When Santana was great!

I like Abraxas (not all of it). I even liked some stuff from Supernatural, actually, but I tend to like anything that puts cha cha cha on mainstream radio. There are probably other Santana recordings I would like, but I don't feel inspired to sift through all the other stuff.

Depends what you liked and/or didn't like about the original. The remastering apparently brings Larry Young's organ much higher in the mix, which, for anyone who's ever heard Lawrence Of Newark, is a very good thing indeed.

There's also a live album that Santana did with Buddy Miles from the crater of an active volcano in Hawaii that is fucking phenomenal, but I can't remember the title of it for the life of me.

(I'm a little worked up over this, obv.)

>On this 're-master,' one can hear Young's real contribution to the sessions for the first time: he is mixed much higher here allowing all of his otherworldly chords, syncopations, and harmonic inventions to be heard at their proper weights.

'Love Devotion Surrender' is pretty much a studio jam and tribute to Coltrane between Carlos Santana with most of Mahavishnu and other jazz players. It was a different kind of thing and wasn't recorded by 'the band' that was known as Santana.

Is it my imagination, or is there a bit of influence of the Grupo de Experimentación Sonora and Leo Brouwer in one or two of the tracks on Step Forward?

I haven’t noticed it, but it’s very likely. The two things which pushed me to abandon rock as a form of expression were the Grupo de Experimentaciòn with Brouwer, Silvio Rodríguez, etc and the albums of Carlos Santana which fused Cuban elements with sixties and seventies rock. The Grupo de Experimentaciòn established a very innovative way of interpreting the Cuban music of its time. Leo Brouwer, in particular, is a Mozart of this era.--http://www.fly.co.uk/fly/archives/2005/06/juan_de_marcos_gonzalez_-_stepping_forward_and_setting_the_record_straight.html

No home is complete without a Lotus triple lp.

Enchanting and blissed-out, but not in a cheesy way. Laswell subtly intensifies the cosmicness of the original material.

The recent deluxe reissue of the first Santana album includes a second disc with the entire Woodstock live set. If you don't have the first one on CD, it is worth the extra couple of bucks to get this one. The remasters of the Santana albums sound excellent.

Sony has done this with a few other releases putting a second disc of archieve live material on Johnny Winter's Second Winter, Muddy Water's Mississippi Muddy Waters Live and Who's Next. In fact, all of the Sony reissues of the Blue Sky Muddy Waters records are doubled in length with outtakes and live tracks. All of those are worth checking out. Sony does a nice job with their reissues, other labels should take note.

Call me crazy, but I actually want to hear this:

http://www.santana.com/Content/News/SANTANA_GUITAR_HEAVEN_Cover_art1.jpg

1. Whole Lotta Love (featuring Chris Cornell)
2. Can t You Hear Me Knocking (featuring Scott Weiland)
3. Sunshine Of Your Love (featuring Rob Thomas)
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (featuring India.Arie & Yo-Yo Ma)
5. Dance The Night Away (featuring Pat Monahan)
6. Back In Black (featuring Nas and Janelle Monáe)
7. Riders On The Storm (featuring Chester Bennington & Ray Manzarek)
8. Smoke On The Water (featuring Jacoby Shaddix)
9. Photograph (featuring Chris Daughtry)
10. Bang A Gong (featuring Gavin Rossdale)
11. Little Wing (featuring Joe Cocker)
12. I Ain t Superstitious (featuring Jonny Lang)
13. Fortunate Son (featuring Scott Stapp)
14. Under The Bridge (featuring Andy Vargas)

When Santana wasn't great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOlInOTWl_w

Been enjoying the Laswell record a lot. Swing of Delight is pretty good as well. My Spotify mix of When Devadip was great:

http://open.spotify.com/user/124420673/playlist/0WisRpkEiY7pMKtMbNGnr0

Digging into the Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles Live! album now. It opens with an absolutely blistering version of John McLaughlin's "Marbles" (from the awesome Devotion) that features Carlos and Neil Schon doing some impressive duetting.

Onto the 25-minute "Free Form Funkafide Filth" now, which, a few minutes in, does not appear to be as noteworthy as its title.

^^^ listening to this now, for the first time in 30 years. Totally transporting me to my teenhood. I was fascinated by side-long jams as a kid, but I pretty much skipped "FFFF" even back then.

There's a great essay to be written (perhaps it has been in the liners to the LD&S reissue, which I don't have, or the Stump book which is on its way to me) on the relationship between Santana and McLaughlin. On the surface, you'd think these guys might not be compatible -- it sounds like Santana was kind of in awe of McLaughlin's technical prowess. But they shared a lot in common: a guru, a love of Coltrane, affection for each other's compositions (Santana played "Marbles" from Devotion on the Buddy Miles record and "Meditation" from LD&S is on Lotus). Here's a good quote from the Mahavishnu book:

Carlos Santana:I felt really comfortable being next to John. I looked at John as a brother who, like B.B. King or Buddy Guy, was someone that was there before me in that arena with Miles. I had loved what he had done onIn A Silent WayandBitches Brew. I was coming from the mentality of thinking that jazz was an ocean and that there were also lakes, swimming pools and bathtubs. I knew I couldn’t go to the ocean where Charlie Parker, Coltrane, Miles and Wayne hung out. That was a whole other thing for me and I respect that. But, I can hang out in the deep end of the lake! Once I got the confidence I needed, that even with John McLaughlin, I could hold my own...

I'm pretty sure there's some stuff about McLaughlin (and that whole era of Santana) in Carlos's autobiography from a couple of years ago. I remember flipping through it specifically looking for the chapters on the early '70s.

Actually, it came out last year, and was co-written with Ashley Kahn, who's done some decent jazz books.

I love LDS, some scorching guitar stuff on there. Quite transcendental in places.
There's a tour for the lp that has something like 10 shows shared which somebody talks about 1 date from somewhere earlier in the thread I think. Dates were shared on at least Dime and Trader;'s Den, I'm not sure if they're up there still but what I heard was great.
I meant to pick up the most recent remaster of the LDS cd but haven't got around to it.

I think Santana was interesting live up through 1973, possibly a little later. I do love that Bitches Brew like fusion stuff he was playing with the Lotus era band anyway.
I do also really like the Fillmore '68 set, but is it the 1st lp line up or one previous to that. Not sure where mine is at the moment.

Got to say I am pretty curious about the Santana IV record coming out next week which is a reunion of the Santana III lineup with Neal Schon, Greg Rollie, Michael Shrieve and Michael Carabello with Ronald Isley guesting on three songs on vocals.

the abraxas pool album (schon/rollie/shrive) from the 90s is terrible.

carabello's on it too

Sony put out that 2 CD version of Santana III that has a bonus live show of that version of the band and it is excellent.

curious what Brad thinks of "Say It Again."

i haven't before now but i feel extremely positive about the first thirty seconds

lol

Marcus Miller shreds! Fuiud

I liked him a lot with Miles, especially We Want Miles and Tutu, but would prefer someone with more of a '70s jamming mindset with Santana. I've never heard Cupid & Psyche and that's unlikely to change.

He seems fluid and versatile enough to succeed with that sound, idk. We'll see I guess.

- Michael Henderson ('70s Miles band)
- Buster Williams (Mwandishi)
- Stanley Clarke
- Tony Levin (saw him with Santana in the late '80s)
- Bill Laswell

that band has a big bottom

Just heard "Open Invitation" from Inner Secrets (https://youtu.be/cQP_05hTYWg) on Pandora--Santana biting Zep or Whitesnake or something for one of the most "1978" Rock records you can imagine.

Wasn't Inner secrets the album they recorded down the hall from Prince when he was tracking For You (and where he met Sheila E)?

"santana supergroup" just brings back bad memories of that mclaughlin thing he did in '73.

But Love Devotion Surrender is a fantastic lp with a great bunch of live sets from a supporting tour.

& it's got Larry Young onboard and everything

^^^^ otm

^^^^ otm

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson),

hancock/shorter jazz fest set was one of my favorite musical experiences of 2016

honestly it was the best thing i've ever seen prob

someone uploaded a longer video of it finally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3agp0ejoGs

i think it was essentially 3-4 improvised pieces over 45 minutes

herbie handcock, the porn version of herbie hancock

ugh carlos is the bono of lead guitarists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Iel_DGhklw

https://youtu.be/1Iel_DGhklw

or, the jordan crawford or something.. total disregard for feel and integration, just "here i go shredding away, look out everyone"

oh man. Excerpts:

[u]It certainly was a very hot one!

Cast of characters:

Carlos Santana
Rob Thomas
Itaal Shur (co-author)
Matt Serletic (producer)
Brian Yale (Matchbox Twenty bass player)
Bono (Bono)
Marcus Raboy (Music Video Director)
Marisol Maldonado (Thomas’ wife, the Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa)

The year was 1999. Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas recorded “Smooth” and it quickly became one of the most ubiquitous and successful singles of all time. Whether you love it or hate it, “Smooth” remains a career defining moment for both Santana and Thomas, and continues to evoke strong and passionate reactions seventeen years later. Here now is the untold and often harrowing story of how “Smooth” came to be, in the words of those who lived through the life-changing experience.
Chapter I: A Hot Day

Carlos Santana: It is difficult to remember much about the song “Smooth” featuring Rob Thomas because I do not care and it does not really matter. But I believe it all started when Jamiroquai rang me on the telephone to tell me about his boring day.

This may or may not be 100% real.

Matt Serletic (producer): It’s been confirmed again and again that Jamiroquai made no such call. Everyone knows Jamiroquai has no phone. And if he did, he wouldn’t know how to use it. [laughs uncontrollably]

Itaal Shur (co-writer): Santana’s people reached out to me to see if I had a song up my big sleeves that would close out their concept album. The only direction they gave me is that it should make the listener visualize sexual-intercourse.[/i]

Thomas: I didn’t even know who Carlos Santana was at this point. I actually thought he was the guy that who was in charge of Libya

and

Thomas: “Room 17” was a great song. Maybe the best I’ve ever heard. It made me super horny. I loved it. But something was missing. So I changed the lyrics, the melody, and everything else about it. When I sat down to re-write my intention was not only to write a song that makes the listener want to bone another human being, but to write a song that could [here, Thomas closes his eyes] kill God.

Maldonado: Mr. Santana was not pleased with the line about the Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa. I don’t blame him. That line means nothing to Rob, and it makes me throw up every time I think about it.

Santana: I said, “What the hell is this Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa crap all about, white boy?” Rob said nothing for a moment. Finally, he smiled like a murderer and told me nothing means anything until the Kingdom of Heaven burns. I have to admit, the kid had guts. [laughs]

http://www.gq.com/story/santana-rob-thomas-smooth-oral-history?mbid=social_facebook

Just got my copy of the super deluxe Japanese reissue of Lotus in the mail. It was triple vinyl originally, and a double CD when it was reissued in the 90s, but now it's a triple CD, fully remastered in surround sound (it's a hybrid SACD) to replicate the original quadrophonic mix, plus it's got 7 previously unreleased tracks adding 35 minutes of music. It's in a 5"x5" package that folds out like the vinyl edition used to, has two thick-ass booklets, a poster, and a whole bunch of other shit. It's crazy. No plans for a US release as far as I know.

Shit that sounds awesome. Lotus is such a great record. SACD is the one surround format I still don't have – otherwise I would be all over that.

I had my eye on that, importcds had it for $6x, now it's $72, too much.

If you saw the physical package, you wouldn't hesitate. It's seriously one of the most beautiful things ever. And the music sounds fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hs2SjSqJjw

I wrote a big piece about Santana's "white suit" years for VinylMePlease, because I've always wanted to write about this whole era, and they accepted the pitch.

digging that article phil and ALSO digging these santana albums that i haven't revisited since i was 14 prob

There are some pretty dope tracks on those '70s records, especially when he's not soloing. I like the ones that are basically Rhodes, bass, and a blizzard of thinly-recorded percussion.

Been on a run listening to the first three Santana albums. That original band was something else. I really am impressed on how those records sound as the way they pan it out with the percussion gives it a real deep stereo sense of space.

The Santana records, the main kit is panned a bit to the right with one of the percussionists and then they have the other panned usually to the left. Then the deep congas are right in the middle of the mix with the bass. I'm sure some of those big old style CBS studios they used probably helped too, as all of those Columbia records usually always sounded great.

You listen to some of the Dead's studio recording with their two drummers, it's like the band loses a bit of the low end out of the percussion. It would have definitely been cool to have a studio version of That's It for the Other Ones with that kind of production quality of the first three Santana records.

Best music.

If you had asked me previously if had heard Lotus I would have said yes, but I'm listening to it today and I have no recollection of Leon Thomas' yodelling on it. I saw Santana around the time it was recorded (1973? 1974?) but he must have been replaced by then. Anyway, cool record.

Leon Thomas also sang on "Welcome" which was the studio record before Lotus. I don't think Lotus was released in the US until the CD age. "Borboletta" is also a fusion record too and worth hearing too.

I just started into the next group of Santana groups hearing Amigos, Festival and Moonflower for the first time this year. Only heard them once though so far...

Man, Caravanserai is a very satisfying listen. Easily one of his best.

yea it is really good!

I heard Abraxas for the first time in ages over the weekend and it prompted me to listen to some more. I don't think I'd heard Caravanserai for 20+ years.

Man, Caravanserai is a very satisfying listen. Easily one of his best.

early sunday evening with sunshine colours filling the house.
glass of wine poured.
food on the go in the oven.
this album is the absolutely perfect soundtrack.

Huh I don’t think I’ve heard Caravanserai at all. I guess I need to listen to it today.

My copy is whipped... I'm due for an upgrade. Shouldn't be hard to find but I never see it clean, whereas I have probably 5 copies of Abraxas I've picked up on the cheap or free

On unperson's recommendation, I listened to "Africa Speaks" and found it to be quite good on the whole. A little overlong- I guess he cut 40 tunes and edited down to 11 running 66 minutes. Anyway, it's really a good listen and happily is recorded well. As usual for a Santana record, the percussion sounds fantastic.

I was surprised in poking around how much music he's put out in recent years. I only just found out earlier this year that he'd done an album with the mostly-original Santana band, and hadn't been aware of his album with the Isleys at all. Anyway, I'm pretty impressed that he's out there still making new music.

was also pleasantly surprised by Africa Speaks, almost bailed at the corny spoken word at the beginning, glad I didn't

SHIT GODDAMN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKprh6mejgg

Also want to report that through the Emitt rhodes thread of all places I discovered that Jose "Chepito" Areas put out a solo album in '74 that's on Spotify and is quite dope. A lot like early Santana, but with less guitar and more horns, plus the keyboard player utilizes an Arp from time to time.

“Yours Is the Light” from Welcome sounds like Carlos enlisted The Free Design to front the band.

Count me in the Lotus brigade. There's this great moment on it where he busts out momentarily with the melody from "My Favorite Things", ending it with a climb up to a high-pitched wail. If you need only one moment to grasp the man's essential greatness (and I pretty much did)...

FWIW, I believe the moment in question happens during "Incident At Neshabur." Count me in too - as good as those first three albums are, I think Lotus is THE Santana masterpiece, easily Carlos's greatest album, not to mention the greatest configuration of the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiYBWwE0EvI

Somebody points out in the comments on that video that Carlos Santana was only 26 in 1973.

In my high school art class, one of my fellow students seemed to paint nothing but portraits of Miles Davis and Carlos Santana. On our outing to the art gallery, he kept encouraging us and the teacher to take turns listening to Lotus on his Walkman.
I still haven't heard it, though, partly because I found Welcome pretty dull and so wasn't that interested in exploring his jazz phase any further.

Lotus is closer to Agharta than any kind of jazz. It'll take your head off.