Cindy Blackman Santana

Cindy Blackman Santana (born November 18, 1959), sometimes known as Cindy Blackman, is an American jazz and rock drummer.

Blackman has recorded several jazz albums as a bandleader and has performed with Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons, Ron Carter, Sam Rivers, Cassandra Wilson, Angela Bofill, Buckethead, Bill Laswell, Lenny Kravitz, Joe Henderson and Joss Stone.

Blackman was born November 18, 1959, in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Her mother and grandmother were classical musicians and her uncle was a vibist.

As a child, her mother took her to classical concerts.

Blackman's introduction to the drums happened at the age of seven in Yellow Springs.

At a pool party at a friend's house.

she saw a drum set and began playing them.

"Just looking at them struck something in my core, and it was completely right from the second I saw them," says Blackman.

"And then, when I hit them, it was like, wow, that's me."

Soon after, Blackman began playing in the school band and persuaded her parents to get her toy drums.

When Blackman was 11, she moved to Bristol, Connecticut, where she attended the Hartt School of Music in Hartford.

Blackman began to have an interest in jazz at age 13 after listening to Max Roach and got her first professional drum set at 14.

Blackman the attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where studied with Alan Dawson, who had also taught Tony Williams, an inspiration for Blackman.

Bruce also sings on three tracks of the album and Blackman lends her voice to "Where", originally written by (then Lifetime guitarist) John McLaughlin and sung by Williams (Emergency!, 1969), which already appeared on Another Lifetime in an instrumental version.

While she was at Berklee, a friend recommended her for a gig with The Drifters so Blackman left college after three semesters and moved to New York City in 1982.

In New York City, Blackman worked as a performer but also attended shows to listen to masters play.

Art Blakey became a significant influence.

Blackman said, "He really was like a father to me. I learned a lot just watching him. I asked him a lot of questions about the drums and music – and he answered all of them."

In 1984, Blackman was showcased on Ted Curson's "Jazz Stars of the Future" on WKCR-FM in New York.

In 1987, Blackman's first compositions appeared on Wallace Roney's Verses album.

In 1988 Blackman released Arcane on Muse Records, her debut as a bandleader.

Her band included Wallace Roney on trumpet, Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, Buster Williams and Clarence Seay on bass, and Larry Willis on piano.

In the late 1990s, Blackman made her first recording with a working group.

They called the album Telepathy because of the tight communication in the band.

Blackman and her band also recorded the instructional video Multiplicity.

In 1993, Blackman had an opportunity to work with Lenny Kravitz.

From New York, Blackman talked over the phone with Kravitz in Los Angeles, and played drums for him as he listened.

Kravitz immediately asked Blackman to fly out to LA.

She stayed for two weeks including shooting the video for "Are You Gonna Go My Way".

She would go on to have an 18-year run as Kravitz's touring drummer.

In 2004, Blackman took a break from touring with Lenny Kravitz to focus on her own music.

That year, she released Music for the New Millennium on her Sacred Sounds Label.

"We experiment – but it's never free. Everything is written out. I have charts for all the songs. We expand on what's there, and stretch harmonics and note choices".

In September 2007, she made a tour of South America, teaching clinics in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, and on November 30, 2007, Blackman and her quartet performed at Art After 5 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In 2010, she released a first tribute album to her inspiration Tony Williams.

Another Lifetime featured Mike Stern on guitar and organist Doug Carn following the line-up of the original Tony Williams Lifetime.

As guest musicians appear Joe Lovano, Patrice Rushen and Vernon Reid.

She appeared at the 2011 Montreux festival in Switzerland, where she played drums for husband Carlos's one-off reunion with John McLaughlin, after which she helped mix the sound for the video.

Reid is the lead guitarist on the second Williams tribute album Spectrum Road (2012), a collaboration between Blackman, Reid, John Medeski on organ and former bassist of Lifetime and Cream Jack Bruce.