There are certain iconic voices, from Louis Armstrong to Barbra Streisand to Christina Aguilera, that are instantly recognizable to the majority of people who pay attention to music. Historically, the human voice was actually the first musical instrument and is capable of expressing and eliciting emotion, using a wide variety of pitch, rhythm and tonality.
Carlos Santana created such a unique style of guitar-playing that its “voice” is as recognizable as the famous ones listed above.
A style all to his own
At the emergence of every new genre of music, there is the initiator and the bandwagon. It generally starts with one band that strikes out in a new direction, like when “Grunge” was launched in the 1980s. Grunge is a blend of punk and metal and features distortion, feedback, and fuzz. Many people credit Soundgarden as being the first to introduce this new style of music to the world.
Almost on top of Soundgarden’s recording deal, however, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and many more appeared on the scene and collectively became what was later referred to as “Seattle Sound,” because of the area in the Pacific Northwest where the bands hailed from. Wikipedia lists close to 50 bands around the world that are considered notable to the genre.
Together, this group of bands sound so similar to one another, from the lead singer to the guitar and bass, that it’s difficult to distinguish one from another when a song comes on the radio. And that holds true for almost all genres of music.
Which brings us to the genius of Carlos Santana. Other than those who play copies of his original music, there aren’t a group of bandwagon guitarists and bands that are interchangeable with him. His guitar’s voice is one of a kind.
Striving for excellence
Michael Caroff determined that before he played a single gig as the lead guitarist in a Santana Tribute Band, he would practice Santana’s technique until he was capable of matching every detail of his guitar-playing and musical style. He wanted the audience to be able to close their eyes and imagine they were listening to the great man himself.
With the rest of the carefully selected bandmates paying the same attention to detail, Savor has become the premier Santana tribute band in the Western U.S.