Santana

Santana is the group featuring Carlos Santana, often considered one of the greatest guitarist of the modern age, who mainly play rock with a latino flavor. Carlos was born in Mexico, in Autlan de la Grana, Jalisco, before his family moved to Tijuana. There he learned about making music from his musician father, who played in a mariachi group, entertaining the tourist trade. Young Carlos's influences were the early bluesmen and the early rockers of the 50s and 60s. Tijuana proved to be his early training ground playing in and out of the cantinas, learning and plying his trade. Even after the family migrated to the United States, he stayed behind, learning and refining his talent. He eventually rejoined the family living in the Bay area of California and eventually began his first group, The Santana Blues Band, who eventually became the group we know as Santana.

Santana started out in the early 70s San Francisco music scene as the namesake for the Santana Blues Band. In the early years the Santana Blues Band created a unique sound by blending rock, blues and jazz with salsa, Latin percussion (congas and timbales), and Santana's melodic, bluesy guitar solos. Originally the band was made-up of Santana, Gregg Rolie (keyboard, vocal), Gus Rodriguez (bass), Tom Frazier (guitar), Mike Carabello (percussion) and Rod Harper (drums). However when Santana was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1998), it was Santana, Gregg Rolie, David Brown, Mike Carabello, Jose Chepito Areas and Michael Shrieve who were honoured. Eventually the group Santana became simply Carlos Santana and a revolving cast of professional musicians.

Santana's early success came with the debut album Santana, which helped to bring Latin music to mainstream American audiences, as well as to the rest of the world.

Santana earned their right to play bigger and bigger venues, eventually catching the eye of a then-unknown promoter Bill Graham. Graham promoted the band around the Bay area, and sent the young band from California to play in the biggest event in rock history, the Woodstock festival of 1969. With only one recognized album to their name, virtually unknown to the rest of the country, they gave a legendary performance including an 11-minute long "Soul Sacrifice" that appeared in the Woodstock film and on the soundtrack. Santana stood tall among the day's rock giants, earning the adoration of the crowd and eventually rock fans across the nation. The next album after their self-titled first album was the seminal Abraxas (1970), which was released to huge critical and commercial success. Abraxas spawned their biggest hits "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" (originally by Peter Green of the original Fleetwood Mac, and Tito Puente respectively).

Woodstock and Abraxas put the group on the map, with several successful singles and a greater following of fans, particularly young Chicanos. Santana gave these fans hope and lots of groups following his path.

Santana continued to achieve significant success but never topped Abraxas until the release of a comeback album in 1999, Supernatural. Although there were surprises in the 70s, like the John McLaughlin-influenced Caravanseri, and Illuminations, which was very spiritual. The following albums continued to be influenced with his new found spiritual path. Welcome and Borboletta were two very listenable albums but they did not fare well in the pop market of the 70s. Then, they returned to their latino rock roots with Festival and the famous Amigos (1976) which included one of Santana's most affecting instrumental compositions, "Europa."

During the late 70s and 80s they released many albums with this mix, bought by the hard core Santana fans who were so loyal to the man. By the late 80s and 90s his popularity had dwindled to the point that Santana played fair venues and small theaters. On stage, this now veteran group was non-stop action, playing lots of hits and leaving fans begging for more. Eventually Santana hooked up with an old friend after the untimely death of Bill Graham, who,suggested a new format for introducing their music to the latest generation of rock fans. Supernatural sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, winning numerous awards including nine Grammys, and spawning the massive hit singles "Smooth" (featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty on vocals_ (No.1 for 12 weeks), and "Maria Maria", featuring Product G&B (No.1 for 10 weeks). It was his most successful album ever and helped to expose Santana and their unique blend of jazz-fusion and Latin music to a new generation of listeners. This album was followed by two more made up with younger stars of different genres playing with the old master guitarist.