en ingles, y ni ninguno de ellos es de América Latina. Santana se ha pasado a una nueva cultura, diferente de la cultura de su origen. Él está trabajando con gente de esta nueva cultura y reproduciendo canciones de ella mientras que mantiene la influencia para traerla de regreso a su audencia de América Latina.

Now perhaps the popularity of artists such as Jimi Hendrix extended beyond theses borders on their own, but I think that Santana has probably made an important addition by taking on this project himself. I have also looked at many of his original, somewhat more dated songs and he seems to have guests artists appear on many of these too, including the above artists of whose music he is reproducing now. In terms of his Spanish songs he features many artists as well, including the band Mána, which I have become very familiar with over the last few months as I have attempted to immerse myself in Spanish music.

The album also comes with a DVD covering the making the disk, how they chose the music as well as some interviews of his guest artists. This seems to add even more to the importance of this creation to many of today’s top artists. However, I have searched for newspaper articles on this topic in English and have not had any luck. It would seem that the Latin American media finds such a release more exciting than the media of their Northern neighbours.

Nonetheless, I have read some reviews of the album and there seem to be mixed feelings about its actual uniqueness and success. Only the guest artists perform the vocals while Santana adds to the tracks with his guitar. The songs are all in English as well, so I wonder how many people will realistically listen to this album in Guatemala, and how the success rate may have been affected if Santana were not a Mexican born artist with previous hits in Spanish.

On a final note, it strikes me that when we are in Guatemala we will surely be immersed in their music scene, and so perhaps we should begin to think about expanding our knowledge in that area. There are sure to be many renowned as well as younger popular artists, and knowledge of music would not only benefit our Spanish but our understanding of things in context as well (similar to the way Professor Henighan deemed it essential to understand Latin American literature). Below are a few starting suggestions.

Ricardo Arjona – seems to be the best known Guatemalan musician
Vicente Fernández – Classic and well known everywhere
Mána and Juanes – Both great rock artists I recommend, more modern