Carlos Santana

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Landing back in Brussels for our third visit was somewhat like a home-coming. Len was waiting for us at the airport and as we made our way to her home, familiar sites appeared as we neared - Place Flagey and the shop from which we regularly got our fresh baguette, both easy walking distance away. Place Flagge hosts a Farmers Market every weekend, even during their winter and we were looking forward to the fresh fruit, cheeses, olives etc. etc. and especially the boudin noire.

But this blog is not about Belgium at all, but about an event - The Carlos Santana Concert to which Len graciously got tickets for the three of us. We had attended a fantastic concert of his at the St. Lucia Jazz Festival, the very year that he won 8 Grammies. And he was fantastic!

Several long and orderly lines of eager fans quickly made their way through the wide entrance to the 18,000 seat concert hall, located in the area of the Brussels World Expo site. We located our excellent seats, and eagerly awaited the super star to take the stage.

When he did emerge, it was to a thundering welcome from the Belgian fans and ourselves, of course. One after the other he gave us a treat to many of his popular hits and several that I had not previously heard. One of those was a combined tribute to Michael Jackson and John Coltrane. It did not take long for the crowd ahead of us to be on its feet so we followed suit, as the mass of human bodies swayed and gyrated to the rhythm and pulsating tempo of this Latin fusion great.

I grew up loving Santana music, which did have an influence on the band that I started with my then best boyhood friend, the popular Caribbean band, Quavers Combo. It was a moment of nostalgia for me when they played Tequila to end the event, although soon after that piece the band re-emerged in response to a thundering curtain call by the standing audience.

It was a most thrilling evening with each talented musician giving his all. Santana's outstanding trumpet/trombone duo, guitarists and the impeccable rhythm section led by a superbly talented drummer, an incredible timbales stalwart and mainstay of the band, as well as an outstanding conga player of undoubted class, produced an unforgettable Carlos Santana performance of two and a half hours of non stop musical extravaganza.

It was a mesmerizing performance that we will long remember.

(I do not plan to blog about Belgium this time and my next and last blog for this trip will be "Laughing out loud", just for the fun of it.)

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Photos

Incredible Timbales player.
One of the backbones to the rhythm section - tremendous.

Part of the 18,000 crowd.
We had excellent seats

Comments

[sharon]

lol
I remember Santana music too - fabulous

[D MJ Binkley]

Carlos
I loved seeing Carlos in 1990 and would love to see him again!

[norm]

carlos
probably the highlight of the holiday.very nice