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 over 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 cultural and geographical boundaries.
After first rising to fame as stars of the era-defining late '60s San Francisco Bay area music scene with historic shows at the Fillmore and other venues, Santana emerged onto the global stage with an epic set at Woodstock '69, the same year that their self-titled debut LP came out. Introducing Santana's first hit, “Evil Ways,” the disc stayed on Billboard's album chart for 2 years, and was soon followed by two more classics - and Billboard #1s - “Abraxas” and “Santana III”.
Forty years and as many albums later, Santana has sold more than 90 million records and reached over 100 million fans at concerts worldwide. To date, Santana has won ten 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 web page on their induction notes, “Guitarist Carlos Santana is one of rock's true virtuosos and guiding lights.” Among many other honors, Carlos Santana has also been cited by Rolling Stone as #15 on their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time,” and #90 on their 2005 survey of the “100 Greatest Artists Of All Time.”
Most recently, the music of Santana has been celebrated with two landmark album releases. 2008's 2-CD set Multi-Dimensional Warrior (Columbia/Arista/Legacy) is a career-spanning anthology presenting twenty-eight tracks hand-picked by Carlos Santana, who calls the project, “a love letter to the fans.” Divided between tracks with vocals and instrumental compositions, it emphasizes album cuts and personal favorites that call forth the band's hypnotic musical power and give deeper insight into Santana's complex creative journey. It follows up 2007's Ultimate Santana, the only single-disc retrospective uniting hits from the group's recent albums for Arista and signature classics from their Columbia years, as well as the new 2008 chart hit “Into The Night.”
