Carlos Santana’s new career-spanning album, Sentient, is out now. It features 11 tracks, including three previously unreleased songs.
The album features collaborations with artists like Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Miles Davis, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Cindy Blackman Santana and more, and Santana tells ABC Audio it wasn’t any one thing, or person, that inspired him to make the album.
“Someone orchestrates all of these things to happen for me and with me,” he says. “All I have to do is listen to that inner voice and be true to it.”
Carlos says the title of the album came from the idea of a sentient being, someone who he says has “graduated from the animal kingdom” and now “thinks more, like, angelic.”
“’Sentient’ to me is a very, very powerful word. I believe that we all have it,” he says. “We have to learn how to manifest it daily.”
The album features new versions of the Jackson songs “Whatever Happens” and “Stranger in Moscow.” While Santana wasn’t in the studio with Michael, there was no way he was turning down the opportunity to be on a Jackson song.
“Like I’m going to say, ‘No, of course not,’” he says. “I’m an absolute thousand percent, million percent Michael Jackson fan. So I’m very honored that Michael would, his spirit would, invite me to partake with his incredible song.”
And Carlos is hoping that with their inclusion on Sentient, “Whatever Happens” and the Smokey tune “Don’t Take Your Love Away” will now reach a wider audience.
“I became the recipient of something that didn’t get the fullest of attention,” he says. “It is now on my album and we’re creating a lot of traction for Michael Jackson and Smokey. And I get to be part of this incredible offering.
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