I’ll say it straight out; this is a fantastic album.<\/p>\n
I’m not at all familiar with most of Santana’s musical output,
\nbut I do know that he made a name for himself with a smashing
\nperformance in 1969 when he played at Woodstock, the same year his
\nfirst album was released. I also know that he has experienced real
\nhighs and lows throughout his long career, capped by a massive
\ncomeback in 1999 with his
\nSupernatural<\/i> album, which I believe has actually become one
\nof the top 20 or 30 best selling albums of all time, and certainly
\nhis biggest triumph in the commercial sense.<\/p>\n
While
\nSupernatural<\/i> certainly wasn’t bad, I personally don’t think
\nit comes close to the brilliant musicianship contained on this
\nself-titled effort, which was his third album and released in
\n1971.<\/p>\n
These early Santana albums were probably the first successful
\nmainstream fusion of Latin music and rhythms with hard rock; not a
\ngreat surprise considering Santana’s Mexican roots and American
\nupbringing. This album is a fascinating listen from start to
\nfinish…the blend of different styles experimented with just work
\ntogether magically.<\/p>\n
Just listen to the opening track, “Batuka,” one of the finest
\nrock instrumentals I’ve ever heard. Normally one would assume that
\nLatin influenced music is cheesy poppy stuff that people in Brazil
\nlike to grind to. Or people in North America stupidly consider the
\nlikes of Ricky Martin to be a “groundbreaking” crossover fusion of
\nlatin music with rock, which of course is complete poppycock.<\/p>\n
Yes, “Batuka” is a clear message that Latin music can actually
\nhave balls… just listen to the complex percussion accompanied
\nwith funky bass rhythms and a plethora of heavy guitar riffs
\ncourtesy of good ‘ol Carlos himself. He also liberally throws
\nhyperactive melodic solos around that are short and sweet enough to
\nremain an impressive showcase of his technical ability without
\nbecoming irritating endless wankfests as many other guitarists
\ntended to indulge in at the time. He certainly has a knack for
\nmelodic playing with great feel. Also, check out the addition of
\nthe crazy organ towards the end of the song, which reminds one of
\nthe best of Deep Purple!<\/p>\n
The rest of the album pretty much retains this high level of
\nsongwriting and musicianship, perfecting the blend of Latin rhythms
\nwith blues, soul, lounge, and of course the hard rock which cements
\nit all together. Some songs lean more heavily towards pure Latin
\nmusic even sung in Spanish, and then there’s others like
\n“Everybody’s Everything” which sound more like a ’60s James Brown
\nsoul pop number. All the tracks are very melodic and interesting
\nwithout ever sounding too commercial… they perfectly reflect the
\nalbum cover in that listening to the album is like embarking on a
\njourney into a mystical land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":25845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5724],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37051","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-santana","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37051"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37051"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}