FORMED: 1966, San Francisco, CA
     
      The origins of SANTANA lie in a chance meeting in San Francisco between Carlos Santana and keyboardist Gregg Rolie in 1966. Towards the end of that year the two musicians formed the Santana Blues Band together with Tim Frazer on guitar, Gus Rodrigues on bass, Rod Harper on drums and Michael Carabello on congas. Carabello provided the third element in what was, in barely three years, to become the band SANTANA.
     
      The Santana Blues Band began to attract a following to their version of Chicago blues from the very beginning. ***As the band developed the percussive conga it also became more evident as did the Latin influence of Carlos Santana who had been born in Mexico and absorbed a multitude of salsa and jazz influences together with the legendary bluesman along the way.
     
      However the personnel began to change as quickly as the band was developing. By the middle of 1967 the mark tow version was back to the nucleus of Carlos Santana and Gregg Rolie with both Bob Livingstone on drums, Marcus Malone on percussion and David... (More SANTANA Biography)