Carlos Santana Remembers Clive Davis’s Two Acts of Faith

Carlos Santana posted a tribute to Clive Davis on Facebook this week, remembering the executive who signed his band twice — first as a young rock act on Columbia Records in the late Sixties, and again decades later for the blockbuster Supernatural. Davis died Monday, and Santana called him a “visionary” who could “hear the intangible before anyone else could see it.” The statement was warm but precise, tracing a relationship built on professional instinct.

Davis brought Santana to Columbia as part of his drive to make the label a rock powerhouse. The partnership yielded two number-one albums (Abraxas, Santana III) and enduring singles — “Evil Ways,” “Black Magic Woman,” “Oye Cómo Va.” When Davis was forced out of Columbia in 1973, Santana stayed behind. But the pair reconnected in the late Nineties after Davis moved to Arista. The result was Supernatural, a diamond-certified album that won nine Grammys, including Album of the Year.

Santana’s post didn’t dwell on chart numbers. “Clive understood that music is more than entertainment,” he wrote. “Music is a healing force.” He described Davis as someone who “recognized the light in people” and pushed artists toward their own voice. That idea recurs in other tributes. Bruce Springsteen noted that Davis treated him with the same respect as a 22-year-old unknown as he did after fame arrived. The consistency mattered.

Santana’s career contains a rare symmetry: two commercial peaks, both shaped by the same executive’s belief. The tribute doesn’t inflate that. It states it, quietly, as a fact worth repeating.