The Uncarved Blog

What Carlos Santana said to The New York Pops

Rob Thomas filmed and posted on Instagram what Carlos Santana said to The New York Pops Orchestra during a rehearsal at Carnegie Hall for The New York Pops 41st Birthday Gala titled, The Soundtrack of Our Lives: A Tribute to the Legendary Clive Davis (Monday, April 29, 2024). Carlos Santana and “Smooth” (official) collaborator Rob Thomas were among the 22 guest artists who performed with 78 musicians of The New York Pops. They also celebrated Clive Davis’s birthday. He turned 92 April 4th.

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As musicians we are given the gift to help humans feel the totality of themselves. Because a lot of people feel like they’re not worthy. They walk around… Most people are not happy unless they’re miserable. You know. And it’s our duty as musicians to open them up and help them feel their totality. You know. It’s not ego. It’s just that people forget that we are spirit first. And then chromosomes and molecules and blood, and bones, and all that stuff later. But as musicians, with each note, we compel people to: claim back your divinity, claim back your light. We’re not wretched sinners. And we’re not a mistake. We are grand, because we are made from the Grand Design. Thank you for sharing your light and your music. And you will see, you will see that when people start dancing, they get chills and they start crying and laughing. It’s church. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Anything else is show business. I don’t know anything about that. (He blows them a kiss. They laugh and applaud.) — Carlos Santana

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (2022)

This inspiring biographical documentary examines the life and influence of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen through the lens of his most famous song, “Hallelujah.” It’s available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD: https://bit.ly/GetHallelujah. It’s also included in a Netflix subscription. Sony Pictures Entertainment posted the First 7 Minutes.

Directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, and head of the Cohen estate/Executive Producer Robert Kory discuss HALLELUJAH: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This was the first RRHF screening and discussion since the covid pandemic had shut them down for a year. See the 42-minute video.

Why Leonard Cohen came out of retirement to tour again

After leaving the Mount Baldy Zen Center where he had spent several years in retirement meditating and serving his Roshi, Cohen soon discovered that his manager had siphoned off all of his money leaving him penniless. He had to get back to work. He put a band together and after rehearsing for 3 months, Leonard Cohen, his backup singers, and the band performed their first concert in a small Canadian Maritime venue. Word spread and they kept performing at sold out venues and shows. The demand became so great they played sold-out concerts all over the world for 5 years! It more than made up for his loses and blessed those thousands of lucky attendees. Not bad for an old retiree!

Musical collaborator Sharon Robinson said: “Leonard really honored his audiences. He said every night before the show: ‘We’re gonna give you everything we’ve got.’” And Leonard concluded each show saying: “Thanks so much friends, it’s been a real privilege and an honor to play for you tonight.”

What Leonard Cohen said here gets to the essence of what makes for a memorable concert.

The only way you can sell a concert is to put yourself at risk. And if you don’t do that, people know, and they go home with a feeling that they liked the songs, but you know, they prefer to listen to them at home. But if you can really stand at the center of your song, if you can inhabit that space and really stand for the complexity of your own emotions, then everybody feels good. The musicians feel good, and you feel good, and the people who’ve come feel good. — Leonard Cohen

What some musicians said after hearing a Leonard Cohen concert

New York writer Larry “Ratso” Sloman said Leonard Cohen “was always a spiritual seeker, and that gave him a dimension that most rock stars couldn’t even fathom.”  

John Lissauer, who produced Leonard’s 1984 album, “Various Positions”, which includes “Hallelujah”, commented, “When people hear ‘Hallelujah’, it must be something so universal. It’s really, really powerful. And that’s a big deal. We don’t get to be involved in very many things that hit people as strongly as that does.”

Towards the end of the film various artists commented on how they felt seeing Leonard Cohen in concert.

I was doing my first-ever solo show at Coachella, and I remember looking at the lineup and going: “Oh my God! Leonard Cohen.” Seeing Leonard Cohen felt like a beautiful, holy moment, to be outside with all of those people watching him. It was a church moment.” (2009 Coachella Music Festival, Indio, California) — Amanda Palmer

You get this feeling of having a modern prayer. I think that’s why people were coming to the shows so much because they were getting that feeling. Even how he thanked everybody, everybody in the crew, and all the different jobs that people did to put together the show. It was like an instruction manual on how to be in the world. It’s like you can be this good, you really can. — Regina Spektor 

When Judy Collins first met Leonard Cohen and heard him sing “Suzanne” for her, she told him she was going to record his song the next day. It was included on her 1966 landmark album, In My Life. She later forcefully invited him to sing “Suzanne” at a town hall charity event attended by many well-known musicians. He was so nervous he couldn’t complete the song, apologized, and walked off stage, which endeared him to the audience. Judy convinced him to return and finish the song. Judy Collins sang “Suzanne” with Leonard Cohen on her PBS TV “Soundstage” concert performance in January 1976. That episode helped launch his career as a special singer-songwriter. In this documentary film she summarized:

People who respond to him in the way they do—and they respond to him all over the world, of course—are responding to something that is different. You’re getting things that are so deep and so resonant in your own spiritual journey, that you are benefitting from his. And that’s of course the highest compliment to a poet or a songwriter. — Judy Collins

There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

For more on L. Cohen, see an earlier post, which opens with his song, “Anthem”, where Leonard Cohen said, There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in. There’s more on “Hallelujah”, “Suzanne”, links to articles, interviews, posthumous publications (books & albums) and celebrations of his life.

Another film worth watching is Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019)—a sensitive in-depth look at the relationship between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen. More relevant content has been added in the previous post about it.

To see other inspiring artists featured on The Uncarved Blog, scroll through the Archive of the ‘Music’ Category.

^{— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.}

Postscript: Speaking of creating a church moment, on May 31, 2024, Angelina Jordan premiered her own powerful rendition, with Toby Gad, of the hit song he co-wrote with BC Jean for Beyonce, If I Were A Boy (Piano Diaries), recorded in a London church.

Tags: Carlos Santana, creating holy moments, Directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, Hallelujah, John Lissauer, Judy Collins, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Leonard Cohen, Suzanne, the purpose of playing music

This entry was posted on May 26, 2024 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Articles, Films, Music, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.