CArloos Santana :: essays research papers

Carlos Santana Ryan Conroy All the world knows the special magic of Carlos Santana. Since 1966, he has take the group that bears his name, selling over 30 million albums and performing before an estimated 13 million people. In every performance, Carlos shares with his audience a personal discourse that crosses all boundaries and differences. Carlos was introduced to traditional music by his father, Jose. An accomplished mariachi violinist and experienced musician, he taught Carlos the basics of music theory and gave him an understanding of the value of a note. Although Carlos upthrust for music would be sparked by his first experience, he quickly discovered the limits of its traditional form and wanted more. Carlos wanted to play the kind of music that was cream the radio waves and making people dance. Tijuana, 1955 the drastic change of moving from the small, quiet town of Autlan to the humming, thriving boom town of Tijuana brought a renewed hope and chance for a new life. Bo th for Carlos and his family. The eight-year old Carlos quickly left the violin for the guitar, studying and emulating the sounds of B.B. King, T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker. Soon he was being asked to trade union local bands like the T.J.s, where he added a unique touch and feel to his own renditions of all the great songs of the 1950s. As he continued to play with incompatible bands along the busy Tijuana Strip, he not Page Two only started to perfect his style and sound, but actually started bringing home enough specie to really help his family. His future looked promising. In 1960, Carlos family moved to San Francisco while Carlos stayed in Tijuana for another year to make extra money until his family was settled. However, he soon ground himself amid the multicultural atmosphere of San Francisco, with all of its diverse musical styles. It was here that Carlos would find what he had been searching for, as if destiny had brought him to the full place at the right time. Fo r the next five years, Carlos continued to evolve his own unique style of music that would later identify him as one of the most distinctive, innovative musicians of our time. In 1966, the music of Carlos Santana exploded on the streets of San Francisco with the debut performance of the Santana Blues Band. For the next two years, the Santana Blues Band was overwelmed by a wave of popularity that would take them from San Franciscos Fillmore West, to that historical performance in 1969 before 500,000 at the Woodstock Festival in New York.