AMIGOS

Amigos is another satisfying Santana record, although many would consider Caravanserai as Santana's last great album since after that album, Gregg Rolie, main organist and singer of the original Santana band, left to form Journey together with guitarist Neal Schon. While the loss of Gregg definitely affected the quality of the music, Santana together with keyboardist Tom Coster still managed to release some great material, mainly in Borboletta, Moonflower and on this record.

Being 1976 you should have figured out that a guy like Santana would incorporate some mainstream music from the time, in this case it's funk, a genre which I love when added to rock music. This is clearly heard on the tunes Let Me, Tell Me You Are Tired and Let it Shine. They're pretty straight-forward, but I like it that way in this case, I mean, if you're fond of Stevie Wonder's classic Supersition, I doubt you'll have any issues with these groovy tunes.

Then there are the tunes that are more reminiscent of Santana's original style, with the latin and jazz influences being prominent. The first one being the grabbing latin-esque Dance Sister Dance with new vocalist, Greg Walker, doing a decent job. Then you've got the instrumental Take Me With You which is like part 2 of Abraxas' stunnning instrumental, Incident at Neshabur, both have fantastic hammond organ playing as well as a splendid rhythm, even both finish in a very emotive way. Finally, there's the well-known, heart-ripping instrumental entitled Europa. Eric Clapton was once asked who was his favorite guitarist, he answered that ''for pure spirituality and emotion, Carlos Santana is #1'', well Europa is one very notable proof of this.

Obviously, as you may have noticed, this is not in the heights of Abraxas nor Caravanserai, but still I recommend Amigos if you're a Santana fan or a fan of pleasant music with touches of jazz and funk. It's a very accessible and pleasant record all- through, with the sole exception of the out-of-place and mediocre, Gitano.

3 stars.

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