Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Cindy Blackman Santana, and Marcus Miller now all have one thing in common: they are all a part of the new supergroup, Mega Nova, created by legendary guitarist Carlos Santana. According to No Treble, the collective aims to make improvisation a focal point of their duration as a unit; they are set to perform together for the first time at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Aug. 24.
The band’s Afro-Latinx blend is a powerful symbol of more than just sonic cohesion. Santana’s aim of the group is to break down political barriers through their unity.
“We have the capacity for creating a world that we can all believe in, one that we can look forward to for ourselves and our children,” Hancock told Rolling Stone. “What we want to do is make a step toward bringing cultures and ethnicities and people in general together, and show the value of collaboration from the standpoint of respect. The whole concept of building something together: That’s what this is about.”
Santana agrees. “I want to be able to travel with this band eventually, and be the peace ambassadors, which is what Louis Armstrong used to be, and what I would say Bob Marley or John Lennon represented. Let me say really clearly: Wayne and Herbie and I and Cindy and Marcus, we are the frequency to do the opposite of Donald Trump. We don’t see walls – we saw the Berlin Wall come down. We’ve been to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we saw what that stuff is. We play music to bring, once and for all, inclusiveness and family. This is the band.”