I love the new William Orbit album ‘Pieces in a Modern Style’.

Classical music played on synthesisers. Great compositions by Ravel, Handel etc.

Woke up at the Nugget in Reno looking at a scrapyard and the train tracks. The mountains in the distance are beautiful. Hotel coffee is awful and there seems nothing in walking distance.

Had a good first show of the year in Avon the other day. With all of the work in the studio I hadn’t practised very much this year and it was great playing the guitar again. It seemed so new and exciting. The band sounded great.

I want to tell you about the melody we play in our live shows at the end of ‘Ballad 4 Santana’. I first heard it on Santana’s album ‘Lotus’, recorded live in Japan in 1973, I believe. Carlos played this melody during his solo on ‘Samba Pa Ti’. I heard the same melody next on George Benson’s ‘On Broadway’ from the album ‘Breeze’. When we toured with Santana in 1996 I asked Carlos about the melody. He told me that it originally belonged to the great Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo who during a session together traded it for a George Benson lick (musician-speak for melody). George Benson used it on ‘Breeze’ and then Carlos started playing it during his solos – he plays a few melodies of other songs during his solos, an in-joke with his band.