After three successful albums of high-profile collaborations, Carlos Santana is preparing for a different endeavor for 2008.\"We still love (John) Coltrane and Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye. So that music is gonna get in there. And Paco de Lucia ... very Spanish.\"
The base group for the recording will be a trio of Santana, Narada Michael Walden on drums and his longtime keyboardist Chester \"CT\" Thompson. He\'s also planning to incorporate guests such as Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, Kenny Garrett and others. Santana notes:
\"I have yet to do a trio band, so this is my opportunity to do kind of like a Tony Williams trio thing. It\'s a trio with other colors; we\'re gonna bring other musicians in, singers and stuff like that.\"
Carlos Santana hopes to have the album finished and out by next summer, but no firm release date is set.
He recently recapped his career highlights with \'Ultimate Santana\', an Arista set that includes material from throughout his career and particularly focuses on his album \'Supernatural\', \'Shaman\' and \'All That I Am\'. Santana says of the collection:
\"It\'s kind of like a family reunion: all the songs are either sisters or brothers or children. All I can think of is God is very generous with an incredible, long life and a lot of opportunities for the music that I play and the musicians that I share it with. For me it\'s a positive. It\'s nothing but a win-win situation.\"
