Carlos Santana

About Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Santana Alves (born July 20, 1947) is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican rock musician and guitarist. He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which created a highly successful blend of, rock, blues, salsa and jazz fusion. Their sound featured his melodic, blues based guitar lines set against Latin percussion such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades, and experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Rolling Stone also named Santana number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003.

Carlos Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico, with two brothers and four sisters and a father who was a mariachi violinist. Carlos began playing the violin at five years of age, occasionally performing with his father's mariachi orchestra. When his family moved to Tijuana when he was nine, he became interested in the guitar, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and blues music and soon was performing in bands in the Tijuana area. When his family emigrated to San Francisco, California, thirteen year old Carlos refused to leave, preferring his independence as a working musician. After being convinced to stay in San Francisco with his family, he graduated from Mission High School in 1965. Santana helped the family out by working as a dishwasher and grew to enjoy the San Francisco music scene, often sneaking into music promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium to listen to his favorite musical artists, including Muddy Waters, and The Grateful Dead.

At the end of 1966, guitarist Tom Frazier wanted to form his new rock band. Frazier joined Santana (on guitar/vocals), Mike Carabello (on percussion), Rod Harper (on drums), Gus Rodriguez (on bass guitar), and Seattle native Gregg Rolie (on organ/vocals), to form the Santana Blues Band. Santana has maintained that it was he and Rolie who were the most serious about music and pursuing it further, while the others were only interested in hanging out and being part of the scene. Santana himself was not viewed by the group as the actual leader of the band that had his name. The group operated as a collective, as it would through the early 1970s. The name of the band was agreed upon due to a local musicians union requirement that there be a designated leader and a name. He met Stan 'Moon' Marcum who acted as the group's manager.