The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Times

His first album, Santana (1969) went triple platinum. His next Abraxas, released in 1970 also went platinum. After that the album Santana (III) 1979 and Caravanserai (1972) was also critically acclaimed.

Carlos Santana is a musician as well as a songwriter and has a strong foothold in various different genres like Latin rock; Rock blues rock, Chicago rock, Jazz, free Jazz, fusion Jazz, pop, Tejano music and salsa.

He revolutionized the music world with his original fusion creation of rock, salsa and jazz fusion. The initial hit they made is Latin rock, eponymous album, abraxas. For a couple of years, the band went with the similar fusion style, it was only in 1990, and the band underwent dramatic changes and started introducing very different kind of rock music. The band started producing more erotic music. In the year 2000 he was honored with eight Grammy awards and totals three of Latin American awards. He was also ranked 15 among top 100 guitarists by the rolling magazine.

The numbers of awards in Carlos Santana’s kitty are no less; he has won 3 awards in the Latin Grammy section and 10 Grammy awards. The Rolling Stone magazine enlisted 100 great guitarists of all times in 2003 and Carlos Santana was the fifteenth on the list.

Santana’s Supernatural (2000) was awarded with nine Grammy out of which Santana won eight personally. He got Album of the Year, Record of the Year for "Smooth", and Song of the Year for Thomas and Itaal Shur. His acceptance speech describes how he feels about his music and his spiritual journey towards music. He also won Latin Grammy award in the same year including Record of the Year

A perfect example of Santana’s melodic wizardry is that album’s version of “Europe,” arguably the best of the many recordings of the iconic instrumental. For six minutes and change, Carlos builds a guitar solo that is a work of art.

One of the most enduring musical forces of our time, Carlos Santana has enjoyed a 40 year career, encompassing a wide variety of styles. From the melodic simplicity of "Samba Pa Ti" to the rap/hip-hop of "Maria Maria," Santana has left his mark.