NEW YORK — Carlos Santana acknowledged he’s not far from being the patchouli-and-incense-loving hippie who made an indelible impression on the Woodstock generation.
And there’s another thing — he said he’s not ready to “roll over’’ and hang up his guitar.
Far from it, in fact, judging by his musical performance Sunday with Antonio Banderas at the Oscars and the number of projects — including recording and fragrance — on which he’s working.
That’s right, fragrance.
“I’m not Jerry Garcia, but I’m still that hippie,” Santana, 57, said during a telephone interview from Marin County, California, in which he discussed, among other topics, his aromatic preferences. The Mexico-born musician has reached an agreement with Victory International LLC to do signature men’s and women’s scents, which are to launch together in about 1,500 department store doors in the fall.
“The first recollections for people are sounds and smells,” he said. “I remember my father used to smell a certain way. He used Maja, a soap from Spain. It had a masculine but not pungent smell, like after it rains.”
Santana has remained true in his life to those first olfactory recollections of his late father. “I used to use vetiver,” the essential-oil-yielding grass, he said, “but one that smells like my father when he came home. Everyone needs a father figure. In sound, that would be Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington. There are boys, [but] they are men.”
As early as September, Santana will have a new frame of olfactory reference upon the arrival of his eponymous scents. The fragrances could do $15 million in first-year retail sales, industry experts said. The venture follows Carlos by Carlos Santana, a footwear collection he successfully introduced in department stores in 2001.
Some notes are second nature for Santana: “Music is like breathing,” he said. “I don’t think about it.” But he’s somewhat new to the evaporation rates of fragrance that are organized as top, middle and bottom notes.
“It’s like being an architect for your sense of smell,” he said. “The reference I have is when you listen to Plácido Domingo or Luciano Pavarotti. They have belly, chest, throat, nose and head tones. All of those create a certain sound, just like when you place a prism in the sun and all the colors shoot out. That’s what we’re trying to do with fragrance.”
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While Santana and Victory have been working with multiple fragrance suppliers, they have narrowed the search to a few formulations, but exact aromas have not been set.
Bottles for the fragrances, however, have been. The women’s bottle is like a “beautiful crystal conga,” Santana said. It features a graded tangerine coloring, and the front of the bottle is smooth, while the back is faceted. The ruby red men’s bottle has the subtle silhouette of a guitar molded into it. Henry de Monclin of Ateliers Dinand Design SAS created the bottles.
“Fragrance has soulful thought behind it,” Santana said. “It’s not just put together. The people who do this have a sense of excellence and elegance.”
For Santana, soul and spirituality have had a lot to do with the progression of his career. It’s no stretch that his hit 1999 album — winner of nine Grammy Awards — was called “Supernatural,” as spiritual guidance is nothing new to him.
“I do [have a spiritual guide] and I think I will to the day I leave this body,” he said. “Sometimes it’s Jesus, sometimes it’s Buddha and sometimes it’s Metatron, an angel who is the living link between human cells and light.”
Another driving force in Santana’s life is the Milagro Foundation, which he founded in 1998 with Deborah, his wife of 34 years. It has granted more than $1.5 million to charities and agencies that support children and youth in the areas of health, education and the arts.
“Spiritually, there were no reservations” to doing a fragrance, Santana said. “For me, it’s a no-brainer. I learned from Paul Newman if you can sell salad dressing and help the world, then do it.”
Santana is also involved with Artists for a New South Africa, helping orphans of the country’s AIDS pandemic. “The best thing is that we can rescue some of these children from doom, poverty and destruction,” he said. “My arrangements have changed from who I used to be. In the past, I wouldn’t work with Kenny G., Julio Iglesias or Billy Joel — I didn’t hear myself in it. But now, it’s creating a piece of art with them, and when I get paid, I can send all this money to [Archbishop] Desmond Tutu rather than have an arrangement with my brain about what I won’t do.
“‘Supernatural’ just opened the doors to a lot of opportunities and possibilities,’’ he said. “All of a sudden, I could be center stage with Plácido Domingo, working with Justin Timberlake [or] Buddy Guy. Nothing is outside the realm of possibilities. It’s another realm of sharing music.”
Of his more commercial endeavors, Santana remarked: “Utilizing a means to be of service to humanity is really what it’s for.”
Alan Greco, president of Victory International, said there are plans for several products under each of Santana’s men’s and women’s fragrances. Two versions of a men’s eau de toilette, a 1.7-oz. for $40 and a 3.4-oz. for $55, are planned, along with four ancillary products. For women, plans call for 1.7- and 3.4-oz. eaux de parfum, for $42.50 and $58.50, respectively, along with two ancillaries.
Greco would like to tie in promotional efforts for the fragrances with musical appearances by Santana. He mentioned VIP tickets, sampling at concerts and in-store giveaways as possibilities. While the bulk of this will be centered in the U.S., Japan and Germany are among Santana’s favorite musical venues.
“Go to Japan and you see different beauty and different order,” Santana said. “I think we Americans can learn a lot from Germany and Japan about our gardens, our lives and order. I have a passion for sacredness and order because I’m a hippie — I have none. I’m like, ‘Whatever, man.’”
Along with changes in Santana’s ideology have come shifts in his fan base. Santana won a new generation of listeners with the album “Supernatural,” arguably bridging between the Sixties and the legions who follow Dave Matthews, Everlast, Rob Thomas, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean — all of whom he recorded with for “Supernatural.” That’s not to mention the artists he’s worked with in the six years since.
“People. We are creatures of frequency and vibration,” Santana said. “I found a resonant vibration that is harmonious with no [particular] generation.” While he believes that all people are psychic — “Everyone is born with antennae, being psychic is using the antennae you were born with; it’s whether you use it or not” — Santana does not believe his music is so much Latin as it is African.
“I got in trouble a lot for saying that because a lot of Latin people say they invented it,” Santana said of the sounds that made his career. “[But] bolero, mambo, rumba, danzón, cha-cha-cha — I call it African music, basically. It goes way back. Some people resent me for saying that, [but] I call it as I see it.”
Besides fragrance, his projects include “working on a CD with [producer] Clive Davis” as well as with Herbie Hancock. He’s also producing for Buddy Guy. In addition, his wife has published a memoir this year, “Space Between the Stars” (Ballantine). Santana said he’s also been working on the “domestic rhythm — being a father.”