ABRAXAS

This is by no means a second part of Santana's debut album, what i mean is that after an amazing first album, it may be difficult to approach a second effort as good as the first one, but holy shit this album is just fantastic.

I receive Abraxas 2 years ago or so as a Christmas gift, along with Caravanserai which will be reviewed later, and this actually was the second Santana album i ever listened, so with Santana i cannot complain that i stardter with the wrong album since i really started chronologically which in my opinion is the best way of understanding a band or artist.

Abraxas was released in 1970 and as i said was the second Santana album, with the first one they had success and with this they carry that success upon them so it was a challenge. And...goal reached! Abraxas was a number one album for several weeks and featured the worldwide famous Black Magic Woman, with this song along with Oye Como Va, Santana's popularity increased not only in the US, but in Latin America and even Europe! So in my opinion this is an album that make history in the rock music scene.

The album kicks off with Singing Winds, Crying Beasts, what a beautiful manner of starting an album, this is a delicious track filled with an extraordinary soft mood, it does sound like an improvisation, it may have meant to be one, i don't know, but this track believe me puts you really in the album, Santana's opener songs are always at the right place, once you listen to the first song you will not stop it. What we have next, is the famous Black Magic Woman which is a song that everyone of us know and a song that was a boost on Santana's success, when i began to learn playing guitar, one of the first things i played was this song, so if a kid like me was seducted byt this song, i cannot imagine how many people was touched by this sound.

Oye Como Va, mi ritmo, bueno pa gozar, mulata. This is almost a hymn in terms of rock music, another song that was a landmark of Santana's career and actually in the history of rock, this is another song that we all know and it's recognizable since the first two seconds, also this song as you can see by the name is the first one which has a title in spanish, letting the world know that not only Carlos Santana but other members of the band have their Latin American soul.

Incident at Neshabur hey wanna move or dance?, that is the first i want to do when i listen to the beginning of this furious and amazing song, which is a perfect blend of jazz fusion style with afro/latin percussion and bass sound, here we will find an extraordinary change from this rapid and exciting rythm, to a soft and mellow mood in the second part which also have some nice piano solo.

Se A Cabo togheter would say Se Acabo, which means Its Over, is just a nice and short piece of music which features the classical and particular Santana's style, that latin psychedelic fusion style, great percussion and keys as usual.

Mother's Daughter is another sensational track, which actually follows the same line of their characteristic musical style, but this time the rythm here is a bit faster, there are great bass lines and an always superb percussion playing, it has some noticeable changes which will be found when the vocals enters and when they end.

Samba Pa Ti is a beautiful song, with a change of their musical direction, instead of those heavy and fast fusion moments, here we have a delicate sound, a sfot and calm song with beautiful guitar arrangements, a sogn that can make your day and make you enjoy every single moment of it.

Hope You're Feeling Better, with this song we are reaching the end of the album, with only one song left, we could say this is the last song before the outro, it starts with an organ and then the drums, some seconds later we will hear vocals again and return to the powerful side of Santana's music, the first part is one of the weakest moments of the album in my opinion, but the second part is simply amazing, we can listen to Carlos awesome guitar playing and an extraordinary instrumental ending.

And finishing the album, a short track called El Nicoya, which may fit perfectly in another song, i mean is a short track that doesn't show anything new, it has some vocals refering to Chepito, who of course is the one who plays those extraordinary percussion.

If in my review of their first album i said that was a must having, this cannot stay behind, this is a must listening for any rock fan in general, and an excellent addition for any prog rock lover, if a grade of 4.5. stars was possible, that would be my choice, now i would say 4 stars!

Enjoy it!

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