SOMETHING `SUPERNATURAL'; CARLOS SANTANA HOOKS UP WITH NEXT GENERATION OF MUSICIANS ON HIS REJUVENATING NEW ALBUM.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

You'd think hippies were still hanging at the corner head shop. Talking to Carlos Santana, it doesn't seem like 30 years has passed. He still speaks of raising consciousness and taking the audience higher.

Oh, he looks different than he did at the Love Generation's multiscreen tribal gathering at Woodstock 1969, the Saturday night that changed the guitarist's life. His hair is shorter and styled, his English has less of an accent, and his clothes are more likely to be designer than Lee.

When he speaks, Santana sounds like some kind of New Age therapist, sometimes seeming lost in mysticism. And after years of dwindling sales and jazz-tinged New Age-style albums that were usually ignored, the Mexican-born musician is jalapeno-hot again with a bona fide hit that's served up a new young audience that previously wouldn't have known the difference between Santana and a bandana.

Momentum built after the guitarist's star-studded ``Supernatural'' was apparently deemed the official soundtrack to summer, bolstered by the savvy Latin-rock smash ``Smooth,'' featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20. Sales began catching up to radio play and the album last week rose to No. 3.

``The word of mouth was the No. 1 thing on this album,'' said Arista Records president Clive Davis, who signed Santana to Columbia in the late '60s when he was president of that label. Davis came up with the idea to sign Santana again and put the guitarist together with a string of guest stars, including Thomas, Dave Matthews, Everlast, Lauryn Hill and Eric Clapton.

Davis, credited as co-producer on ``Supernatural,'' says he began hearing the disc at every lawn party, dinner party and family outing he attended all summer, adding that sales in excess of half a million and counting were the result of ``great reviews coupled with hits coupled with word of mouth.''

For his part, Santana - who appears tonight at the Hollywood Bowl with the 10-member Latin-funk outfit Ozomatli - says the germ of ``Supernatural'' goes back four years when he was on tour with Jeff Beck.

``Clive asked what I was doing and I told him I was trying to get out of my record contract because I was in a slump - no distribution or radio airplay,'' Santana, 52, recalled from his home in San Rafael. ``He said to call him when I finished with the contract. After that, I held a few meditation meetings because at the time I was being pulled inwardly by this entity called Metatron, the link between the human and the divine. I heard this entity wanted me to know I would be hooked up with the right writers, musicians and producers for the purpose of reaching high school and college kids. So, my inner instructions were clear.''

It isn't clear if Metatron itself made the calls to Thomas, Matthews, Everlast, Hill and Clapton that are at the root of the album's success. But it's a fact that ``Smooth,'' currently No. 2 on the singles chart, is Santana's highest-charting single ever.

``Somewhere in the middle of recording, it hit me that I was actually jamming with Santana,'' offers Thomas, who may show up at the Bowl tonight. ``As a musician, as a songwriter and as a lover of music, I think this has made me better. To spend five minutes with Carlos is to look into someone who is without pretension and one who is pure talent. He's as fresh today as he was in 1968. He matters even more, in fact.''

Santana says the Thomas-sung salsa-tinged midtempo rocker surprised him: ``It had that catchy summer thing and when Rob sings I believe him.''

Born in July 1947 in the tiny Mexican town of Autlan, near Guadalajara, into a family of four sisters and two brothers, Santana's father was a professional musician who taught him guitar at an early age and moved the family to Tijuana in search of work.

``I always knew I'd be a musician, but I didn't trip on the trimmings or benefits,'' Santana said. ``I just knew I adored how people embraced my dad. He was a very charismatic person and I wanted to be like him. People went out of their way to be gracious to him.''

Inspired by the vital blues of John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins and Jimmy Reed, the 14-year-old Santana began playing tough all-night clubs in the sleazy border town.

``It was a cut 'n' shoot sound - if you don't play it a certain way, they cut and shoot you!'' he said. ``You need three bodyguards when you play it!''

By the mid-'60s the Santana family had moved north to San Francisco, where the guitarist's musical education came to include the sophisticated Chicago blues of Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, as well as Bobby ``Blue'' Bland. Then, there was the influence of the city's mostly Spanish-speaking Mission District.

The Bay Area was in foment - the Black Panthers, LSD, the Vietnam War protest movement - and music promoter Bill Graham was at the center. Graham gave Santana his first break in 1967 at a loosely organized blues bash featuring the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and others at his Fillmore Auditorium.

The Santana Blues Band was a multiracial crew modeled on Sly Stone's band and the group became a fixture around town, quickly catching Columbia's notice. By the time Woodstock rolled around, the routine blues band renamed simply Santana had become a fiery, polyrhythmic Latin-rock unit that burned bright.

Now, three decades after ``Evil Ways'' went to No. 4, after the landmark 1970 ``Abraxas'' disc spawned the hits ``Black Magic Woman'' and ``Oye Como Va,'' after the delicious ``Caravanserai'' album and collaborations with John McLaughlin, Alice Coltrane and members of Miles Davis' group, after more than 30 albums and almost as many personnel changes, Santana is enjoying his greatest international success.

But was the confluence of genres found on ``Supernatural'' a calculated effort to win a new, young audience? Santana says it certainly was, but insists the album's design goes deeper than that.

``This music was designed to curb the killings not only in our schools but in America and all over the world,'' the guitarist said. ``When you hear this music, it turns your lights on. It's music designed to curb people from being miserable. Most people are only happy when they're miserable. I want to perform this album at San Quentin and broadcast it throughout the prison system to reach misplaced souls.''

The cameos on ``Supernatural'' came about naturally, Santana says. He discovered Hill was a Santana fan, was invited to play on her multi-Grammy-winning solo album and she returned the favor on the five-minute r&b track ``Do You Like the Way.''

Santana had appeared with Hill at the Grammy Awards where Eric Clapton was in the audience.

``He called and said he was going through some changes but wanted to know if he could play on my album,'' Santana said. ``When Eric Clapton asks if he can play on your album, are you gonna say no?''

After Hill got involved, fellow Fugee Wyclef Jean wanted in, too, followed by cameos from Eagle-Eye Cherry, Matthews, Mexican star Mana, rapper Everlast and Thomas.

``All the people who played on the record said they had heard my music before I called them, or that I appeared in their dreams or something,'' Santana said. ``They knew what was coming before they got the call. It was the same for me - a year ago, my 8-year-old daughter turned me onto Dave Matthews. When I told my kids I was going to record with Lauryn Hill, they were like, `No, you ain't. You're just Dad!' ''

The facts

Who: Santana with Ozomatli.

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood.

When: 7:30 tonight.

Tickets: $23.50 to $54.50.

Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- cover -- color) Santana explores roots, future on new album `Supernatural.'

(2) ``When you hear this music, it turns your lights on. It's music designed to curb people from being miserable,'' Carlos Santana says about his ``Supernatural'' LP.

Bob Larson/Contra Costa Times