Santana: Abraxas [MFSL] [Slipcase]

• Audio Samples
• Track List
• Notes & Reviews
• Also Purchased
• Explore!

Audio Samples

Track List

Album Reviews:

Rolling Stone (12/24/70, p.54) - "...On ABRAXAS, Santana is a popularized Mongo Santamaria and they might do for Latin music what Chuck Berry did for the blues....a total boogie and the music is right from start to finish."

Q (5/00, p.131) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Displays even more grace and power...[than their] fresh, fierce debut..."

Vibe (12/99, p.156) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century

Musician (7/98, pp.86-88) - "...Sony Legacy's sonic wizards have made...[Santana's] first three albums reappear, each appended with additional live recordings....epochal works...an explosive fusion of Hispanic-edged rock, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and interstellar improvisation..."

Uncut (magazine) (p.83) - "[A] mix of psych, blues and salsa, all tied together by the fluid guitar of one of rock's great stylists."

Album Notes

Santana: Santana (vocals, guitar); Gregg Rolie (vocals, keyboards); Dave Brown (bass guitar); Michael Shrieve (drums); José Chepitó Areas (congas, timbales, percussion).

Personnel: Carlos Santana (vocals, guitar); Rico Reyes (vocals, percussion); Alberto Gianquinto (piano); Dave Brown , David Brown (bass guitar); Mike Carabello (congas, percussion).

Recording information: Pacific Recordind, San Mateo, CA (04/18/1970-05/02/1970); Pacific Recording, San Mateo, CA (04/18/1970-05/02/1970); Wally Heider Studio, San Francisco, CA (04/18/1970-05/02/1970).

Author: Hermann Hesse.

Illustrator: Mati Klarwein.

Photographer: Jim Marshall .

Unknown Contributor Role: Joel.

Arrangers: Mike Carabello; Gregg Rolie; Rico Reyes; Carlos Santana.

ABRAXAS, the second album by the original (and arguably most powerful) Santana line-up, proved the band's commercial breakthrough. The album's contains two of the group's biggest hits, "Black Magic Woman," a slinky, smooth-edged interpretation of the song written by Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green, and their take on Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," which injects Carlos Santana's stinging guitar leads into a surging salsa groove. The band's unique, genre-blurring approach makes these singles--and everything else here--unlike anything that had been heard before.

The opener, "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts," showcases Carlos Santana's passionate, soulful six-string mastery over a drifting, psychedelic backdrop. The album ranges in feel, encompassing furiously propulsive jams ("Se A Cabo"), low-key Brazilian grooves ("Samba Para Ti"), and jazzy instrumentals ("Incident at Neshabur"). All the elements that made Santana's debut dazzling--roiling, polyrhythmic percussion, dense, pancultural influences, virtuoso guitar work--are here--sharpened and painted with the rich, heady sound of late-'60s San Francisco (Santana was just as exploratory and innovative as their hometown cohorts the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane). ABRAXAS remains a seminal Latin-rock release, and one of the undisputed classics of the era.

Reviews

There are currently no reviews, be the first one!

Also Purchased

See Also

• Love Devotion Surrender [Remaster] (McLaughlin, John)
• Love Devotion Surrender (McLaughlin, John)
• Pickin' on Santana (On, Pickin')

There are no recommendations posted for this product