Carlos Santana was one of the major rock musicians of the late 1960s “flower power” era, exerting a major influence on the fusion of jazz, Latin, and rock. Born in 1947 in Autlán, Mexico, Carlos Santana was brought up in a family of professional musicians. First his father taught five-year-old Carlos the violin; a few years later he switched to guitar. Santana learned blues and rock styles by listening to recordings of Chuck BERRY, B. B. KING, and T-Bone WALKER. In the early 1960s, Santana added the music of jazz performers such as John COLTRANE and Miles DAVIS to his long list of musical influences.
Santana assembled his first band, the Santana Blues Band, in 1966 in San Francisco; the name of the band was soon shortened to Santana. The band created its unique sound by adding conga drums, timbales, agogo bells, and other Latin American percussion instruments to the standard rock instrumentation of electric guitars, electric bass, drums, and organ. Original band members included Santana (guitar, vocals), Mike Carabello (conga, percussion), Dave Brown (bass), José Chepito Areas (timbales, percussion), Mike Shrieve (drums), and Gregg Rolie (keyboards, vocals). The intricate African and Latin American polyrhythms of the percussion, in conjunction with the rock rhythms of the rhythm section, created a new tone colour in the otherwise blues-based outfit. The group appeared at the Woodstock Festival in the summer of 1969, virtually unknown, and played the song “Soul Sacrifice.” The song electrified the crowd, and firmly established the band on the rock scene. The group’s popularity increased dramatically after Woodstock, as did sales of the band’s first album, Santana (1969).
The Latin American background of the tune “Black Magic Woman,” which was originally a blues-based song written by Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist Peter Green, as well as the group’s own recording of Tito PUENTE’S “Oye Como Va” and the instrumental “Samba Pa Ti” helped Santana’s second album, Abraxas (1970), achieve great commercial success. On the strength of Santana and Abraxas, Santana became one of the most popular bands of the early 1970s, both in America and throughout the world. Santana’s popularity was greatly enhanced by extensive international tours.
In the early 1970s Carlos Santana became attracted to Indian religion and philosophy, an influence that resulted in the albums Love, Devotion, Surrender (191 ò; with John MCLAUGHLIN), Illuminations (1974; with Alice Coltrane), and Oneness (1979).
Santana adopted a more Latin, jazz, and rock fusion sound on the albums Caravanserai (1972) and Welcome (1973), but not all of the group’s members shared Carlos’s artistic views. Organist Gregg Rolie and guitarist Neal Schon left the group to form the band Journey. In all, Santana went through some 35 different musical versions, reflecting the stylistic changes it witnessed since its inception. Former members of Santana include Buddy Miles, Alphonso Johnson, Mingo Lewis, Coke Escovedo, and Ndugu Chandler. In the early 1980s, Santana had occasional hit singles, such as “Winning,” and a best selling album Zebop (1981). Through the 1980s, Santana continued performing live and recording, earning a Grammy for the album Blues for Salvador (1989).
Although it is unlikely that Santana will ever command the popularity he enjoyed in the 1970s, he remains a strong voice in rock, recording and touring extensively with his band and as a guest artist with artists such as Buddy Miles and Willie NELSON.
Steve Valdez
SEE ALSO:
JAZZ ROCK; LATIN JAZZ; ROCK MUSIC.
Charlton, Katherine. Rock Music Styles: A History (Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark, 1994);
DeCurtis, Anthony, and James Henke with Holly George-Warren, eds. Illustrated History of Rock & Roll (New York: Random House, 1992);
Stuessy, Joe. Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1994).
Abraxas; Blues for Salvador, Caravanserai; Moonflower; Santana; Santana (III); Viva Santana!