Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born 20 July 1947 in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico) is an American, Grammy Award-winning musician and Latin- rock guitarist.
He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band The Santana Blues Band, which created a highly successful blend of salsa, rock, blues, and jazz fusion. Their sound featured his often high-pitched and clean guitar lines set against Latin instrumentation such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades, and experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Over his career he has sold an estimated 80 million albums worldwide.
Santana was born to Mexican parents in 1947, and has two brothers and four sisters. Carlos' father was a musician, and young Carlos originally learned the violin, switching to the guitar when he was eight years old. After a family move to Tijuana, Santana began playing in clubs and bars; he remained in Tijuana when his family moved to San Francisco, California, but joined them at the age of thirteen.
At the end of 1966, Tom Frazier (guitar) wanted to form a new rock band. Frazier joined Carlos Santana (guitar/vocals), Mike Carabello (percussion), Rod Harper (drums), Gus Rodriguez (bass guitar), and Seattle native Gregg Rolie (organ/vocals), to form the Santana Blues Band. After a while the name was shortened to just Santana. Promoter Bill Graham saw them and the band debuted in June 1968 at the legendary Fillmore (later Fillmore West), where many of the great San Francisco bands began. Santana's recording debut occurred on The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield.