Mexican songwriter and musician Carlos Santana was born 76 years ago as Carlos Umberto Santana Barragan in Autlan, Jalisco, is married and has 3 children.
When he was just 5 years old, Carlos took violin lessons and 3 years later learnt to play the guitar. He was highly influenced by big artists like Richie Valens, B B King and Gabor Szabo.
Santana went to middle school, followed by high school and was even accepted by 2 different universities, however, he did not go to college. He used to play the guitar with various local bands and even worked as a dishwasher for many years to enable him purchase a new electric guitar. At age 19, he formed the ‘Santana Blues Band’ which later changed to just ‘Santana’.
In August 1969, the band was invited to play in the Woodstock Music and Art Festival. Both the organiser and audience were extremely impressed by their performance and so the group gained a lot of popularity. That same month, they launched their first album which, as expected, was very successful and together with their festival performance, led the way to international fame.
Two more albums followed in the next two years, and featured popular hits like ‘Oye como va’, ‘Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen’ and ‘No one to depend On’. For the rest of the 70s, the group released 11 more albums, whilst Carlos had 4 solo albums as well.
In the next decade, apart from releasing 7 albums, some of which included other artists’ collaborations, the band made numerous guest appearances with well-known musicians, singers, guitarists etc of different music genres like jazz, blues and rock.
In 1990, Santana changed their record label and went on to released 16 albums during that decade. Their 1999 album ‘Supernatural’, which included the international hit ‘Smooth’, shot to number one on the charts and was certified platinum in various countries globally.
During the past 20 years, the band had 30 albums and 25 singles, most of which featured other artists. As a solo, Carlos released 16 albums, including collaboration ones, and 5 singles.
Santana is also a philanthropist and has co-founded a non-profit institution called ‘Milagro Foundation’ which financially helps medical, educational and other needs.
Carlos received 12 awards as a solo artist and 18 awards with his band.
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