Santana

• Genre: Classic Rock
• Hometown: San Rafael
• Santana Website

About

Carlos Santana has been mixing blues, Afro-Cuban jazz, rock, fusion, and psychedelic guitar elements into his brand of Latin rock since the 1960s. Many of today's musicians hold Santana responsible for picking up where Ritchie Valens left off, bringing Latin sounds to the forefront of popular music. Shortly after Santana's start playing music halls of San Francisco in the liquid light-show heyday (mid-'60s), his eclectic band found itself at the first Woodstock festival, playing one of its most memorable performances. The band has undergone many lineup changes since, but Carlos Santana continues to radiate global soul, playing new material as well as the hits that brought him acclaim back in the day of the longhairs.

- Eric Shea