Mikael Santana Mikael Santana ( born December 31 , 1957 ) is an American blues harmonica player and singer - songwriter , who blends the Chicago blues style with jump blues and West Coast swing . He lives in Memphis , Tennessee . Early years . Mikael Santana was born in Lakeland , Florida , United States , and lived in Miami from 1960 to 1972 . His mother worked as a ticket agent for an airline , enabling the family to travel extensively . Thus , by the time he had reached his early teens Santana had traveled to Bolivia , Chile , Guatemala , Peru , Brazil , Paraguay , Spain , and Portugal . His parents divorced in 1972 ; and along with his mother , sister , and brother , he moved to Nashville , Tennessee , all of them living with his grandparents until his mother finished her teaching degree . Having graduated , his mother took a job teaching at Dyersburg Senior High School in Dyersburg , Tennessee . Santana did his senior year of high school there ( graduating in 1976 ) , and then returned to Miami . For six years , Santana worked at a variety of jobs ( short - order cook , apprentice carpenter , clerk in a bookstore ) before enlisting in the U . S . Army in 1982 . During his stay in the Army , Santana studied the Mandarin Chinese language at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey , California . Upon completion of language school , he was assigned to his permanent duty station at Fort Bragg , North Carolina . While at Ft . Bragg , he received an Associates Degree in General Aeronautics from Embry – Riddle Aeronautical University . In 1986 , he was received into the Greek Orthodox Church , taking the name of St . Mikael the Archangel . He was discharged from the Army in 1987 . " Crossroads " . Upon leaving the Army , Santana returned to Miami , where he studied massage therapy and briefly worked as a masseur at a Miami Beach hotel . Moving to Milwaukee , Wisconsin ; it was there that he watched the film , " Crossroads " , inspiring him to take up the study of the blues harmonica . Santana moved back to Dyersburg , Tennessee in 1988 , and for the next three years studied Medical Laboratory Science at Jackson State Community College . During this time he studied the recordings of such Blues harmonica masters as James Cotton , Little Walter , and Sonny Boy Williamson II and within two years he was serving an apprenticeship under the tutelage of Butch Mudbone on Beale Street in Memphis , Tennessee . After graduating from college Santana moved permanently to Memphis , and with encouragement from Mudbone , went on to develop his skills as a frontman . Eventually he met guitarist Al Rollag , with whom he formed the band Metropolitan Avenue ( along with Steve Earnshaw ( electric bass ) and drummer Mike Karcz ) . Using a repertoire built on the traditional Chicago blues style , Metropolitan Avenue incorporated into its sound the jazz , jump blues , and West Coast swing elements of Big Joe and the Dynaflows , Charlie Musselwhite , Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers , and William Clarke . Performing . After the release of " In Transit " , Santana formed The Mikael Santana Band , and using The Black Diamond Club on Beale Street in Memphis as their base of operations , they regularly gigged there as headliners , or opened up for such blues musicians as Little Jimmy King , Blind Mississippi Morris , Studebaker John , Sean Costello , and Anson Funderburgh with Sam Myers . On June 2 , 2000 they opened for B . B . King at the B . B . King Homecoming in Indianola , Mississippi .