SACRED FIRE (LIVE IN SOUTH AMERICA)

Sacred Fire was the first Santana CD I bought in my life. It was cheap at one of our biggest music stores and I coudn't miss the chance to have so many great songs in just one record. Although at this time Santana had released some weak, commercial stuff, I figured by the setlist thus CD might have some great music, since most of the songs were from his earlier, most creative phase. My guess was partially right.

Some tracks are just wonderful, like the atmospheric intro Angels All Around All that segues directly to Vive La Vida, a great latin number that for some reason is missing from the DVD version (and it is too the main reason I never got that DVD). The rest of the CD is usually fine, with obvious fantastic trademark Santana guitar work all over it. Unfortunate the keyboards sound are way too dated, sounding like if someone from Kenny G's band programmed them. But it is bearable. And the repertoire is very good. The only bad song here is Make Somebody Happy, really awful, maybe the only redeemer of his worst works. The obligatory Soul Sacrifice was also miles away from the incendiary version we all saw in Woodstock. But the remaining classic songs were very well played, with some add ups here and there (including , for some reason, Milton Nascimento's Ponta De Areia on Europa, which is odd, since Nascimento is brazilian!).

So in the end I found this record to be very pleasing. Although not the best of Santana's live efforts, it is nevertheless, very good and came in a time most fans had lost hope this guitar hero would make something really good. This CD showed he still could deliver the goods when he wanted to and maybe paved the way for his artistic and commercial rebirth by the late 90's. 3,5 stars.