LA Times Feature – Salvador Santana Picks Up the Tune
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Salvador Santana got his first taste of the family business as a 4-year-old, when his father, guitar hero Carlos Santana, put him behind a drum kit to bash out some beats. He’s been making music ever since, now as a keyboardist and bandleader mingling pop, jazz and Latin sounds with a hip-hop sensibility.
“Music has always been there in my life,” said Santana, 26, sitting behind a vintage Fender Rhodes keyboard at a downtown studio. “At the same time, both my Mom and Dad have always encouraged me to be myself.”
That message is reflected in the soulful sounds of his upcoming release, “Keyboard City,” which glides from the early hip-hop vibe of “We Got Somethin’ ” to the warm down-tempo grooves of the album’s title song and the brooding funk of “Don’t Do It.” Not coincidentally, many tracks reflect some of the same organic energy of his Grammy-winning father’s best-known work of the ’60s and ’70s.










