The intimate and long-awaited autobiography of a legend.
In 1967 in San Francisco, just a few weeks after the Summer of Love, a
young Mexican guitarist took the stage at the Fillmore Auditorium and
played a blistering solo that announced the arrival of a prodigious
musical talent. Two years later -- after he played a historic set at
Woodstock -- the world came to know the name Carlos Santana, his sensual
and instantly recognizable guitar sound, and the legendary band that
blended electric blues, psychedelic rock, Latin rhythms, and modern
jazz, and that still bears his name.
Carlos Santana's unforgettable memoir offers a page-turning tale of
musical self-determination and inner self-discovery, with personal
stories filled with colorful detail and life-affirming lessons. The
Universal Tone traces his journey from his earliest days playing the
strip bars in Tijuana while barely in his teens and brings to light the
establishment of his signature guitar sound; his roles as husband,
father, recording legend, and rock guitar star; his indebtedness to
musical and spiritual influences -- from John Coltrane and John Lee
Hooker to Miles Davis and Harry Belafonte; and his deep, lifelong
dedication to a spiritual path that he developed from his Catholic
upbringing, Eastern philosophies, and other mystical sources. It
includes his recording some of the most popular and influential rock
albums of all time, up to and beyond the 1999 sensation Supernatural,
which garnered nine Grammy Awards and stands as arguably the most
amazing career comeback in popular music history.
It's a profoundly inspiring tale of divine inspiration and musical
fearlessness that does not balk at finding the humor in the world of
high-flying fame, or at speaking plainly of Santana's personal
revelations and the infinite possibility he sees in each person he
meets. "Love is the light that is inside of all of us, everyone," he
writes. "I salute the light that you are and that is inside your heart."
