Santana to Hosanna: Leon Patillo’s faith-based musical showcase to visit Colorado Springs area
One afternoon with Carlos Santana and his incense sticks led multi-instrumentalist and fellow bandmate Leon Patillo to question his resting beliefs on faith.
“He told me that he really believed those were like prayers going up to God,” Patillo said. “I had never heard anybody say that. I said, ‘Can you mix those two?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know if you can or not, but that’s how I see it.’ And that really liberated me to, you know, believe something and how that belief could help.”
Patillo wasn’t entirely familiar with incense or other spiritual practices then. But a few decades later, Patillo has now shaped his creative career around uniting the secular and the sacred. On Friday, he will stop at Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts in Palmer Lake to share his one-man show.
“What I’m going to do Friday in Colorado is kind of give the story behind what I call Santana to Hosanna,” Patillo said. “I think it’ll be interesting for people. I’ll do it musically and I’ll also have some narration along with it.”
What: Leon Patillo concert
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts, 304 Colorado 105, Palmer Lake
Price: $40-$45, trilakesarts.org
Patillo is a man of his environment. Whether it’s taking notes from his childhood religious history — which was a hodgepodge of Baptist, Methodist and Catholic influence — or listening to his friends, he works to aid others through faith in a higher power.
“Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire and I decided we would kind of introduce this to the industry and get others involved in the same things that we were experiencing. People like Smokey Robinson, Donna Summer and I would have these get-togethers where we’d talk through inspirational spiritual stuff. And all of them decided they wanted to bring a song or two to their set.”
One of these artists was Whitney Houston, who released “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” in 1992. The track ended up being her last live performance at the Kelly Price & Friends pre-Grammy concert in 2012.
“I think maybe that may have contributed to the whole overture of what she brought to the table,” Patillo said. “Because we all came out of the church. So she really brought that component to her secular world.”
When he realized he wanted to make the shift to a spiritually fueled career, Patillo went to Israel and got baptized in the Jordan River. He began writing a song after the experience and it was well-received by those around him there. But when he returned to America, the response was vastly different.
“I played it in an Earth, Wind & Fire recording session and they just didn’t get it,” Patillo said. “They were like ‘what does that even mean?’ and ‘you’re going to mess your whole career up when you do it.’ But months or so down the road, I would get calls when they were going through issues. I knew at that point that I had made the right decision.”
Alongside his music, Leon works with various youth initiatives and is passionate about foster programs, having vowed when he reached some success with Santana that he’d find a way to give back. He’s working on a film about one of the kids he has worked with and hopes to highlight the importance of instilling hope in young people who are struggling.
“I’m going to follow her story in this movie, wrapping it around a kind of Cinderella story about me and my wife as well,” Patillo said. “I’m just trying to capture the hearts of these kids that are really confused.”
What began with an incense stick has now propelled Patillo as a spiritual force in creative industries, and he’s not slowing down any time soon.
Leon Patillo will perform at the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts on July 7.
Leon Patillo will perform at the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts on Friday.
Leon Patillo will perform at the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts on July 7.
