Santana is an American rock band, formed in 1966 by American guitarist Carlos Santana, which has performed for five decades.
The group's first concert tours were North America, with performances in Europe, where they performed at small and medium-size venues and rock festivals. Following a lineup change in early 1972, they toured the world from 1972 to 1973. During this tour, the band performed at arenas and theaters, while doing several concerts in South America, one of the first tours of the continent by a major American rock act. After a North American tour in 1974, the last remaining members of the group from their famous lineup, Michael Shrieve and José Areas, quit the group, and the band underwent multiple lineup changes during the following years. In the 1970s to the 1980s, the band played at arenas, but mostly theaters and seldom music festivals.
In the 1990s, the group lost their recording contract, but they continued to tour extensively throughout the decade, mostly playing at theaters and amphitheaters. However, the band ended the decade with the Supernatural Tour, a vehicle for their popular 1999 album "Supernatural". The 177–date tour was a success with audiences and critics, and the group continued to perform within the 2000s. In the third quarter of 2010, Carlos Santana proposed to drummer Cindy Blackman after her solo on the song "Corazón Espinado", and she became an official member of the band in 2016. The group continues to tour the world to this day.
1967–68 performances (1967–1968).
Santana, then known as the Santana Blues Band, performed in 1967 and 1968 in many line-ups throughout the West Coast of the United States.
History.
In January 1967, Carlos Santana was offered a slot by Bill Graham as an opener for an upcoming show at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium after Graham was impressed with Santana's performance with Paul Butterfield at the same venue in late January. In February 1967, his group, the Santana Blues Band, was officially formed when guitarist Tom Fraser invited Carlos Santana to jam with his friend Gregg Rolie, after seeing Santana play with Butterfield at the Fillmore. The band's first performance was on March 1, 1967, at The Ark club located inside a converted ferry boat in Sausalito, California. At the second show on March 17 at the Winchester Cathedral in Redwood City, California, the band was paid $75 for their performance, and allegedly, future drummer Michael Shrieve was in the audience at that show.
After a hiatus due to Santana being treated for tuberculosis, the group opened for the Who at the Fillmore on June 16 and 17, 1967, but the band was blacklisted from performing at the venue due to players Sergio "Gus" Rodriguez and Danny Haro showing up late for the gig on the 17th. In July, manager Stan Marcum made Santana remove Rodriguez and Haro from the band, and Haro was replaced by Bob Wehr for one performance at the Grant &amp; Green jazz bar, where David Brown was asked to join after the performance. In November 1967, the band changed their name to Santana.
Live releases.
Live material from these performances has appeared on the following:
Set list.
The group's set list usually consisted of covers of Latin music and blues songs, such as Willie Bobo's "Fried Neckbones and Some Homefries" and Chico Hamilton's "Conquistadore Rides Again." The set list of the live album "Live at the Fillmore 1968" consists of the following:
Santana Tour (1969–1970).
The Santana Tour was the first concert tour by the American rock band Santana, promoting their self-titled debut album.
History.
1969 marked the first year Santana entered the mainstream, thanks to the group's appearance at the Woodstock festival, where drummer Michael Shrieve, aged 20, was one of the youngest musicians to play at the festival, and the success of their self-titled debut album. They performed nearly non-stop in the United States during that year, appearing at several large music festivals such as the Texas International Pop Festival and the Altamont Speedway Free Festival. During that year, the group's lineup was finalized, Carlos Santana on guitar, percussion, and vocals, David Brown on bass guitar, Gregg Rolie on Hammond organ and lead vocals, Michael Carabello on congas, José Areas on timbales, congas, and trumpet, and Shrieve on drums. In 1970, the group toured Europe (as well as playing at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music) and they played in Canada for the first time.
Live releases.
Live material from this tour has appeared on a number of different releases:
Typical set lists.
January 1969–April 1970: North American tour.
Known as the Santana Blues Band up around March 1969, the band performed extensively during this tour, playing at mostly high schools, colleges, clubs, small music venues, fairgrounds, and large rock festivals such as Woodstock throughout. The tour began at January 10, 1969, at The TNT in Olympic Valley, California and ended on April 12, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City. A typical set list from 1969 was as follows (all songs written by the members of Santana unless specified otherwise).
A typical set list from 1970 (all songs written by the members of Santana unless specified otherwise) was as follows (actual set list taken from the first or second show on April 12):
April 1970: One show in England.
On April 18, 1970, the band did one show in England for The Sound of the Seventies festival at the Royal Albert Hall in London, their first show in Europe and their first show outside North America. These are the songs known to have been performed there are (all songs written by the members of Santana unless specified otherwise):
April–June 1970: Second North American tour.
A short North American tour followed the gig in England, lasting from April 24, 1970, at the Memorial Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania and ending on June 13, 1970, at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Taken from the show on May 22 at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu, a typical set list from this tour was as follows (all songs written by the members of Santana unless specified otherwise):
June 1970: European tour.
The group embarked on a short, 8-date European tour in June 1970, which commenced on June 16, 1970, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England and concluded on June 28, 1970, at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music at the Royal Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet, England. This set list is representative of the show on June 28. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.
All songs written by the members of Santana unless specified otherwise.
Abraxas Tour (1970–1971).
The Abraxas Tour was the second concert tour by American rock band Santana.
History.
This tour was the first of two to feature guitarist Neal Schon. Schon joined the group in December 1970 after declining an invitation to be a part of Derek and the Dominos. The band now boasted a powerful dual-lead-guitar act that gave their music a tougher sound. In January 1971, drugs were becoming a problem in the group, so Carlos Santana spoke to Michael Carabello about this problem, but it would be a long time before they fixed it. Around the same time, José Areas was stricken with a near-fatal brain hemorrhage, and Santana hoped to continue by finding a temporary replacement (Willie Bobo played with the group for the sole African concert), while others in the band, especially Michael Carabello, felt it was wrong to perform publicly without Areas. Cliques formed, and the band started to disintegrate. In March 1971, Coke Escovedo joined the group, and these problems plagued the group into the start of the next tour.
Live releases.
Live material from this tour has appeared on a number of different releases:
Reception.
"Billboard" described one of the band's shows on August 10, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City as "exciting."
Typical set lists.
This is a usual set list of the group's concerts in 1970 (actual set list taken from the August 18 Lenox show):
All songs written by the members of Santana unless otherwise specified.
This is an average set list of the group's performances in 1971 (actual set list taken from the March 23 Inglewood show):
Santana III Tour (1971).
The Santana III Tour was the third concert tour by American rock band Santana in 1971, supporting their album "Santana", commonly known as "Santana III".
History.
This tour was a rather unfavorable one for Santana. Due to David Brown's severe heroin use, he was replaced by Tom Rutley in August. In late September, due to an argument, the group toured without Carlos Santana, which Santana dismissed the group minus him as a "Santana tribute". In mid-October, Santana returned to the band, and Michael Carabello was taken out of the group. Santana returned because during a series of shows in New York City, the group was booed because Santana wasn't playing with them. An audience member from one of these shows, Mingo Lewis was chosen to play with the group in the meantime.
A South American tour was cut short in Lima, Peru in December. The group was supposed to perform on December 11 at the Estadio Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos in Lima, but they were deported back to the United States due to student protests against U.S. governmental policies. Even if around five million soles were sold in tickets, the concert was cancelled and its cancellation was announced on December 10 by the Minister of the Interior.
Live releases.
Live material from this tour that has seen release all comes from the group's performance at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on July 4 and has appeared on the following:
Set list.
This is a usual set list of this tour (actual set list taken from the September 28 Denver show):
Caravanserai Tour (1972–1973).
The Caravanserai Tour was a series of performances by American Latin rock band Santana in support of their album "Caravanserai" during 1972 and 1973. It started on September 4, 1972, at the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival in Griffin, Indiana, and ended on October 21, 1973, at Ginasio Municipal Novo in Brasília, Brazil. This tour could be considered to be the group's most eclectic tour at this point, as the band did concerts at every continent except Africa and Antarctica, including one of the first, if not the first, tours of Latin America by a major American rock act.
The tour was the first and only tour to feature the group's second lineup, "The New Santana Band", consisting of guitarist Carlos Santana, percussionists Armando Peraza and José Areas, bassist Doug Rauch, drummer Michael Shrieve, and Tom Coster and Richard Kermode on keyboards. The group often performed material from "Caravanserai" along with other improvisations and covers.
Some concerts were recorded and filmed and released as albums and films. The shows on July 3 and 4, 1973 at the Osaka Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan in Osaka, Japan were released as the triple vinyl LP "Lotus" (1974). Select concerts during the tour's Latin American portion were filmed and incorporated into the documentary, "Santana en Colores" (1973).
Welcome Tour (1973–1974).
The Welcome Tour was a concert tour by Santana promoting their album, "Welcome". The tour began on November 13, 1973, at Colston Hall in Bristol, England and ended on October 29, 1974, at the William P. Cole, Jr. Student Activities Building in College Park, Maryland.
Borboletta Tour (1974–1975).
The Borboletta Tour was the sixth concert tour by American rock band Santana in 1974 and 1975 in support of their album "Borboletta".
History.
After a performance in Honolulu, Hawaii, Santana toured Japan in November–December 1974. After the conclusion of the Japanese tour, the group performed extensively in North America from March to September 1975 with Eric Clapton and his band. Then, the band toured with Earth, Wind &amp; Fire in Europe. The European tour is notable as the group played two shows in Yugoslavia on October 4 and 5, 1975, their first performances behind the Iron Curtain.
The singer of the opening act for the show at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on April 11, 1975, Alex Ligertwood of Tone, influenced Carlos Santana to enroll him into Santana in 1979 because he was enamored by his performance.
Typical set lists.
November–December 1974: Asian tour.
After a show in Hawaii, the group embarked on 16-date tour of Japan, starting on November 23, 1974, at Kanazawa City Tourism Center in Kanazawa, and ending on December 14, 1974, in Fukuoka Kyuden Kinen Gymnasium in Fukuoka. This is a usual set list for this leg (actual set