Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, February 22, 2010
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications
415-554-6131

Kate Patterson, San Francisco Arts Commission
415-252-4638

photo by Ellen Shershow Peña

SAN FRANCISCO, CA The 2010 Mayor’s Art Award will be presented by Mayor Gavin Newsom to legendary musician Carlos Santana on Thursday, March 18, 2010, at a private event in the Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans Building hosted by the San Francisco Arts Commission.

“Carlos Santana is without a doubt one of San Francisco’s most beloved icons,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom. “When he burst onto the scene with his extraordinary new sound he solidified San Francisco’s position as one of the main stages in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. His music transcends not only musical genres, but also cultural, geographical and political boundaries, and he has brought millions of people together through his art. He is also an artist who gives back to his community. It is my great honor to present the 2010 Mayor’s Art Award to Carlos Santana for his commitment to improving the lives of others and for his tremendous contributions to music.”
“I am honored to be given this wonderful award from the city that helped launch my life as a musician. I am proud to get it from the city of San Francisco, which will always be my home,” Carlos Santana said.

“Mayor Newsom has always been a steadfast champion of the arts. His choice to honor Carlos Santana reminds us that San Francisco has long been a launching pad for some of the world’s most important and influential artists.” said P.J. Johnston, president of the San Francisco Arts commission. “Since the 1960s, Carlos Santana’s unique sound, with its blend of Afro-Latin and blues, has pushed the boundaries of rock ‘n’ roll and he continues to influence new generations of artists today. It is a wonderful honor for us to have the opportunity to celebrate and recognize such an artist.”

“Carlos Santana is a San Francisco legend and, certainly, one of the greatest guitarists of all times,” stated Luis R. Cancel, director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission. “In addition to being a pioneering artist, Carlos, through his Milagro Foundation, has helped thousands of underserved children and youth around the Bay Area live better lives. We are thrilled that he
could be here to accept this City’s most distinguished arts award and to help us honor the artists who, with the support of the San Francisco Arts Commission, have realized their dreams and have helped make San Francisco a world-class creative city.”

Over 400 invitees are expected at the event, many of whom are artists who have received grants, commissions, exhibitions and awards from the San Francisco Arts Commission and/or exhibited work at the SFAC Gallery in 2009, along with arts community leaders, prominent arts patrons, and city department officials. Attendees will enjoy a live performance by critically-acclaimed local musician Martin Luther (www.martinluthermccoy.com) who also starred in Julie Taymor’s Beatles music film “Across the Universe” and Futuro Picante, a youth Latin Jazz ensemble lead by the San Francisco Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts Music Director Jose Leon. The event is sponsored by the San Francisco Examiner.

Past recipients of the Mayor’s Art Award have included such cultural luminaries as world-renowned contemporary artist Ruth Asawa (2007) and visionary choreographer and Artistic Director of LINES Ballet Alonzo King (2008).

ABOUT CARLOS SANTANA
Delivered with a level of passion and soul equal to the legendary sonic charge of his guitar, the sound of Carlos Santana is one of the world’s best-known musical signatures. For more than four decades – from Santana’s earliest days as a groundbreaking Afro-Latin-blues-rock fusion outfit in San Francisco – Carlos has been the visionary force behind artistry that transcends musical genres, generational, cultural and geographical boundaries.

Long before the category now known as “world music” was named, Santana’s ever-evolving sound has always been ahead of its time in its universal appeal, and today registers as ideally in sync with the 21st century’s pan-cultural landscape. And, with a dedication to humanitarian outreach and social activism that parallels his lifelong relationship with music, Carlos Santana is as much an exemplary world citizen as a global music icon.

Carlos Santana’s current project is Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through The Hits, a musical retrospective created in partnership with AEG Live exclusively for the new Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Santana will be the first act to hold a residency at the spectacular, newly-expanded venue, and the band will perform 72 times at the Joint over the course of 2009 and 2010. The show, debuting in May ‘09, includes Santana numbers ranging from “Jingo” — the group’s first-ever charting single — and early classics including “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va” through the Supernatural “Smooth” years and the group’s most recent hit, 2008’s “Into the Night.”

Carlos’ influence and idealism is also felt in the groundbreaking new project Architects of a New Dawn (www.aoand.com), a multi-platform media enterprise and social network designed to empower like-minded people from all walks of life to create positive change in the global community. The project grew out of a vision Carlos has been developing for almost 20 years to engage his worldwide audience with extraordinary music, progressive media content and transformational ideas. It is all in the service of building — architecting — a new reality for the planet based on inspiration, creativity, love and forgiveness.

Santana’s star arrived in the era-defining late ’60s San Francisco Bay area music scene with historic shows at the Fillmore and other venues. They emerged onto the global stage with an epic set at Woodstock ‘69, the same year that their self-titled debut LP came out. Introducing Santana’s first Top 10 hit, “Evil Ways,” the disc stayed on Billboard’s album chart for 2 years, and was soon followed by two more classics — and Billboard #1 albums — Abraxas and Santana III.

Forty years and as many albums later, Santana has sold more than 90 million records and reached over 100 million fans at concerts around the globe. To date, Santana has won ten GRAMMY® Awards and two Latin GRAMMYs. Among them are a bevy for 1999’s Supernatural — which has sold more than 26 million copies worldwide — including GRAMMYs for Album of the Year and Record of the Year for “Smooth.” In 1998, the group was ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose web page on their induction notes, “Guitarist Carlos Santana is one of rock’s true virtuosos and guiding lights.” Among many other honors, Carlos Santana has also been cited by Rolling Stone as #15 on their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time,” and #90 on their 2005 survey of the “100 Greatest Artists Of All Time.”

Most recently, Carlos Santana is the recipient of the Billboard Latin Music Awards’ 2009 Lifetime Achievement honor (he also received Billboard’s Century Award in 1996), and the music of Santana has been celebrated with two album retrospectives. Multi-Dimensional Warrior (Columbia/Arista/Legacy, 2008) is a career-spanning 2-CD anthology presenting 28 selections hand-picked by Carlos, who calls the project, “a love letter to the fans.” Divided between tracks with vocals and instrumental compositions, it emphasizes album cuts and personal favorites that evoke the band’s hypnotic musical power and give deeper insight into its complex creative journey. The set follows up 2007’s Ultimate Santana, the only single-disc collection uniting hits from the group’s recent albums for Arista and classics from their Columbia years.

As profound as his artistic legacy is Carlos’ dedication to humanitarian work. His Milagro Foundation, originally established by Carlos and Deborah Santana in 1998, has granted more than three 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 hope — as gifts to our lives — is the inspiration behind its name.

ABOUT THE SAN FRANICSCO ARTS COMMISSION
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts in San Francisco. We believe that a creative cultural environment is essential to the City’s well-being. Established by charter in 1932, SFAC programs integrate the arts into all aspects of City life. Programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Arts & Education,

Cultural Equity Grants, Public Art, SFAC Gallery, Street Artists Licensing, and the Summer in the City Concert Series. The agency’s core values are committed to the principle that all residents have equal access to arts experiences in all disciplines, that programs are provided comprehensively and evenly throughout the City, and that they are innovative and of the highest quality.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Carlos Santana, visit http://www.santana.com; to learn more about the San Francisco Arts Commission, go to http://www.sfartscommission.org.