What is it about Carlos Santana that draws thousands of people to his shows year after year? What separates him from other artists, Latin and otherwise, that grants him the financial and artistic success that has lasted more than 30 years?
For example, why do thousands pack the Journal Pavilion for Santana, whereas Ozomatli, his opening act, barely fills smaller venues such as the Sunshine Theatre?
These were the questions flooding my head as I was stuck in traffic on the way to the Santana/Ozomatli show on Tuesday night at the Journal Pavilion.
As Ozomatli, a Latin-funk-hip-hop group from Los Angeles took the stage, the Pavilion was already filling up. Having seen Ozomatli before, I was interested to see how it would handle a larger audience and a bigger venue, as I have only seen the band play to nearly sold-out crowds in bars.
The intimacy inherent in your average Ozomatli show was a bit lacking and only some of the crowd seemed involved in the music. But a bulk of the audience spent the time finding their seats and filling up the large lines to obtain beer and pizza -- the perpetual curse of the opening act.
The apathy felt by the majority of the crowd was their loss. Ozomatli is one of the most entertaining and innovative bands active today. Their smooth blend of Latin music with the integration of hip-hop and funk is a form that is often attempted, but rarely accomplished. Ozomatli, however, does it with finesse.
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To bridge the gaps between the seemingly incompatible genres, Ozomatli uses form tricks -- dividing songs into different genre sections, starting with a cumbia, breaking into a jungle hip-hop groove and resolving back to a cumbia.
Other songs feature a more subtle integration of their diverse genre elements, in a style analogous to Santana's rock-Latin fusion sound -- but without the morbid overproduction. Appropriately, the word "Ozomatli" is Nahuatl for the Aztec god of dance.
The crowd reflected Santana's longevity. There were a sizeable amount of college kids and teenagers drawn by Santana's recent attempts to use hip-hop, most of the crowd was adults who have followed Santana since his formative years.
Still, his performance is genuine. Besides gathering up some of the most incredible world-class Latin musicians to accompany him, Santana offers a spiritual element not seen in many artists working within the mainstream today.
The performance of his songs rarely stuck to their recorded form, but rather extended themselves into an almost ritualistic form. A majority of the pieces would start off sparse, hinting at the elements of the basic song to come.
In a way, attending a Santana concert is like attending a mass. The hypnotic effect separates Santana from other Latin musicians. He takes his time, with an understanding that only a precious few other artists these days maintain.
