Karl Perazzo is Santana's percussionist who worked with Carlos Santana alongside percussionist Raul Rekow and drummer Dennis Chambers, Herby Hancock and Jason Mraz among others.

Karl Perazzo since the age of 2 has played some kind of drum or other. At age 7 he played in a band that his mother and father formed. From there he became unstoppable and went on to play with Cal Tjader while only in the 6th grade.

Karl Perazzo, born and raised in San Francisco's Mission District, has gone on to play with the best in Pop, Jazz, Rock and Latin Music. The self-taught musician is currently playing with the Santana Band. He has recorded 3 albums with Santana, one being a Live album in South America.

He has also recorded and played with Malo, Jorge Santana, Cal Tjader, Dizzy Gilespie, Andy Narrel, Ray Obiedo, Tom Coster, Pete and Coke Escovedo, Dennis Chambers, Sheila E., The Artist, Mariah Carey, Paquito D' Rivera and is on the latest John Lee Hooker album.

Karl Perazzo has also sat in with the best in Latin Music, such as Tito Puente, Machete, Ruben Blades and others. Perazzo is not only known nationally, but internationally as well. He is known to have recorded with some of the best acts in Japan and Italy.

In addition to all of the above, Karl has also performed on an array of TV shows, such as American Bandstand, Soul Train, Solid Gold, Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, The Grammies, The American Music Awards, and was the first percussionist to be invited to sit in with The Arsenio Hall Show house band on more than one occasion, and to perform on his 100th show.

Aside from all this Perazzo still finds the time to travel the country doing clinics for the Latin Percussion Music Group. He strongly believes that the knowledge he has is not his to keep, but to be shared with people around the world!

Bio on lpmusic.com:
Every musician has an idol, a performer or group that embodies what they wish to become. From his childhood in San Francisco, Karl Perazzo wanted to play with Santana. "I used to play with the band when I was younger," he jokes, "but then the needle broke." However, young Perazzo did have considerable talent, and had played with Cal Tjader, Malo, Ray Obiedo, Prince and Andy Narell by the time he was 12. His life-long dream was realized in 1991 when he joined Santana to play timbales. Perazzo has also performed and recorded with Mariah Carey, Dizzy Gillespie, Phish, The United Nations Orchestra and John Lee Hooker. He also has several side projects which he leads, including the popular Salsa band, Avance. In addition to performing and recording, Perazzo teaches percussion. Along with former Santana conguero Raul Rekow, Perazzo starred in LP's popular instructional video From Afro-Cuban to Rock, which breaks down the complex musical rhythms of Cuban percussion. Because of their unique chemistry and infectious teaching style, Perazzo and Rekow are a sure-fire hit with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Karl has teamed up with LP to create the LP Karl Perazzo Signature Series Timbales.