Long before “world music” was a destination at search engines across the globe – or was even a genre, for that matter – Carlos Santana and the band that bears his name were laying down the tracks that would bring homegrown electric American music to the four corners of the earth.  In turn, the music ricocheted back to our shores, filtered through the musical waterfalls of Afro-pop and Afro-beat, Caribbean voodoo-rock, and a dozen geopolitical musical zones that now regard Santana as one of their own.

Carlos Humberto Santana de Barragan came from the humblest of backgrounds.  He was born 1947, in Autlan de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico (where a street and public square now bear his name).  His father, a virtuoso mariachi violinist, instilled a musical spirit in his son who also began playing violin at age five.  Later, when the family moved north to the bustling border town of Tijuana, Carlos took up the guitar and began to absorb his first influences.  Listening to the powerful American radio stations whose signals reached into Mexico, he fell under the spell of John Lee Hooker, T. Bone Walker, and B.B. King, a trinity of guitar heroes whose styles blurred the lines of blues and jazz.

By age 14, his family had moved to San Francisco, where Carlos graduated high school in 1965.  The Santana Blues Band was formed in 1966, and its heady concoction of West Coast soul, Latin percussion, groovy organ, and Carlos’ stratospheric lead guitar was an immediate sensation.   By 1967, they were known simply as Santana. 

Their first album, Santana was released in 1969, and met with a warm response. The debut’s success was eclipsed at the end of 1970, when “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman” sent Abraxas to #1 for 6 weeks; the Grammy Hall Of Fame album has sold more than 5 million copies to date in the U.S. alone.  With “Everybody’s Everything” and “No One To Depend On” again reaching the Top 40, 1971’s Santana III spent 5 weeks at #1 and brought a third consecutive multi-platinum award.

In many ways, the band’s career is bookended by Santana, Abraxas and Santana III on one end of the timeline and – three decades later – Supernatural, Shaman and All That I Am, and now Guitar Heaven… at the other end of the timeline.  The myriad adventures in between have been chronicled in more books than there are original studio and live albums in the official Santana catalogue (more than 35 titles to date on the Columbia, Columbia/Legacy, Polydor, and Arista labels).

The arc of Santana’s performing and recording career is complemented by a lifelong devotion to social activism and humanitarian causes.  The Milagro Foundation was launched in 1998, the culmination of decades of support for countless charities and non-profit agencies the world over.  With more than $4 million in grants to date, Milagro supports organizations promoting the welfare of underserved children in the areas of health, education, and the arts.

After more than 40 years on the world stage, Carlos Santana is at the pinnacle of his career, more vital and relevant – and more exposed on radio, TV and the Internet – than ever before.  His passionate “old school” virtuosity and “new school” cool attract the hippest artists to every new recording project that he and Clive Davis initiate. At the essence is a signature sound that is unique and instantly identifiable.  With his lifetime of achievement and dedication to music, every move that Santana makes is a multi-cultural event – the soundtrack for the world.

“I feel really happy,” Carlos concludes, “I am more happy than I have ever been in my life because I am grateful.  I am grateful for Clive, I am grateful for Michael Lang and Bill Graham and people who opened doors.  Woodstock was a door, Supernatural was a door.  Everyone who I ever met, Miles Davis or Tito Puente or B.B. King, all of them have gone out of their way to help me keep going.  I have some great teachers, and some of them are my students too.  We hope to touch many, many people’s hearts with our music…  It’s like Olivia said, our goal is to make people jump with joy and cry at the same time.”

Santana has sold more than 90 million records and reached over 100 million fans at concerts worldwide. To date, Santana has won ten Grammy® Awards. In 1998, the group was ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose web page on their induction notes, “Guitarist Carlos Santana is one of rock’s true virtuosos and guiding lights.” Among many other honors, Carlos Santana has also been cited by Rolling Stone as #15 on their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time.”

His CD, Guitar Heaven was released 2010 September.