Santana | Santana - Abraxas

reissues
14.09.2011

Between 1969 and 1970 came out, one after the other, two LPs of a (certain) Santana. This guy had come to San Francisco from Mexico. In the meantime, he had been in Woodstock and, just a couple of years before, he had set up his first American group, the Santana Blues Band. Then just Santana. The first LP, whose title was simply the band's name, contained tracks such Evil Ways, Savor, Soul Sacrifice and the performers were Mike Carabello and José Chepito Areas on percussions, Michael Shrieve - still a kid - on drums, Greg Rolie on keyboards, Dave Brown on bass, and Carlos Santana on electric guitar.
The sound was an energetic mix of rock blues and afro-south-American percussive rhythms, whilst the system was basically uncomplicated, although not banal. In fact, multiplied, it reproduced the classical roles of guitar, bass and drums. The rhythmic structure was created by the percussions and Greg Rolie, on keyboards, made it clear and cohesive. The melodic part was left to Carlos Santana. The ensemble worked very well, not only because the musicians were great, but because the idea of merging two so far unrelated musical cultures – rock blues and Latin-American – turned out to be a very interesting upshot. The first album – Santana- was a hit and gained the platinum record.
Those were smashing years for music, better for creativity, and the following year (1970) Abraxas was released. Once more with the CBS Columbia label: same band, same results or even better. Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va and Samba Pa Ti are very different, but all represent Santana’s music and are considered as human heritage. He kept going this way for a couple of years before things started to fade and give way to poorness like in Supernatural. Forty years later, the precious remastering made by Mobile Fidelity Sound - known by many as Original Master Recording - gives back in a higher quality, also on digital support, these two milestones of the rock music.


Santana
Santana
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
CD
Total time 37:24
1969

Santana
Abraxas
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
CD
Total time 37:30
1970

by Antonello
Oliva
Read more articles

Torna su

Advertising

KingSound banner
Omega Audio Concepts banner
DiDiT banner
Vermöuth Audio banner

Is this article available only in such a language?

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive more articles in your language!

 

Questo articolo esiste solo in questa lingua?

Iscriviti alla newsletter per ricevere gli articoli nella tua lingua!

 

Sign up now!

Advertising