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