Product Description

Before the arrival of Carlos Santana's eponymous band, the San Francisco rock scene drew the inspiration for its jam-oriented music mainly from blues, rock, and Eastern modalities. Santana added Latin music to the mix, forever changing thecourse of rock & roll history. On Santana's groundbreaking debut album, the group mixes Latin percussion with driving rock grooves. Santana's unique guitar style, alternately biting and liquid, vies with the multiple percussionists for thesonic focus.
Unlike later efforts, Santana's first albumfeatures an abundance of loose collective compositions based on a couple of simple riffs ("Jingo", "Soul Sacrifice"). This approach allows for Santana and his bandmates to flex their improvisational muscles to fine effect. The high energy level on SANTANA is infectious--the laid-back feel of other '60s S.F. groups was clearly not for Carlos and company.

Track Listing

1. Waiting
2. Evil Ways
3. Shades Of Time
4. Savor
5. Jingo
6. Persuasion
7. Treat
8. You Just Don't Care
9. Soul Sacrifice
10. Savor (2)
11. Soul Sacrifice (2)
12. Fried Neckbones (And Some Home Fries)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10946 in Music
• Released on: 1998-04-06
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

5 minus Hammond organ
In my experience few things divide people - as far as music is concerned - than the Hammond organ. Its sound is something people either love or loathe. I cant abide its cheesy end-of-the-pier fairground tones and find it's the one thing that tends to mar early Santana albums, that and Greg Rolie's pretty non-descript vocals. Santana's guitar work does the job OK enough but for me the core strength of Santana has always been the rhythm section, the sticksmanship of Mike Shrieve, the pounding polyrhythms of the percussionists and the solid basswork. The actual tunes here are generally great esp Jingo and frankly you'd have to be dead not to find this album great for dancing. Best tracks are where Rolie's attempts at singing and his Hammond organ are minimised. So be warned. If you find the Hammond's tones delightful then you'll rejoice. If you hate the sound I suggest you try less Hammond friendly releases such as Moonflower.

Great stuff
Great stuff. While I was not yet old enough at the time the album was produced (I heard the album first in the late 70's), the feel is late 60's and yet completely timeless at the same time. I think the voice of Gregg Rolie is just fantastic on a couple of the tracks, and the whole band is simply outstanding. There is a fair bit of bonus on the legacy version of the album. Abraxas and the third album are more polished, but perhaps the slight rawness of this first album is part of the attraction.

More interest please...
So, here we are faced with Santana's first, quite brilliant album which is (as I write) ranked number 26,686 in Amazon.co.uk’s sales chart. That is, for comparison, some 22,000 places behind Ken Dodd’s Greatest Hits... why ?...

With tracks from Santana's recent "Supernatural" album having received blanket international radio coverage, this record - which provides the template for "Smooth" and virtually all other "latin rock" dance music over the past 30 years - is clearly in desperate need of some more serious interest. Okay, it's less sophisticated but it's infused throughout with excellent songs and highly enthusiastic playing, and... it contains two of the most infectious dance tracks ever made: I defy anyone to put "Jin-go-la-ba" or "Soul Sacrifice" on their CD player and not get an immediate, positive reaction regardless of age or musical preference.

Good enough credentials on their own to justify its inclusion on any list of essential 60's albums. But there's more... because this is also an important record! Not only did it catapult one of the world's most distinctive guitarists onto the international stage but it re-asserted the value of "good-time" dance music - the essence of rock & roll - at a time when folk based introspection and heavy rock bombast were threatening to take over. Playing tracks from this album, Santana's massive success at Woodstock proved that generating simple "let your hair down" enjoyment was still an essential ingredient in "progressive" rock.

As such, it fully justifies "classic" status and vastly much more recognition – best of all, it will, unlike our Ken’s little offering, give you many hours/years of enjoyment while seriously impressing your friends!