At the age of 5 in his native Mexico, he learned to play the violin. At 8, he developed a lifelong love for the guitar. At 14, he honed those skills and his performance style as a street musician, starting his own band while still a teenager. At 22—just before his first album was released to acclaim—Carlos Santana became one of the major discoveries of Woodstock. A music industry legend for 50 years and a 10-time Grammy-winning global sensation, Santana continues to be one of music's premiere artists blending jazz, blues, and the Mariachi sound with a rock n’ roll spirituality and a sense of music’s primal connection to our deepest emotions.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 Do you believe in magic?
00:02 Magic is when you command the elements
00:08 to capture
00:13 the flow of grace.
00:16 My dad came to San Francisco.
00:20 He brought one of the first mariachi bands here in the Bay Area.
00:23 This pato, this young dude,
00:29 he had big eyes and big ears.
00:31 I said, "Mom, someday I'm going to get you your own house."
00:35 She goes, "That's nice, mijo."
00:38 Carlo, he was not around that much.
00:43 I'm in trouble now.
00:45 He was with his friends rehearsing.
00:47 They said, "Hey, we want to take you to this place."
00:49 I said, "Where are we going?"
00:51 He says, "It's called the Fillmore."
00:53 I went to the windows and there were these two gentlemen
00:55 climbing up the side of the building on the drain pipe.
00:58 Michael Bloomfield's guitar was over there.
00:59 So he looked at me and he goes,
01:01 "Here's my guitar. Grab it."
01:03 And when I finished, Bill Graham came to me and he says,
01:06 "You're going to open up for The Who,
01:09 Steve Miller, and Howlin' Wolf."
01:11 There's music that just makes you celebrate.
01:20 And when you celebrate, fear has to go away.
01:26 And all you have is delight.
01:28 This is intense, clear energy.
01:32 Peacefully, take no prisoners.
01:35 When I got my first royalty, I said,
01:47 "Mom, here's the check."
01:49 Nothing better.
01:53 (applause)