Soul Sacrifice The Carlos Santana Story by Simon Leng - Essay Example

Number] Soul Sacrifice the Carlos Santana Story by Simon Leng Soul Sacrifice is the biography of prominent Latin American musician guitarist Carlos Santana penned by Simon Leng. Leng was former editor of Santana Magazine and he offers the first ever full scale biography of Santana. Santana has been regarded as one of the most popular guitarist of the age. He is well known for his masterful fusing of rock, blues, salsa jazz and funk etc. Leng has provided deep insight to the life of Santana. In the book, he describes the early days of Santana life spent in Mexico and different stages of the journey of his career.

The book unveils that from childhood Santana had great interest in music and musical instruments. He used to play mariachi on the streets of Tijuana. The book talks about the ups and downs of Santana musical journey and describes how the musician reached the peak of his career and gained worldwide attention and fame as a great musician and guitarist. The book provides extensive information about Santana and reveals how he got legendary status in the music and art world. Leng tells that during 60s Santana founded the unique Afro-Latin Blue guitar that took his multi-racial band towards the height of popularity and fame.

The book compiles some very important pieces of information about Santana that were never publically known before the publication of this book. This is because Leng has access to the members and associates of Santana bands and has grabbed valuable and detailed information about their careers. Most important, Leng has close relationship with Santana due to which he became able to get hold of accurate and detailed information about him and became able to produce a gripping and impressive informative portrait of the most influential and prominent guitarist and musician of all the time.

The information presented in the book could be regarded authentic and credible because it has been compiled by a person having close links with Santana. The book provides an insight to the different stages of life of Santana by compiling the facts and chronologies of the events passed in his life. The book very well covers different aspects of personal and professional life of Santana and unfolds the realities behind several issues and incidents encountered by Santana and his musical band. For instance, the book talks about the breakup of the band and the subsequent association of the band members with Sri Chinmoy and John Laughlin.

The book also talks about certain band tours and the experiences of the band members during different performances and shows. The book is Leng’s tribute to the great musician and his remarkable contribution to the musical genre of melodic Latino rhythms blended with the traditional American rock. The book has been written in very interesting and engaging manner because it chronicles the Santana influential musical career starting from the roots to the rise on his multi-racial band. Due to the close affiliation of the author with Santana and his band members he became able to present a well-researched biography of Santana life and talks about the issues and problems that resulted in the breakdown of the band.

The book is an enjoyable research experience. All the facts and information presented in the book is well backed by research work that makes it an authentic and reliable account of information about Santana and his band. The author has provided the real life evidences to prove the presented arguments because he describes all the events and issue in the light of the interviews of the band members and Santana and well backed the entire account of information with the credible sources of information.

There is no point of disagreement identified in the book because it is an autobiography of a legend and no arguments or proposition has been offered in the book that could be disagreed. Leng has proved the authenticity of the information by referring to his close links with Santana. The book has been penned in an enjoyable tone and could be regarded as first ever book on one of the greatest guitarist of the rock era. The book is a significant attempt to document the history as well as artistic importance of Santana in which Leng finely covers different aspects of life and career of the legend.

It is a worth reading book unfolding some very interesting facts in less controversial manner and provides an enjoyable reading experience. Work Cited Simon Leng. The Soul Sacrifice: The Santana Story, New York: Firefly Publishing, 2000. Print.