Biography
Cindy Blackman Santana, who functions as drummer, vocalist, and composer, earns primary recognition among pop listeners through her extended association with Lenny Kravitz together with her activities as drummer, composer, and collaborator alongside spouse Carlos Santana. Her playing approach, marked by fluidity and authority, emphasizes nuance, color, and soul rather than sheer power. Yet Blackman Santana maintains a firmly established position within jazz circles, having accumulated over 100 studio credits along with an equally extensive history of live performances. Her recording path opened via work with Wallace Roney on the 1987 Muse release Intuition. After securing a solo contract with the same label, she delivered Arcane in 1988, featuring Kenny Garret and Buster Williams. Blackman Santana has collaborated with figures that span Jacky Terrasson, Pharoah Sanders, and Angela Bofill on one end and Hugh Masekela, Joss Stone, and Lucky Peterson on the other. Her catalog as a solo artist encompasses more than a dozen albums. In 1992, the same year she entered Kravitz’s circle, she put out Code Red. She served as Kravitz’s touring drummer and contributed to his video singles “Are You Gonna Go My Way” and “American Woman.” That association with his road band lasted more than a decade, followed by a return for an additional year in the mid-aughts. While with Kravitz she kept issuing jazz albums under her own name, touring, and handling session duties. She completed three well-regarded HighNote projects, the last being 2001’s Someday…. The 2004 album Music for the New Millennium presented an electric perspective on funky post-bop alongside saxist JD Allen and keyboardist Carlton Holmes. Her final leader recording prior to entering the Santana organization arrived with 2010’s fusion project Another Lifetime, a dedication to mentor and central influence Tony Williams plus his Lifetime ensemble. Blackman Santana first performed with Carlos Santana in 2010 after the pair had dated for several years. They wed that December and she officially became part of his band in late 2014.
Cindy Blackman entered the world in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1959 yet spent her formative years in Connecticut. Music surrounded her from childhood. Her mother and grandmother performed classical repertoire, while an uncle played vibes. Drawn to rhythm almost as soon as she could walk, she requested drums at age three. A toy kit finally arrived when she turned seven. She attended the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, where her father’s record collection sparked an interest in jazz. Exposure to Ed Blackwell, Billy Higgins, and Louis Hayes prompted her to commit seriously to the genre. At fourteen she acquired her first professional drum set.
At sixteen she witnessed Tony Williams perform live, after which he became her role model and chief influence. Williams’s command of all four limbs, combined with his simultaneous roles as timekeeper and soloist, convinced her that this represented the proper integration of drummers within jazz ensembles. Following high school she studied at Berklee College of Music under Alan Dawson, who had also taught Williams. While at Berklee a friend suggested her for a Drifters engagement. She departed after three semesters in 1982 and relocated to New York City. For a period she earned a living as a street performer, yet she also absorbed lessons from drummers observed in clubs, among them Al Foster, Billy Hart, and Jack DeJohnette. She likewise encountered Art Blakey, who served as mentor and close friend.
Blackman received exposure on trumpeter Ted Curson’s WKCR-FM program “Jazz Stars of the Future” in 1984. Three years afterward her initial compositions surfaced on trumpeter Wallace Roney’s Verses, prompting an invitation to join his group. When a Muse A&R representative heard her studio work with Roney, he extended a recording contract. She issued her leader debut Arcane in 1988. The personnel featured Roney, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassists Buster Williams and Clarence Seay, and pianist Larry Willis. Her standing grew, and while still active in Roney’s band she began performing with an array of artists. In 1991 she released Trio + Two, a joint effort with guitarist David Fiuczynski and bassist Santi Debriano. The additional participants comprised conguero Jerry Gonzalez and alto saxophonist Greg Osby. She followed with Code Red on Muse in 1992. The esteem she earned among fellow musicians offset dismissive remarks from conservative critics and audiences concerning a female drummer with an Afro leading a band. She learned early to disregard such remarks, observing, “… they don’t pay my mortgage.” Her collaborators on that date included pianist Kenny Barron, saxophonist Steve Coleman, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, and Roney on trumpet.
A 1993 bi-coastal phone discussion led to an offer to join Kravitz in Los Angeles. During the call she played drums over the line. His immediate reply was to inquire whether she could depart for Los Angeles right away. She left the following morning. Although she intended a brief stay, the visit extended for weeks, resulting in her appearance in the “Are You Gonna Go My Way” video and membership in his touring band. Because Kravitz typically handled drum duties on recordings, she remained his touring drummer until 2004.
Throughout that extended period she continued recording and performing as a leader. She delivered the post-bop trio album Telepathy in 1994 with saxophonist Antoine Roney, pianist Jacky Terrasson, and bassist Clarence Seay, composing eight of its eleven tracks. She participated in the loose-knit collective Grand Central, led by Ravi Coltrane, across three albums issued between 1993 and 1995, one of which was Tenor Conclave that featured saxophonist Craig Handy, pianist Billy Childs, and bassist Dwayne Burno. As a leader she released The Oracle in 1996 with sidemen Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, and Barron. She expanded her rock experience on the various-artists tribute Black Night: Deep Purple Tribute, supplying drums for “Smoke on the Water,” “Space Truckin’,” and “Stormbringer.” Additional appearances included Patti Labelle’s Flame (credited as Cindy Blackmond) and saxophonist Sonny Simmons’s 1997 Warner debut American Jungle alongside bassist Reggie Workman.
Blackman signed with HighNote Records in 1998 and issued In the Now featuring Carter, Coltrane, and Terrasson. The recording garnered strong notices and secured headline engagements in New York and along the East Coast. She rejoined Roney in 1999 for No Job Too Big or Small and performed with Russell Gunn on Love Requiem. Also in 1999, 32 Jazz released the compilation A Lil’ Somethin’, Somethin’. She followed with her second HighNote album, Works on Canvas, in 2000, employing pianist/keyboardist Carlton Holmes, bassist George Mitchell, and guest tenor JD Allen. That year she also appeared on George Benson’s Absolute Benson and Eddie Allen’s Summer Days. Her concluding HighNote project, Someday…, arrived in 2001 with the same core band and Allen featured throughout. It received uniformly favorable notices while she maintained a demanding schedule touring with Kravitz and recording with Joss Stone for the star-studded Soul Sessions. She further performed with Stone live and contributed to 2004’s Mind, Body & Soul. Blackman exited Kravitz’s employ in 2004 to concentrate on jazz and released the widely praised double-length electric album Music for the New Millennium with her established quartet.
Between 2005 and 2010 she worked in both studio and touring capacities with Lucky Peterson, appearing on three recordings and traveling internationally. During that association she met Carlos Santana at a music festival. The two connected immediately and began dating. She also contributed to guitarist Mike Stern’s Big Neighborhood in 2009. In 2010 she issued her final leader recording for several years. The eclectic Another Lifetime paid tribute to mentor and inspiration Tony Williams and adhered to the original Lifetime band instrumentation with Mike Stern and Vernon Reid on guitars plus organist Doug Carn; additional participants included Holmes, saxophonist Joe Lovano, and keyboardist Patrice Rushen. That summer she substituted for drummer Dennis Chambers at a Santana festival performance. The guitarist proposed afterward, and the couple married in December.
In 2012 Blackman Santana, alongside Reid, John Medeski, and former Lifetime/Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce, recorded her second Williams tribute, Spectrum Road. She supplied vocals on “Where,” a composition by Lifetime guitarist John McLaughlin that had also appeared instrumentally on Another Lifetime. She performed at the 2011 Montreux Festival, drumming for the reunion of Carlos and McLaughlin, whose 1973 collaboration produced the live album Love Devotion Surrender; she additionally assisted with sound mixing for the accompanying feature-length video.
Blackman Santana joined the Santana band on two tracks of the charting Latin rock fusion album Corazon in 2014. Its guest roster encompassed Wayne Shorter, Juanes, Ziggy Marley, Lila Downs, Gloria Estefan, Romeo Santos, and numerous others. That same year she appeared on Bruce’s Silver Rails and pianist Rodney Kendrick’s The Colors of Rhythm. She also resumed touring with Kravitz through 2015 before committing full-time to the Santana band.
In 2017 the Santana band and the Isley Brothers released the collaborative Power of Peace, which charted inside the upper half of the Top 200 and on the R&B lists. Over the next two years her contributions with the Santana band introduced greater intricacy and a jazz inflection to their sound on the single “Lovers from Another Time,” the EP In Search of Mona Lisa, and the long-player Africa Speaks featuring Spanish guest vocalist Concha Buica. Blackman Santana also supplied the cover art.
September 2020 saw Blackman Santana return as a bandleader with the diverse studio album Give the Drummer Some on Copperline, her thirteenth studio release. The seventeen-track collection was recorded across three years. Narada Michael Walden produced the majority of tracks while the drummer and her husband oversaw the remainder. The music encompassed fusion, jazz-funk, R&B, rock, blues, Latin, and African elements. Its roster included Carlos, McLaughlin, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, and Reid rotating on guitars, together with much of the Santana band’s horn section and other prominent contributors. Beyond her drumming, Blackman sang lead on ten selections, among them John Lennon’s “Imagine” and the original “You Don’t Want to Break My Heart.”
Cindy Blackman entered the world in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1959 yet spent her formative years in Connecticut. Music surrounded her from childhood. Her mother and grandmother performed classical repertoire, while an uncle played vibes. Drawn to rhythm almost as soon as she could walk, she requested drums at age three. A toy kit finally arrived when she turned seven. She attended the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, where her father’s record collection sparked an interest in jazz. Exposure to Ed Blackwell, Billy Higgins, and Louis Hayes prompted her to commit seriously to the genre. At fourteen she acquired her first professional drum set.
At sixteen she witnessed Tony Williams perform live, after which he became her role model and chief influence. Williams’s command of all four limbs, combined with his simultaneous roles as timekeeper and soloist, convinced her that this represented the proper integration of drummers within jazz ensembles. Following high school she studied at Berklee College of Music under Alan Dawson, who had also taught Williams. While at Berklee a friend suggested her for a Drifters engagement. She departed after three semesters in 1982 and relocated to New York City. For a period she earned a living as a street performer, yet she also absorbed lessons from drummers observed in clubs, among them Al Foster, Billy Hart, and Jack DeJohnette. She likewise encountered Art Blakey, who served as mentor and close friend.
Blackman received exposure on trumpeter Ted Curson’s WKCR-FM program “Jazz Stars of the Future” in 1984. Three years afterward her initial compositions surfaced on trumpeter Wallace Roney’s Verses, prompting an invitation to join his group. When a Muse A&R representative heard her studio work with Roney, he extended a recording contract. She issued her leader debut Arcane in 1988. The personnel featured Roney, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassists Buster Williams and Clarence Seay, and pianist Larry Willis. Her standing grew, and while still active in Roney’s band she began performing with an array of artists. In 1991 she released Trio + Two, a joint effort with guitarist David Fiuczynski and bassist Santi Debriano. The additional participants comprised conguero Jerry Gonzalez and alto saxophonist Greg Osby. She followed with Code Red on Muse in 1992. The esteem she earned among fellow musicians offset dismissive remarks from conservative critics and audiences concerning a female drummer with an Afro leading a band. She learned early to disregard such remarks, observing, “… they don’t pay my mortgage.” Her collaborators on that date included pianist Kenny Barron, saxophonist Steve Coleman, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, and Roney on trumpet.
A 1993 bi-coastal phone discussion led to an offer to join Kravitz in Los Angeles. During the call she played drums over the line. His immediate reply was to inquire whether she could depart for Los Angeles right away. She left the following morning. Although she intended a brief stay, the visit extended for weeks, resulting in her appearance in the “Are You Gonna Go My Way” video and membership in his touring band. Because Kravitz typically handled drum duties on recordings, she remained his touring drummer until 2004.
Throughout that extended period she continued recording and performing as a leader. She delivered the post-bop trio album Telepathy in 1994 with saxophonist Antoine Roney, pianist Jacky Terrasson, and bassist Clarence Seay, composing eight of its eleven tracks. She participated in the loose-knit collective Grand Central, led by Ravi Coltrane, across three albums issued between 1993 and 1995, one of which was Tenor Conclave that featured saxophonist Craig Handy, pianist Billy Childs, and bassist Dwayne Burno. As a leader she released The Oracle in 1996 with sidemen Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, and Barron. She expanded her rock experience on the various-artists tribute Black Night: Deep Purple Tribute, supplying drums for “Smoke on the Water,” “Space Truckin’,” and “Stormbringer.” Additional appearances included Patti Labelle’s Flame (credited as Cindy Blackmond) and saxophonist Sonny Simmons’s 1997 Warner debut American Jungle alongside bassist Reggie Workman.
Blackman signed with HighNote Records in 1998 and issued In the Now featuring Carter, Coltrane, and Terrasson. The recording garnered strong notices and secured headline engagements in New York and along the East Coast. She rejoined Roney in 1999 for No Job Too Big or Small and performed with Russell Gunn on Love Requiem. Also in 1999, 32 Jazz released the compilation A Lil’ Somethin’, Somethin’. She followed with her second HighNote album, Works on Canvas, in 2000, employing pianist/keyboardist Carlton Holmes, bassist George Mitchell, and guest tenor JD Allen. That year she also appeared on George Benson’s Absolute Benson and Eddie Allen’s Summer Days. Her concluding HighNote project, Someday…, arrived in 2001 with the same core band and Allen featured throughout. It received uniformly favorable notices while she maintained a demanding schedule touring with Kravitz and recording with Joss Stone for the star-studded Soul Sessions. She further performed with Stone live and contributed to 2004’s Mind, Body & Soul. Blackman exited Kravitz’s employ in 2004 to concentrate on jazz and released the widely praised double-length electric album Music for the New Millennium with her established quartet.
Between 2005 and 2010 she worked in both studio and touring capacities with Lucky Peterson, appearing on three recordings and traveling internationally. During that association she met Carlos Santana at a music festival. The two connected immediately and began dating. She also contributed to guitarist Mike Stern’s Big Neighborhood in 2009. In 2010 she issued her final leader recording for several years. The eclectic Another Lifetime paid tribute to mentor and inspiration Tony Williams and adhered to the original Lifetime band instrumentation with Mike Stern and Vernon Reid on guitars plus organist Doug Carn; additional participants included Holmes, saxophonist Joe Lovano, and keyboardist Patrice Rushen. That summer she substituted for drummer Dennis Chambers at a Santana festival performance. The guitarist proposed afterward, and the couple married in December.
In 2012 Blackman Santana, alongside Reid, John Medeski, and former Lifetime/Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce, recorded her second Williams tribute, Spectrum Road. She supplied vocals on “Where,” a composition by Lifetime guitarist John McLaughlin that had also appeared instrumentally on Another Lifetime. She performed at the 2011 Montreux Festival, drumming for the reunion of Carlos and McLaughlin, whose 1973 collaboration produced the live album Love Devotion Surrender; she additionally assisted with sound mixing for the accompanying feature-length video.
Blackman Santana joined the Santana band on two tracks of the charting Latin rock fusion album Corazon in 2014. Its guest roster encompassed Wayne Shorter, Juanes, Ziggy Marley, Lila Downs, Gloria Estefan, Romeo Santos, and numerous others. That same year she appeared on Bruce’s Silver Rails and pianist Rodney Kendrick’s The Colors of Rhythm. She also resumed touring with Kravitz through 2015 before committing full-time to the Santana band.
In 2017 the Santana band and the Isley Brothers released the collaborative Power of Peace, which charted inside the upper half of the Top 200 and on the R&B lists. Over the next two years her contributions with the Santana band introduced greater intricacy and a jazz inflection to their sound on the single “Lovers from Another Time,” the EP In Search of Mona Lisa, and the long-player Africa Speaks featuring Spanish guest vocalist Concha Buica. Blackman Santana also supplied the cover art.
September 2020 saw Blackman Santana return as a bandleader with the diverse studio album Give the Drummer Some on Copperline, her thirteenth studio release. The seventeen-track collection was recorded across three years. Narada Michael Walden produced the majority of tracks while the drummer and her husband oversaw the remainder. The music encompassed fusion, jazz-funk, R&B, rock, blues, Latin, and African elements. Its roster included Carlos, McLaughlin, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, and Reid rotating on guitars, together with much of the Santana band’s horn section and other prominent contributors. Beyond her drumming, Blackman sang lead on ten selections, among them John Lennon’s “Imagine” and the original “You Don’t Want to Break My Heart.”
Albums
Singles
