Carlos Santana Research Paper

Carlos Santana was born July 20, 1947, in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico. His father Jose Santana was a talented violinist and would be one of the main inspirations for Carlos Santana to pursue a musical career. His father pushed Santana to learn the violin at the young age of four, although Santana didn’t appreciate the hours of forced practice he says that it’s what made him so good at playing music. He was destined for greatness and is often regarded as a child prodigy in the musical community. Santana and his family moved from their home town to the border city of Tijuana in 1955 and the eight year old Santana was immediately captivated by the music culture in the city. The family moved to the city in order for his dad to find work playing for tourist and often Santana would also play song for pay on the streets to help his family cover bills.
In Tijuana Santana was exposed to artist like BB King, Ray Charles and

The song Evil Ways which was a cover from another artist Willie Bobo was a major hit of the album making it to the top 10 on the billboard charts. The next year in 1970 the band released their album Abraxas which also reached a platinum accreditation. The band released their final album Santana III together in 1971 and when the album tour was over the band unfortunately broke up. Greg Rolie the keyboardist and vocalist went on to start his own band, Journey, while Santana continued with his music despite the constant change in personnel he kept the band name Santana. The first album that Santana released after the break- up of his original trio was with Buddy Miles in Hawaii the album was also a success and reach the top ten on the charts and ultimately went platinum. Santana ventured through his musical career through the 1970s by making music with hired musicians and released either gold or platinum albums along the