USA
Born in Autlan de Navarro, Mexico-where there's now a street and public square in his name--to the son of a virtuoso Mariachi violinist, Carlos followed in his father's musical footsteps, taking up the violin at the age of five. It was when his family moved to Tijuana several years later, however, that Santana began his lifelong relationship with the instrument that would make him a musical icon--the guitar.
In 1961, Carlos made the border crossing moving from his native Mexico to San Francisco. A few years later, he formed the Santana Blues Band there, and the cool, soulful riffs and rhythms of his Latin-blues based sound found an audience eager for his innovative musical ideas. Carlos and company emerged as giants of the era-defining Bay Area music scene of the late '60s, and their fame grew far beyond its parameters while their artistry remained true to its free-flying spirit.
Massive success quickly followed. By the end of the decade, Carlos had played to packed houses on a cross-country tour, performed on the venerable Ed Sullivan Show, and made an indelible global mark with Santana's legendary, crowd-detonating performance at the original Woodstock festival in 1969.
He has not slowed down since: On a roll from his Woodstock performance his debut album shot up the chart bringing in a high-power fusion of rock and Latin beats. The next two albums duplicate the formula every time increasing his profile and winning over fans. With Caravanserai, the group changed directions developing a stunning jazz-rock and the album remains one of the textbook case of fusion music. This prompted Carlos Santana to start a solo career with collaborations with Buddy Miles, John Mc Laughlin (the superb Love, Devotion, Surrender) and Alice Coltrane (the no-less superb Illuminations), while his group was still releasing strong albums like Welcome, Borboletta. By the Mid-70's Santana was cruising effortlessly with a string of albums that were easily identified by the public: Moonflower, Amigos each provided huge hits while developing sophisticated fusion music. By the end of the decade however, and the numerous personnel changes, the group started losing a bit of focus.
Commercial success came back with singer Alex Ligterwood (ex-Brian Auger's Oblivion Express) being hired for the Marathon album. The 80's provided Santana many successful moments, but by the end of the decades his fortunes were again decreasing. Through certain collaborations, he remained in the spotlight and became a hero when appearing on John Lee Hooker's The Healer album. Carlos and his group cruised the 90's without much worries and his latest albums have been selling millions worldwide. But by this time, his music is much less interesting to progheads.
ALBUMS:
1992-08-28.Concord (LIVE)
01 - Bill Graham-Peace On Earth (6:48)
02 - Somewhere In Heaven (10:50)
03 - Why Can't We Live Together (6:07)
04 - Life Is For Living (4:37)
05 - Savor-Karl Perazzo-Raul Rekow (15:45)
06 - Wings Of Grace (3:45)
07 - Black Magic Woman-Gypsy Queen (9:55)
08 - Oye Como Va (5:09)
09 - Jam wt Phish and Marcia Miget (11:49)
10 - Aqua Marine (9:40)
11 - Angels All Around Us-Spirits Dancing In The Flesh (7:28)
12 - Make Somebody Happy Meddley (15:07)
13 - Toussaint L'Overture (6:44)
14 - Soul Sacrifice-A Love Supreme-Aranjuez (28:10)
15 - Europa (6:14)
16 - Jingo-Band Introduction (12:36)
