On The Verge

Salvador Santana

Bay Area, Calif.
A Path to Call His Own
www.salvadorsantana.com

The name may carry the pedigree of rock royalty, but Salvador Santana’s chosen path in the music world is his own making. With the release of his new album, Keyboard City, the 26-year-old keyboardist/vocalist offers up a sampling of what he describes as “a new blend. It’s not just rock or hip-hop; it’s not just Latin or reggae; it’s a mix of all these different musical genres I’ve been exposed to all my life.” (One can imagine this amount of music exposure as Carlos Santana is his dad.) Salvador’s musical heroes range from Jimi Hendrix to jazz greats like Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk and McCoy Tyner. With the help of Beastie Boy studio magician Money Mark, Santana fused all those elements and more into Keyboard City: “The music falls out of the sky and my job is to be there with a bucket to catch the ideas,” he says. “My wish is for people to enjoy listening to the new album as much as I enjoyed creating it.”