Bio from ALLMUSIC:
Arriving at the twilight of the 1960s, Santana were psychedelic pioneers who ushered Latin rock into the mainstream with their first three albums: Santana, Abraxas, and Santana III. Thanks to their appearance at Woodstock, their eponymous album was a smash hit right out of the gate, with its single “Evil Ways” making it into the Billboard Top Ten in 1969. They remained at the top of the charts until 1973, when leader and namesake guitarist Carlos Santana began exploring esoteric, spiritual, jazz fusion on his own.
Carlos may have wandered away from the band who shared his name, but he always returned to the group, sustaining them through years both productive and fallow. Through it all,
Santana maintained a loyal classic rock following, but their popularity exploded in 1999 thanks to
Supernatural, a splashy comeback masterminded by
Clive Davis and featuring the
Rob Thomas duet “Smooth.” Like “Black Magic Woman,” “Evil Ways,” and “Oye Coma Va,” before it “Smooth” became a pop hit — it reached number one, their first ever — and became an enduring classic, allowing
Santana to flourish into the 21st century with albums such as
Shapeshifter in 2012, 2014’s
Santana IV (which marked a reunion of the
Santana III band), 2018’s
Power of Peace in collaboration with the
Isley Brothers, and
Africa Speaks with Spanish vocalist
Concha Buika in 2019.
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