It goes without saying that a musical lineage like Salvador Santana’s doesn’t hurt in jumpstarting a career. The son of Grammy-winning (ten to be exact) Carlos Santana, the young musician also has a poet for a mother and a blues icon for a grandfather. Add his paternal grandfather (a legendary violinist and, apparently, a mariachi bandleader) to the mix, and it’s no surprise that Santana took to the family business. Staying true to the varied and diverse musical disciplines within his family, Santana opted to dedicate his talents to the keyboard, having studied piano from the age of five and attending music schools along the California coast. His San Francisco-based youth and college years spent in Valenica informs much of Keyboard City, which has a laid-back, beachy, hippie vibe that Santana himself best describes as the “Frisco mindset” in “Under the Sun.”

Teaming up with Bay Area hip hop legend Del the Funky Homosapien, GZA, and Beastie Boys secret-weapon producer Money Mark, Santana draws from old school hip hop, down-tempo lounge, and funk to craft a record that’s fresh and accessible to newer listeners, while still maintaining the integrity of his rich musical history. Album standouts include the opener “We Got Somethin’,” which lends a futuristic hand to classic funk grooves and ’80s early hip hop, and “Don’t Do It,” a track that comes out hard with an intensity rooted in straight-funk that is sometimes lacking elsewhere in the album. The auto-tuned vocals seem unnecessary on the title track, “Keyboard City,” where perhaps less could have been more; when an artist himself has the capability of leading the way in modern instrumental music, the way that Santana does, all the effects sometimes appear more like bells and whistles in the way of the heart of the product. And there’s a lot of heart here—Santana brings a simple sweetness and earnestness to the album that is hard to deny and easy to love.

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