In the third quarter of 2010, Carlos Santana proposed to drummer Cindy Blackman after her solo on the song "Corazón Espinado", and she became an official member of the band in 2016.

[2][3] The band's first performance was on March 1, 1967, at The Ark club located inside a converted ferry boat in Sausalito, California.

[10] Live material from these performances has appeared on the following: The group's set list usually consisted of covers of Latin music and blues songs, such as Willie Bobo's "Fried Neckbones and Some Homefries" and Chico Hamilton's "Conquistadore Rides Again."

[16] During that year, the group's lineup was finalized, Carlos Santana on guitar, percussion, and vocals, David Brown on bass guitar, Gregg Rolie on Hammond organ and lead vocals, Michael Carabello on congas, José Areas on timbales, congas, and trumpet, and Shrieve on drums.

[17] Live material from this tour has appeared on a number of different releases: Known as the Santana Blues Band up around March 1969, the band performed extensively during this tour, playing at mostly high schools, colleges, clubs, small music venues, fairgrounds, and large rock festivals such as Woodstock throughout.

The tour began at January 10, 1969, at The TNT in Olympic Valley, California and ended on April 12, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City.

[31][32] Around the same time, José Areas was stricken with a near-fatal brain hemorrhage, and Santana hoped to continue by finding a temporary replacement (Willie Bobo played with the group for the sole African concert),[33] while others in the band, especially Michael Carabello, felt it was wrong to perform publicly without Areas.

Live material from this tour has appeared on a number of different releases: Billboard described one of the band's shows on August 10, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City as "exciting.

The group was supposed to perform on December 11 at the Estadio Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos in Lima, but they were deported back to the United States due to student protests against U.S. governmental policies.

It started on September 4, 1972, at the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival in Griffin, Indiana, and ended on October 21, 1973, at Ginasio Municipal Novo in Brasília, Brazil.

[50] The tour was the first and only tour to feature the group's second lineup, "The New Santana Band", consisting of guitarist Carlos Santana, percussionists Armando Peraza and José Areas, bassist Doug Rauch, drummer Michael Shrieve, and Tom Coster and Richard Kermode on keyboards.

Select concerts during the tour's Latin American portion were filmed and incorporated into the documentary, Santana en Colores (1973).

The tour began on November 13, 1973, at Colston Hall in Bristol, England and ended on October 29, 1974, at the William P. Cole, Jr. Student Activities Building in College Park, Maryland.

After the conclusion of the Japanese tour, the group performed extensively in North America from March to September 1975 with Eric Clapton and his band.

This is a usual set list for this leg (actual set list taken from the December 3 Yokohama show):[54] This tour began on March 23, 1975, with a benefit concert for the San Francisco school system at Kezar Stadium before at least 60,000 people,[55] and stopped on September 1, 1975, at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California.

[57] This brief tour of the United States commenced on November 14, 1975, at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom and concluded on December 31, 1975, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.

The tour began on 1 February 1976 with a performance at Carlaw Park in Auckland, New Zealand and ended on 17 March 1976 with a concert at Tsukisamu Dome in Sapporo, Japan.

In a review of the band's show at New York City's Beacon Theatre on May 7, 1976, music critic John Rockwell described the concert as "unsuccessful."

He stated that the gig had a poor sound system, and the music played at the performance was "faceless, Latin‐flavored jazz rock.

[65] Live material from this tour has appeared on the following releases: This tour began with a performance on March 20 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona intended for the filming of A Star Is Born,[66] and concluded with a gig on August 25 at the Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park's Wollman Rink.

Greg Walker came back, replacing Luther Rabb in January, and bassist David Margen and percussionist Pete Escovedo took over from Pablo Tellez and José "Chepito" Areas respectively in June.

[81] Here is a typical set list for this leg (actual set list taken from the March 6 Hempstead show):[82] This leg started on August 19 at Plaza de toros de las Arenas in Barcelona, Spain and ended on September 14 at Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan, Italy.

[112][113] The tour started on 30 October 1978 at Wembley Arena in London, England and ended on 10 December 1978 at Marché aux Fleurs in Nice, France.

The concert on February 7, 1979, at the Convention Center in Anaheim, California was described as a "technically excellent, yet, surprisingly uninspiring nine-song nearly 90-minute set.

Live material from this tour has appeared on the following releases: The band's concert on November 25, 1979, at the Palladium in New York City was praised in a review for Billboard.