Santana

Santana is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966 by Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana. The band has had various recording and performing line-ups in its history, with Santana being the only consistent member. After signing with Columbia Records, the band's appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 increased their profile and they went on to record the critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums Santana (1969), Abraxas (1970) and Santana III (1971). These were recorded by the group's "classic" line-up, comprising organist and lead vocalist Gregg Rolie, percussionists José "Chepito" Areas and Michael Carabello, drummer Michael Shrieve and bassist David Brown. Hit songs of this period include "Evil Ways" (1970), "Black Magic Woman" (1970), "Oye Como Va" (1971) and the instrumental "Samba Pa Ti" (1970).

Following a change in line-up and musical direction in 1972, the band experimented with elements of jazz fusion on Caravanserai (1972), Welcome (1973) and Borboletta (1974). The band reached a new peak of critical and commercial success with their eighteenth album, Supernatural (1999), which included the Billboard Hot 100-number one singles "Smooth" (featuring Rob Thomas) and "Maria Maria" (featuring The Product G&B). The album peaked atop the charts in eleven countries and sold 12 million copies domestically. It won eight Grammy Awards at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, a record tied with Michael Jackson, and three Latin Grammy Awards. In 2014, the "classic" line-up—with the exception of Brown, who died in 2000, and Areas, who was not invited to participate—reunited for the Santana IV album (2016) and tour.