Santana

About

American latin-rock group, formed in the late 1960s, led by guitarist Carlos Santana. They first came to a wider public attention after their performance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. This initial exposure made their first eponymous self-titled album a hit at the time, followed by the next two releases “Abraxas” (1970) and “Santana III” (1971) all with Columbia, the first record company that signed the band.

“Caravanserai” from 1972 marked the start of a new, more Jazz oriented chapter in Santana’s career, as the band now moved away from rock and towards a more experimental and complex sound. “Welcome” from 1973 and the 1974 “Borboletta” and “Lotus” releases (the latter a triple live album) are most remarkable from that period.

Over the next decades, lineup changes were common, the music at times evolved more commercially and Pop oriented although never loosing the initial latin influence.

Santana left Columbia in 1991 and signed with Polydor for their 1992’s “Milagro” album and the subsequent releases, until Clive Davis signed the group to Arista in 1998, with whom they achieved their greatest commercial and critical success: Santana won a total of eight Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards which were all awarded in 2000 for the 1999 “Supernatural” album (which also earned them their first No. 1 hit “Smooth”).

In 1994, Santana played at the commemorative concert at Woodstock, 25 years after the band’s transformative performance at the original festival. In 1998, the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Carlos Santana, Jose Chepito Areas, David Brown, Mike Carabello, Gregg Rolie and Michael Shrieve being honored. In 2016 they released [m986309], a studio album that reunites the early ’70s lineup and signifies the first time in 45 years – since 1971’s multi-platinum classic Santana III – that the quintet has recorded together. Santana again played at Bethel New York for the Woodstock 50th anniversary.

The 2010 released collection of classic rock covers “Guitar Heaven” turned out to be their last album for Arista. “Shape Shifter”, the band’s 2012 album, was released on their Sony-distributed imprint Starfaith. With the 2014 release of “Corazón”, Santana surpassed the Rolling Stones and is one of only two music acts in Billboard history to score at least one Top Ten album for six consecutive decades from the 1960s on. Santana has signed with Concord since 2018 and released the Narada Michael Walden-produced EP “In Search of the Mona Lisa” and the full-length album “Africa Speaks” produced by Rick Rubin in 2019.

Current Lineup

Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, Cindy Blackman, Benny Rietveld, Karl Perazzo, Andy Vargas, Greg Errico, Tommy Anthony, Paoli Mejias, David K. Mathews, Ray Greene