Santana To Be Honored @ 2004 Latin Recording Academy.

Internationally renowned Arista recording artist Carlos Santana will be honored as the 2004 Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year. The honor recognizes Santana’s professional, cultural and social accomplishments. Santana will receive the 2004 Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year honor on Aug. 30, 2004, at a star-studded tribute dinner and concert at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the MusiCares Foundation.

“The Latin Recording Academy honors Carlos Santana as an extraordinary human being, musician and activist who has made a global impact on music and culture,” said Gabriel Abaroa, President of the Latin Recording Academy. “His exceptional talent, expansive body of music, social activism, honesty and wisdom are the qualities that make Santana the epitome and embodiment of the Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year. By recognizing Santana, the Latin GRAMMY® community honors a man who has shown the rare ability to wear his remarkable talent with humility. ¡Viva Carlos Santana!”

Santana has successfully navigated the stormy waters of popular music for more than three decades with a unique balance of intelligence, passion, inspiration and integrity. He is a member of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame; has sold more than 80 million records; performed to more than 100 million people; and, he won a record-tying eight GRAMMYs for his 36th recording and landmark CD Supernatural, which has now surpassed 25 million in sales.

Born and raised in the Mexican village of Autlan, Santana was introduced to “traditional music” at age five by his father José, an accomplished mariachi violinist. The family moved to the border boomtown of Tijuana in 1955, where Santana seriously took up guitar, studying and emulating the sounds of B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, T. Bone Walker and other greats he heard on the radio. As much as he was inspired by the early training he received from his father in traditional musical form and theory, Santana soon realized his dream was to break free and play rock and roll.

In 1961, he moved to San Francisco, joining his family, which had relocated there the previous year. In 1966, he took his music to the people with the debut performance of the Santana Blues Band. And, on a hot steamy day on Aug. 16, 1969, he stepped onto the main stage at the epochal Woodstock “Peace, Love, Music” Festival. The legend began and continues today.

Santana has been an agent for social activism for the majority of his life. After supporting hundreds of causes and benefits, he, along with his wife Deborah, founded the Milagro Foundation in 1998. The Foundation grants monies to charities and agencies that support children and youth in the areas of health, education and the arts. In 2003, they became involved and deeply committed to supporting programs to help with the AIDS pandemic in South Africa through Artists for a New South Africa.

Santana is and has been a big supporter of the Latin GRAMMYs and the Latin Recording Academy since its inception.

The 2004 Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year tribute dinner is one of the most prestigious events of the Road To The Latin GRAMMYs and will precede the 5th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards, which will be held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Wednesday, September 1, and will be broadcast domestically by the CBS Television Network from 8 – 10 p.m. (ET/PT).

Carlos Santana is the fifth Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year honoree. Previous honorees were Gilberto Gil, Vicente Fernández, Julio Iglesias, and Emilio Estefan.

The Latin Recording Academy is an international, membership-based organization comprised of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking recording artists, musicians, songwriters, producers and other creative and technical recording professionals. The organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for Latin music and its makers. In addition to producing the Latin GRAMMY Awards to honor excellence in the recorded arts and sciences, the Latin Recording Academy provides educational and outreach programs for the Latin music community. For more information about the Latin Recording Academy, please visit www.LatinGRAMMY.com.