Industry Weekly

[Obsession]

Mystics and music: Cindy Blackman Santana finds big-screen inspiration

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The Santanas return to the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay this month.
Photo: Stuart Lirette

Would you be surprised to find out that the virtuoso drummer sitting in with rock icon Carlos Santana is slightly obsessed with the mystical, mind-bending film Doctor Strange? Maybe not. But Cindy Blackman Santana has some very tangible reasons for loving this flick so much.

“My favorite thing about the movie is that Doctor Strange is an extremely brilliant doctor and person, incredibly well-studied with an amazing thirst for knowledge, and he redirects that thirst toward learning and using knowledge from the spirit world to help protect humanity from negative forces,” she says. “He learns to manipulate time and space and uses it for good. He finally accepts his new role as a protector even though it meant not putting his own personal needs and desires first.”

Cindy, who launched her musical career as a street performer in New York City in the ’80s, first met Carlos at a European festival while she was touring with Lenny Kravitz. She first joined Carlos onstage in 2010, and that July he proposed to her during a concert. They married that December.

Both Santanas resume their ongoing show this month at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, the perfect home for the jazz-blues-rock fusion that drives the band’s sound. And both believe music is a spiritual force, as powerful as the supernatural forces Cindy’s sorta-hero Doctor Strange deals with.

“He learns that the physical realm is only one aspect of our humanity,” she says. “The message is incredibly inspiring and uplifting.”

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of editor-at-large at Las Vegas Weekly magazine. ...

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