Long-awaited biographical documentary Carlos was released to theaters in September for a limited run after being screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in July. Now it’s available for streaming and provides the perfect warm-up before attending An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live. Carlos Santana has been leading his band through career-spanning sets at their House of Blues residency since May 2012, but the film makes it possible to know the man and his music intimately before seeing him live.
A first-person memoir, The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light, was published in November 2014 and gives similar insight into his origins, musical evolution and spiritual journey. It could not provide visuals of his father playing the violin or capture the wonder in Santana’s voice as he describes hearing birds singing in response to José Santana’s bowed-string melodies.
The youthful Santana would first learn music on violin. His father was a classically trained mariachi musician, so theory was instilled before he first heard a guitarist playing through an amplifier. Santana would exchange four strings for six and become a disciple of blues players such as B.B. King and Albert King, both of whom he would one day play with onstage.
His fate was sealed in San Francisco. Carlos the film depicts the circumstances that led to the ambitious, driven Santana meeting promoter Bill Graham and being invited to play the Fillmore West. It reveals which Grateful Dead member gave him the acid that fueled his inspired playing at Woodstock. It allows him to relate how taking a spiritual path in the early ’70s helped him escape the tragic circumstances that affected peers such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.
There is a lot of musical footage featuring dozens of musicians that helped him realize his musical visions. “Real musicians, they call it a force of nature,” he says early in the documentary. “They create a different kind of transformation molecular structure through sound resonance and vibration.”
Santana’s career had ups and downs, of course. The film climaxes with the story of the success of Supernatural, which reaches its silver anniversary this year and garnered eight Grammys. Mega-hits from that album “Smooth” and “Maria Maria” have long been highlights of An Intimate Evening.
There is one part of the film, which counts Ron Howard and Brian Grazer as executive producers and which was directed by rising filmmaker Rudy Valdez, that was particularly poignant: Santana relates the story about how his father lost the will to go on once he could no longer play the violin. It’s not sad, it’s just what happened.
One day Santana himself will no longer be able to play his chosen instrument. That day is long in the future judging from the fretwork he demonstrated in Carlos. For now, he leads a contented existence performing in a band with wife Cindy Blackman Santana on drums, providing a real-life ending of the documentary for fans that attend his concerts after seeing the film.
House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, 702.632.7600
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