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Abraxas

by

Santana

 
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Abraxas
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Avg: 4.0 (207 ratings)

  • Date Released: August 25, 1998
  • Genre: Rock/Pop
  • Style: Rock
  • Label: Columbia/Legacy
  • Copyright: Originally released 1970 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT/ Originally recorded 1970 & released 1998 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

Explosive psychedelic blues-rock with a global perspective

  • We Say...

    While their debut album, quickly recorded and released in the wake of their exhilarating performance at 1969's Woodstock festival, made San Francisco's Santana immediately stars, it was their fall 1970 follow-up Abraxas that truly showcased the group's impressive talents and expansive range. As evidenced by their searing hit version of Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman," Santana were highly adept at the kind of explosive psychedelic blues-rock associated with most of their colleagues from San Francisco's acid-dipped music scene of the late '60s. But under the guidance of their intense lead guitarist Carlos Santana, and with an eclectic lineup that included vocalist/keyboardist Gregg Rolie, bassist David Brown, and the powerhouse rhythm section of drummer Michael Shrieve and percussionists Mike Carabello and Chepito Areas, the band played with a global rather than just a NoCal musical perspective. Found here are such wide-angled tracks as the hit "Oye Como Va" (originally composed and recorded by East Coast salsa pioneer Tito Puente), the jazz-rock fusion instrumentals "Smaba Pa Ti" and "Incident At Neshabur" and the Rolie-written soul-rocker "Hope You're Feeling Better." It all adds up to a kaleidoscopic mix which, looking back, helped pave the way for what would eventually be called "world music."

  • They Say...

    The San Francisco Bay Area rock scene of the late '60s was one that encouraged radical experimentation and discouraged the type of mindless conformity that's often plagued corporate rock. When one considers just how different Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and the Grateful Dead sounded, it becomes obvious just how much it was encouraged. In the mid-'90s, an album as eclectic as Abraxas would be considered a marketing exec's worst nightmare. But at the dawn of the 1970s, this unorthodox mix of rock, jazz, salsa, and blues proved quite successful. Whether adding rock elements to salsa king Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," embracing instrumental jazz-rock on "Incident at Neshabur" and "Samba Pa Ti," or tackling moody blues-rock on Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman," the band keeps things unpredictable yet cohesive. Many of the Santana albums that came out in the '70s are worth acquiring, but for novices, Abraxas is an excellent place to start. [Columbia/Legacy's 1998 reissue of Abraxas featured three previously unreleased tracks -- "Se a Cabo," "Toussaint l'Overture," "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" -- which were all recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall on April 18, 1970.]

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