The 3-song EP built around "Mona Lisa" is still headed our way, presumably this fall (she mentioned it would be here ahead of her solo album and "Africa Speaks").
They had one song on the EP set to record and the idea came up that Ron Carter would be perfect for the bass part. He agreed, so that's all three of the remaining members of Miles' "second great quintet" that Carlos has worked with in the past few years. I still hold out hope that the Mega Nova project will have an album release someday.
Cindy says her solo album is now due in the February/March timeframe. Not much if anything new to report about it otherwise - seven vocal songs, Carlos is "all over it," John McLaughlin is on two tracks, Vernon Reid and Kirk Hammett both appear, Aurelien Budynek MAY appear on one song. The "Imagine" cover is still planned for inclusion.
She also stated that "Africa Speaks" would be out after her solo record, which indicates to me that it will likely be released in that early May timeframe that Carlos favors so much. She also confirmed that Laura Mvula only appears on one track, while Concha Buika sings on the rest. So I guess if Ray Greene does make his first on-record appearance with Santana on this album, it'll either be as a background singer or maybe on a duet. But then again, he's probably likely to be on that "Mona Lisa Trilogy" EP.
One last tidbit is that I heard this week that the Rock Against Trafficking CD project just signed a distribution deal and should have a release date for that album (featuring Carlos' instrumental cover of Sting's "Fragile") "in the very near future."
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