Probably 4.5/5.0 stars

Very interesting insights into what made him such the great Artist and band leader that he is. Has definitely now got me wanting to seek out and listen to a lot more of his catalogue, many of which I've not heard or missed! But am also inspired to expand my horizons a lot more and to reach back into listening to many of the early great Blues and Jazz artists that influenced the Santana sounds and of which I am mostly ignorant about (other than well knowing their names) all easily accessible now on likes of Spotify ( )

This is, obviously, the autobiography of rock guitarist Carlos Santana. The book could have used a little editing, as it comes in at 520 pages and has more than a little repetition, especially about Santana's world view and cosmic philosophy. He goes on at length about his childhood, generally a stumbling block for me, especially in autobiographies, but he does manage to make it mostly interesting, so I mostly give him a pass on that. He tells about the real meat of his career, the 60s and into the early 70s, in fine fashion. His relationships with figures like Bill Graham, Miles Davis and the other musicians he crosses paths with are told about quite well. He also talks at length, and quite interestingly (at least for me) about his musical influences, and how he goes about incorporating their styles into his own. It took hours and hours and hours of listening to records, trying to replicate solos and styles on his own guitar, and then doing it again. It's a real insight into the kind of discipline and dedication it takes to attain artistic excellence at his level. For example, I was surprised to learn that he considers his most important influences to be the blues greats as well as John Coltrane. As a jazz fan, I did find the descriptions of the later parts of his career, as he became more immersed in that music and began performing with greats like Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. And since Santana (and/or his co-writers) maintain a friendly, engaging, almost intimate tone throughout, I was willing to hang with the long explanations of Santana's long discipleship with Sri Chimnoy and his ideas about Cosmic Oneness and spiritual discipline, etc., although there was more of that than I would have cared for. Santana talks about his family lovingly: his parents, siblings, children and two wives. Certainly, if I want to know about the person, not just the musician (and, really, if I want to know what fuels the musician) than that's a very important part of the story, as well.

So overall, I give this autobiography pretty high marks. Four stars, I guess. I enjoyed learning about Carlos Santana the person as well as the musician. It could have been 50 or so pages shorter, at least, but so be it. ( )