sonny sharrock

JJ Appleton

For this month’s question, picker JJ Appleton, Premier Guitar staff, and reader Gil Chiasson explore their personal bond with their favorite musical genre.

Question: What connects you to your favorite genre of music?

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Carlos Santana aims for “the same place Charlie Parker, Beethoven, or Stravinsky would go to” as he solos on one of his gold-leaf-finished Paul Reed Smith custom Singlecuts.

Photo by Marylene Eytier

The legend says the world needs to be “far out,” and he’s cut a new album, Blessings and Miracles, to take it there. He talks about his fabled tone, advice from Miles Davis, his search for universal melodies, and stepping outside the cage.

Carlos Santana plays like a superhighway. His notes—always exquisite and succulent—are founded on terra firma yet travel to many places. The 74-year-old 6-string guru often uses the word multidimensional to describe his technicolor sonic thumbprint. And, through more than a half-century of recordings and concerts, that multidimensionality speaks as articulately as the beautiful unison-string bends in his band’s classic “Samba Pa Ti,” projecting his devotion to melody, intention, the echoes of his influences, imagination, inspiration, awareness, fidelity to his art, and a desire to communicate.

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Deerhoof's Ed Rodriquez on Derek Bailey | Hooked

The noise-rockin', bizarro-pop guitarist's musical foundation was reset after he encountered the atonal, abstract, confounding world of the improvisational pioneer.

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