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and jazz Santana continued to thrive into the early 1970s despite its numerous band lineup changes with Carlos eventually taking the lead responsibility. A Santana resurgence occurred in the 1990s contributing to their 80 million albums sold worldwide.

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana was born on July 20, 1947 in Autlan de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico to a musical family as his father played the violin and was part of a mariachi band. Carlo's first instrument was the violin, later switching to the guitar at eight years old. When his family moved to Tijuana, he began to play with his father's mariachi band, however soon grew tired of it. He was instead interested in American Blues, R&B and Rock & Roll spending his time playing bass and guitar in bars and strip clubs. An unhappy Carlos relocated to San Francisco joining his family who had moved before he had. After graduating from Mission High School in 1965, Carlos on guitar and vocals formed his first group along with Tom Frazier (guitar), Mike Carabello (percussion), Rod Harper (drums), Gus Rodriguez (bass guitar) and Gregg Rolie (organ/vocals). The band was originally named Santana Blues Band and later changed simply to Santana. They were noticed by promoter Bill Graham who requested they play at the Fillmore West Theater in 1968 and eventually helped them land a record deal with Columbia

During the recording process of their first album, several changes were made involving the replacement of some of the members due to inadequate performance. Before even completing their album, Graham convinced the promoters of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival to let the band perform. Santana blew the crowd away on August 15, 1969 with a legendary set creating incredible exposure for their upcoming debut album. Santana was released that same month proving to be an immense success peaking at number four and remained on the US album charts for two years selling over two million copies.

Their follow-up album, Abraxas, was released a year later and received monumental praise occupying the album charts for more than a year and a half. Hit singles "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" contributed to the selling of over four million copies. With the immense stress to sustain their chart topping reputation, problems soon began to arise when involving the group's musical direction. Carlos preferred to expand into the realm of blues and jazz while Rolie as well as a few other members wished to highlight their hard rock sound. The band grew even more apart when Chepito Areas suffered a severe brain hemorrhage as Carlos wished to find a temporary replacement while others felt that the group should not continue performing without him.

In 1971, Neal Schon, a teenage guitar prodigy from San Francisco joined Santana to work on their third album Santana III while Chepito healed in time to contribute to the album as well completing the seven man band. The album also featured several guest musicians remarkably Coke Escovedo who assisted in the percussion section. Santana III proved to be as phenomenal as the previous albums, reaching number one on the charts and eventually selling over two million copies. The most recognized songs off of the album are "Everybody's Everything" and "No One To Depend On". Unfortunately this was their last effort as the Woodstock era version of Santana as the band broke up shortly after touring. Carlos upheld the rights to the name and began recording a fourth album, Caravanserai which featured previous members Schon, Rolie, Shrieve, and Areas as well as several new musicians James Mingo Lewis, Armando Peraza, Tom Rutley, Doug Rauch, Wendy Haas and Tom Coster. The jazz inspired album successfully reached the Top Five and was eventually certified platinum. Following the release, Rolie and Schon went on to form the band Journey in 1972.

Carlos befriended The Mahavishnu Orchestra guitarist John McLaughlin and began taking interest in his spiritual beliefs. McLaughlin introduced Carlos and his wife Deborah to Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy. Carlos was accepted as a disciple in 1973 and given the name "Devadip" (meaning "the lamp and eye of god"). Carlos and McLaughlin recorded Love, Devotion, Surrender along with Santana and Mahavishnu Orchestra members.

Santana's fifth album was released in 1973. This new version of the band included Areas, Peraza, Shrieve, Rauch, Coster , Richard Kermode on keyboards and jazz vocalist Leon Thomas. Welcome eventually went gold peaking in the Top Twenty. The live album Lotus followed however was only released in Japan at the time and ultimately in the US in 1991. Carlos later recorded a duo with John Coltrane's wife Alice entitled Illuminations. Santana's Greatest Hits followed in July 1974 earning double platinum status.

The band experienced yet another lineup change for the release of Borboletta featuring Shrieve, Areas, Coster, Peraza, Brown, saxophonist Jules Broussard and singer Leon Patillo. Returning to a more commercial sound, the band released Amigos in March 1976. Shrieve was replaced by Ndugu Leon Chancler and singer Greg Walker joined the group releasing a Top Ten album. The late 1970s brought about numerous lineup changes and several moderately successful albums such as Festival, Moonflower, Inner Secrets and Marathon. During this time Carlos also issued two solo albums, Oneness: Silver Dreams Golden Reality and The Swing of Delight. Another Santana album was released in 1981 entitled Zebop! which included the Top Twenty single "Winning" as well, 1982's Shango featured the hit "Hold On". 1982 also marked Carlos and Deborah's departure from Sri Chinmoy. Beyond Appearances was released in 1985 becoming Santana's lowest charting album. Carlos' fourth solo album Blues for Salvador in 1987 proved to be a success earning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In 1990 he ended his 22 year relationship with Columbia Records and headed to Polygram in 1991.

Santana made a major comeback in 1999 with the release of Supernatural on Arista Records. The album featured collaborations with popular artists Rob Thomas, Bobby Martin, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Maná, Dave Matthews and several others. The first single "Smooth" was an instant hit spending twelve weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 while the second single "Maria, Maria" occupied the number one spot for ten weeks. The album sold an incredible 15 million copies in the US alone and earned nine Grammy Awards. Shaman was issued in 2002 with a layout similar to Supernatural with its numerous track collaborations with artists Michelle Branch, P.O.D., Seal, Chad Kroeger from Nickelback and Alex Band from The Calling. "The Game of Love" featuring Branch won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. In 2005, the trend continued with the release of All That I Am featuring once again Michelle Branch, as well as Steven Tyler, Big Boi, Joss Stone, Mary J. Blige, Bo Bice, will.i.am. and Sean Paul.