Carlos Santana is one of the most influential and celebrated artists of all time. For forty years and as many albums later, Santana has sold more than 100 million records and reached more than 100 million fans at concerts worldwide. A 10-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, in the realm of guitar legends, Santana stands alone. This evening, he tells his story, in conversation with Ben Fong-Torres.
THE UNIVERSAL TONE is not just the history of a rock band that sold millions of albums. It is the story of an individual who is ceaselessly creative, spiritually focused and yet fearlessly part of a world that brought him fame and adulation and challenged his dedication to his music and to doing good. Santana’s memoir is filled with well-remembered historic details and visceral storytelling, beginning with his humble childhood in Mexicoone can smell the food of his early youth in Autlán, growing up the son of a violin player and the scents of playing at the local El Convoy bar in Tijuana when he was just a teenager. He also shares recollections of his emergence in the 1960s rock underground scene as a young adult after he moved to San Francisco and goes on to tell of his explosive later career success and reaching a new generation with the epic album Supernatural.
Fun and funky, THE UNIVERSAL TONE traces the arc of a singular lifeyielding life lessons and inspiration to any readerand especially the millions worldwide who count themselves as Santana devotees.
Deeply honest and frank and richly detailed with his vivid memories, Santana’s authentic voice shines through on every page. From imagining the wisps of smoke from a long gone Miles Davis before a Santana show to his hazy experience at Woodstock and first world tour, to his influences from Latin, jazz, rock and blues musicians, and his ongoing spiritual evolution, Santana describes the depths of his connection to sound and his belief in the “universal tone”how music and soul are interconnected.
Among many other honors, Carlos Santana received Billboard Latin Music Awards’ 2009 Lifetime Achievement honor, and, he was bestowed Billboard’s Century Award in 1996. He has also been cited by Rolling Stone as #15 on the magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time””Santana’s crystalline tone and clean arcing sustain make him the rare instrumentalist who can be identified in just one note.” And, with the 2010 release of Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time, Santana joined the Rolling Stones as one of only two music acts in Billboard history to score at least one Top Ten album in each decade from the 1960s on. In 2013, Santana was the recipient of the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors Award.
The arc of Santana’s performing and recording career is complemented by a lifelong devotion to social activism and humanitarian causes. The Milagro Foundation, originally established by Carlos Santana and his family in 1998, has granted more than five million dollars to non-profit programs supporting underserved children and youth in the areas of arts, education and health. Milagro means “miracle,” and the image of children as divine miracles of light and hopegifts to our livesis the inspiration behind its name.
Ben Fong-Torres joined Rolling Stone in 1969, and since then has written for dozens of notable magazines including Esquire, GQ, Playboy, Mother Jones, and The New York Times. He is also known for his work as a broadcaster, a journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle, and as the author of nine books. In 2000, he was portrayed as a real-life character in the Cameron Crowe film, Almost Famous.