Delivered with a level of passion and soul equal to the legendary sonic charge of his guitar, the sound of Carlos Santana is one of the world's best-known musical signatures. For more than four decades—from Santana's earliest days as a groundbreaking Afro-Latin-blues-rock fusion outfit in San Francisco—Carlos has been the visionary force behind artistry that transcends musical genres and generational, cultural and geographical boundaries.
Long before the category now known as “world music” was named, Santana's ever-evolving sound was always ahead of its time in its universal appeal, and today registers as ideally in sync with the 21st century’s pan-cultural landscape. Santana's star arrived in the era-defining late 1960s San Francisco Bay Area music scene with historic shows at the Fillmore and other storied venues. The group emerged onto the global stage with an epic set at the Woodstock festival in 1969, the same year that its self-titled debut LP Santana came out. Introducing Santana's first Top 10 hit, “Evil Ways,” the disc stayed on Billboard’s album chart for two years and was soon followed by two more classics — and Billboard #1 albums — Abraxas and Santana III.
Ever since, for more than forty years and almost as many albums later, Santana has sold more than 100 million records and reached more than 100 million fans at concerts worldwide. To date, Santana has won 10 GRAMMY® Awards, including a record-tying nine for a single project, 1999’s Supernatural (including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for “Smooth”). In 1998, the group was ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose website notes, “Guitarist Carlos Santana is one of rock’s true virtuosos and guiding lights.”
Among many other honors, Carlos Santana received Billboard Latin Music Awards’ 2009 Lifetime Achievement honor, and, he was bestowed Billboard’s Century Award in 1996. He has also been cited by Rolling Stone as #15 on the magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”—“Santana's crystalline tone and clean arcing sustain make him the rare instrumentalist who can be identified in just one note.” And, with the 2010 release of Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time, Santana joined the Rolling Stones as one of only two music acts in Billboard history to score at least one Top Ten album in each decade from the 1960s on. In 2013, Santana was the recipient of the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors Award.
Smooth Sounds of Santana recreates the look & sound of Carlos Santana by replicating the music, note by note, from the legendary early days to material from all eras of Santana's 30+ year history. From the 1969 hit Evil Ways to monster hit Smooth which is on the world renowned and 9 time Grammy winning CD Supernatural, as well as hits from Santana's most recent CD release All That I Am. Smooth Sounds of Santana performs music to satisfy Santana fans young and old.
Painstaking care has been taken in the recreation of early and new music performed by this band of journeymen from the Los Angeles and Orange County, California area. All the instrumentation used by Santana over the years is there: guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, timbales, and congas. In some cases the exact kind of instruments are used, right down to the Paul Reed Smith guitars played by Carlos Santana. Although we are based in Southern California, we perform all across the Unites States and Canada.
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Booking Contact: Tony Barra 949-689-5800 tony@tonybarra.com
