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| Birth Name(s) : Carlos Santana |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
N/A |
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Full Carlos Santana Biography
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 eight 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. He became fascinated with rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and blues music and soon was performing in bands in the Tijuana area. His family later immigrated to San Francisco, California with Carlos refusing to leave with them, preferring his independence as a working musician at the age of thirteen. After finally being convinced to stay in San Francisco with his family, he graduated from Mission High School in 1965. Santana began helping the family out by working as a dishwasher and grew to enjoy the San Francisco music scene, often sneaking into Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium to listen to some of his favorite musical artists, including Muddy Waters, The Grateful Dead and many of the great rock, blues and jazz musicians who appeared there.
Around this time Santana met Deborah King, whom he later married in 1973. She is the daughter of the late blues singer and guitarist Saunders King. They have three children: Salvador, Stella and Angelica. Together with wife Deborah, Santana founded a nonprofit organization called "The Milagro Foundation" that provides financial aid for educational, medical and other needs.
In 1973 Santana, having obtained legal rights to the band's name, formed a new version of Santana. Armando Peraza and Chepito Areas on percussion, Doug Rauch on bass, Michael Shrieve on drums, with Tom Coster and Richard Kermode on keyboards. Santana was later able to recruit jazz vocalist Leon Thomas for a tour of Japan, which was recorded for a live, sprawling, high energy fusion album "Lotus". CBS records would not allow its release unless the material was condensed. Santana did not agree to those terms and the album was available only as an expensive imported three-record set. The group later went into the studio and recorded "Welcome", which further reflected Santana's interests in jazz fusion and his commitment to the spiritual life of Sri Chinmoy.
Santana along with Tom Coster, producer David Rubinson, and Chancler formed yet another version of Santana, adding vocalist Greg Walker. The album "Amigos" was released in 1976 which featured the songs "Dance, Sister, Dance" and "Let It Shine" and had a strong funk and Latin sound. The album also received considerable airplay on FM album oriented rock stations with the instrumental "Europa (Earths Cry Heavens Smile)" and re-introduced Santana back into the charts. Rolling Stone magazine ran a second cover story on Santana entitled; "Santana Comes Home".
Supernatural and the different tracks on it then won nine Grammy Awards (eight for Santana personally), including Album of the Year, Record of the Year for "Smooth", and Song of the Year for Thomas and Itaal Shur. Santana's acceptance speeches described his feelings about music's place in one's spiritual existence.
In 2002, Santana released Shaman, revisiting the Supernatural format of guest artists including P.O.D., Seal, and others. Although the album was not the runaway success its predecessor had been, it still produced two radio-friendly hits: the infectious "The Game of Love" featuring Michelle Branch which reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent many weeks at the top of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart; and "Why Don't You & I" written by and featuring Chad Kroeger from the group Nickelback (the original and a remix with Alex Band from the group The Calling were combined towards chart performance) which reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. "The Game of Love" went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
In April and May 2006 he started a tour in Europe where he promoted the band of his son Salvador Santana as his opening act.
On October 19, 2007, his wife of 34 years, Deborah Santana, filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences"; they have three children, ages 23, 22, and 17.
Santana's guitar necks and fretboards are constructed out of a single solid piece of Brazilian Rosewood, instead of the more traditional mahogany neck/Indian rosewood fretboard combination found in stock Santana models and other PRS guitars. The Brazilian Rosewood helps create the smooth, singing, glass-like tone that he is famous for.
For the distinctive Santana electric guitar sound, Santana doesn't use many effects pedals. His PRS guitar is connected to a Mu-Tron wah wah pedal (or, more recently, a Dunlop 535Q wah) and a T-Rex Replica delay pedal, then through a customized Jim Dunlop amp switcher which in turn is connected to the different amps or cabinets. |
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