Santana
The Yaamava Theater – Highland, CA
Wednesday, April 16th, 2025
Review/Pics: Manuel Gay
Less than a year has passed since Santana’s last performance in the Los Angeles area. However, that’s where his Oneness tour kicked off on April 16th, at the Yaamava Theater & Casino. I was one of the lucky ones in attendance, in the sold-out venue. There was no opener as it seems to be the usual setup for this casino shows, which gave the guitar legend an opportunity to rock for two hours straight.
As a tradition, the lights got dimmed and an instrumental track of percussions played. A screen in the back showed videos of various indigenous tribes from all over the world and some traditional dancing, while musicians got situated on the stage. The band started playing and Carlos Santana stepped out of the darkness, triggering cheers and claps from the audience. “Maria, Maria” was the opener, which took the crowd’s excitement through the roof right off the bat. The band has been around for close to six decades and has accumulated a very wide discography garnished with many hits. It was no surprise then to follow the 1999 anthem with a few other classics “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va”. Eventually the electricity that had taken over the Yaamava Theater came down for a mellow tune “Put Your Lights On” on which guitarist Tommy Anthony took charge of vocal duties.
Carlos took a moment to address his audience and explain why he had to cancel the last few dates of last year’s tour after suffering from sciatica. He reassured us that he was completely out of the woods. And it showed, the 77-year-old legend stood most of the two hours show and responded with humor “No mames, guey!” anytime a heckler was trying to interrupt his speeches. He spread a message of love and self-love, hoping for everyone in the audience to take a moment to validate themselves. He then wished his pianist David Mathews a happy birthday and had a cake brought to him so that he could blow out the candles while the band played “Happy Birthday” to him.
The band got back into it with “Hope You’re Feeling Better”, followed by a soulful rendition of “Samba Pa Ti”. The band then played a succession of hits blending one after the other with seamless transition on which every musician had their moment to shine: Benny Rietveld on the bass, Karl Perazzo on percussions. Carlos Santana took a seat and while appearing cool as a cucumber delivered a solo from outer space on “Toussaint L’Overture” which was logically acclaimed by every soul in attendance.
Santana took another moment to address the audience and introduce his new record Sentient. Which features collaborations and re-recordings featuring artists like Michael Jackson and Miles Davis. He then proceeded to introduce “Let The Guitar Play”, a new version of “Song For Cindy” which features rapper Darryl from Run DMC. For the occasion, Andy Vargas took care of the rapped parts. Ray Green, the other vocalist, sung on “Please Don’t Take Your Love” in lieu of Smokey Robinson – another track from the new album. Paoli Mejias stole the show for a second for a dueling congas solo along with Michael Carabello – Santana’s early days percussionist who still appears on stage with the band. Michael and Carlos are the only two members left that have performed at Woodstock.
Most of the crowd finally got up to dance to “Foo Foo”, although I felt it was hard not to do it sooner. The band left only to come back moments later as a video out of the “Woodstock” movie played on the screen. The band jumped in to the percussion-heavy “Soul Sacrifice” which perfectly paved the way to an outstanding drum solo by the axeman’s wife and incredible virtuoso Cindy Blackman Santana. The show ended strong with “Smooth” that everybody waited on for a last few dancing moment. I found Santana to be in way better shape than last year at The Forum. Catching him on this run won’t be a waste of your time. I’d suggest running to grab a ticket ASAP as this is too good to pass up.
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