Making Spirits Bright : Unifying Power of the Human Soul and Making People Happy Are a Constant in Carlos Santana’s Music

It’s a long way from the village of Autlan de Navarro, Mexico, to Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, into which Carlos Santana was inducted this year. But that final destination came as no surprise.

Santana’s passion for experimentation has led him over vast musical terrain, encompassing norteno, 12-bar blues, fusion, Latin-flavored rock and a variety of Afro-Cuban rhythms. The guitar master’s fluid, signature style has resulted in amazing collaborations, ranging from jams with blues greats Eric Clapton and John Lee Hooker and rockers Vernon Reid (ex-Living Colour) and Kirk Hammett (Metallica) to Latin percussionist Tito Puente and jazz and fusion giants Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin and Weather Report. Santana and his band will perform tonight in Anaheim.

Eclectic, yes. Still, a thread runs through his multicultural, cross-generational music: the unifying power of the human spirit.

“It’s the spirit that gives you vision, imagination and creativity. I have a passion for the kind of music that resonates from the human soul,” said Santana, 50, by phone from his home in San Rafael, just north of San Francisco. “For example, as a child in Tijuana, it was norteno music that touched me first. Then I got into the blues, listening to Lightning Hopkins, B.B. King and John Lee Hooker. After that, when we moved to San Francisco [in 1960], I was deeply drawn to the music of the master, Miles Davis.”

Purity of tone and spiritual concerns permeate many of Santana’s records, with 1992’s “Milagro” perhaps his most definitive statement. And he also believes in merging the sensual and spiritual in his work.

“It’s like what Marvin Gaye said about certain things that just gravitate together.” Santana said. “People want to cry, laugh, dance and get sexually aroused at the same time. Because God is in all of these emotions, that’s how it’s supposed to be. We all want to make love to music. I don’t believe you can separate the passion from the purity.”

Santana’s enduring faith helped to console him last month after his father died of heart failure at age 84. A violinist, Jose Santana had played with symphony orchestras and mariachi bands, most recently in Northern California.

“When he died, I didn’t cry because I realized he’s not really gone,” Santana said. “It’s like I’m on the first floor, and he took an elevator up to the second.”

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The lessons of discipline and responsibility his father taught live on.

“He told me, ‘When you’re onstage, you have to put away your anger and pain to make people happy,’ ” Santana recalled. “Once you go home, you could kick and curse, but he was adamant about presenting yourself with kindness and softness. So through the Santana family’s music, we’re inviting people to create one big mass of joy and peace.”

It has been three years since Santana released new music--”Brothers,” a sizzling guitar collaboration with brother Jorge and nephew Carlos Hernandez. But Santana is back in the studio, recording and editing material for his next LP, tentatively due out this summer on Arista.

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Santana’s own imprint, Guts and Grace, which put out “Live Forever,” a compilation of final performances of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Miles Davis, is on hold while he focuses on his new association with Arista.

He grew unhappy with previous major labels, he says, because they saw him only as a classic-rock entity. In contrast, Arista President Clive Davis wants to bring his new songs to a new generation of fans.

In describing his new material, Santana said, “It has a lot of celestial melodies and rhythms, and bright textures. Right now, I’m just trying to hook up with the right producers and then focus more on refining the lyrics. The themes of peace, light, love and joy aren’t anything new. The trick is presenting those ideas in a way that’s meaningful and not preachy.

“It’s hard, too, because radio today only plays my stuff from the ‘60s and ‘70s,” he said. “Fans won’t even know when my new music comes out unless we do a good job of telling them. And I think if they give it a chance, they’ll warm to it.”

* Santana and Ozomatli perform tonight at the Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave, Anaheim. 8 p.m. $25-$45. (714) 704-2400.