Thus, by the time he had reached his early teens Santana had traveled to Bolivia, Chile, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Spain, and Portugal.
Santana moved back to Dyersburg, Tennessee in 1988, and for the next three years studied Medical Laboratory Science at Jackson State Community College.
During this time he studied the recordings of such Blues harmonica masters as James Cotton, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson II and within two years he was serving an apprenticeship under the tutelage of Butch Mudbone[2] on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.
Eventually he met guitarist Al Rollag, with whom he formed the band Metropolitan Avenue (along with Steve Earnshaw (electric bass) and drummer Mike Karcz).
After the release of In Transit, Santana formed The Mikael Santana Band, and using The Black Diamond Club on Beale Street in Memphis as their base of operations, they regularly gigged there as headliners, or opened up for such blues musicians as Little Jimmy King, Blind Mississippi Morris, Studebaker John, Sean Costello, and Anson Funderburgh with Sam Myers.