Santana

Latin rock band from San Francisco, California, USA, led by guitarist [a=Carlos Santana]. The band was formed in 1966 under the name Santana Blues Band. In 1967, the band changed its name to Santana. They debuted as Santana at [a=Bill Graham]'s Fillmore West theater in San Francisco on June 16, 1968. Steered on by Graham, they first came to a wider public attention after their performance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. This initial exposure made their first three albums hits at the time, all with Columbia, the first record company that signed the band. By 1972 / 1973 however, there were rifts in the band and two of its members left to form [a=Journey].

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. The triple live album Lotus concludes that period. Over the next decades, line-up changes were common, the music at times evolved more commercially and pop oriented although never losing 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: so far, Santana has won a total of 8 Grammy Awards and 3 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 Guitar Heaven collection of classic rock covers turned out to be their last album for Arista. 2012's Shape Shifter was released on their Sony-distributed imprint Starfaith. With 2014's 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 6 consecutive decades from the 1960s on. Santana has signed with Concord since 2018 and has released the Narada Michael Walden-produced EP In Search Of The Mona Lisa and the Rick Rubin produced full-length album Africa Speaks in 2019.