Carlos Santana is an icon of music!
He is a natural talent and writes and expresses himself in what has become HIS sound.
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán began playing the violin at age five but by age eight he had switched over to the guitar. As a teenager, he played in bands in Tijuana, Mexico, where he was exposed to the local norteño music and the blues, especially from such guitarists as T-Bone Walker and B.B. King.
"Who Is Carlos Santana?
Carlos Santana moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s, where he formed the Santana Blues Band in 1966. The band, later simply known as Santana, signed a contract with Columbia Records, with Santana becoming the consistent front man. Throughout the 1970s and early '80s, Santana released a string of successful albums such as Abraxas, Lotus and Amigos, making a big comeback in 1999 with the Grammy-winning Supernatural. In 2009, he received a Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award and several years later became a Kennedy Center Honors recipient. More recent albums have included Corazón and Santana IV..." from the article: Carlos Santana
Biography:
"Delivered with a level of passion and soul equal to the legendary sonic charge of his guitar, the sound of Carlos Santana is one of the world’s best-known musical signatures. For more than four decades—from Santana’s earliest days as a groundbreaking Afro-Latin-blues-rock fusion outfit in San Francisco—Carlos has been the visionary force behind artistry that transcends musical genres and generational, cultural and geographical boundaries.
Long before the category now known as “world music” was named, Santana’s ever-evolving sound was always ahead of its time in its universal appeal, and today registers as ideally in sync with the 21st century’s pan-cultural landscape. And, with a dedication to humanitarian outreach and social activism that parallels his lifelong relationship with music, Carlos Santana is as much an exemplary world citizen as a global music icon.
Santana’s star arrived in the era-defining late 1960s San Francisco Bay Area music scene with historic shows at the Fillmore and other storied venues. The group emerged onto the global stage with an epic set at the Woodstock festival in 1969, the same year that its self-titled debut LP Santana came out. Introducing Santana’s first Top 10 hit, “Evil Ways,” the disc stayed on Billboard’s album chart for two years and was soon followed by two more classics — and Billboard #1 albums — Abraxas and Santana III.
Ever since, for more than forty years and almost as many albums later, Santana has sold more than 100 million records and reached more than 100 million fans at concerts worldwide. To date, Santana has won 10 GRAMMY® Awards, including a record-tying nine for a single project, 1999’s Supernatural (including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for “Smooth”) as well as three Latin GRAMMY’s. In 1998, the group was ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose website notes, “Guitarist Carlos Santana is one of rock’s true virtuosos and guiding lights.”.." from his website: www.santana.com
Europa & Samba Pa Ti - Santana - Live at Montreux
Video from Doc Strange
"Carlos Santana - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival - 2011" from video introduction
Santana - Smooth (Stereo) ft. Rob Thomas
Video from Santana
"Santana's official music video for 'Smooth' ft. Rob Thomas." from video introduction
Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas Are Together Again. It Only Took 22 Years
"TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO, no one could avoid “Smooth,” that unlikely combo of Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas that won multiple Grammys, sold millions, and haunted all of us at weddings. But neither man seemed to take the idea of a sequel all too seriously. “We always talked about doing something,” Thomas says. “Usually I’d get a text from Carlos at 3 in the morning with Otis Redding doing ‘Day Tripper’ and Carlos saying, ‘We’re gonna do this song!’ It was always two guys drinking too much wine and having a conversation about music: ‘We’re gonna start a band!'”
In the years since 1999, Thomas wound up co-writing a few songs on Santana albums that followed Supernatural, although he never sang on any of them. But that changes this week. Santana’s new Blessings and Miracles, out in October, marks a return to the guest-singer franchise of Supernatural and Shaman: This time, the drive-bys include Steve Winwood, Chris Stapleton, Diane Warren, Living Colour’s Corey Glover, rapper G-Eazy, and Death Angel’s Marc Osegueda, along with instrumentalists like Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and the late Chick Corea.." from the article: Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas Are Together Again. It Only Took 22 Years
Santana, Rob Thomas, American Authors - Move (Official Music Video)
Video from Santana
"Move" featuring Rob Thomas and American Authors
7 Awesome Carlos Santana Collaborations
"Carlos Santana has been on top of the rock charts since his breakout performance at Woodstock. As soon as you hear his signature guitar tone, you can unmistakably tell it’s Carlos playing guitar on the track. To celebrate his birthday, we put together some of our favorite collaborations Carlos has done over the years. “Smooth” ft. Rob Thomas
The reason we started our list with “Smooth” is simple—it was a monster hit! The single—co-written by Rob—could be heard everywhere during the turn-of-the-millennium, making it the No. 2 Hot 100 song of all time.." from the article: 7 Awesome Carlos Santana Collaborations
Santana - The Game Of Love - Michelle Branch
Video from fixtune
"Gregg Alexander, who records as The New Radicals ("You Get What You Give") wrote this song with Rick Nowels, whose co-writes include "Standing Still" for Jewel and "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" for Belinda Carlisle. Alexander recorded a demo, and the song sat around for about a year until Nowels' manager sent the song to Clive Davis, head of Arista Records, when Santana was looking for songs. With no Latin flavor, it was an unlikely song for Carlos Santana to record, but he went for it, making it the first single from his group's album Shaman, the follow-up to their 1999 blockbuster Supernatural." from Songfacts