MOONFLOWER

This was my first Santana acquisition (my brother owned their debut and Abraxas). I remember playing Disc 2 to death for months after I purchased it. Who knew that songs that I loved so much being performed in these live concert recordings were so similar to those from the album that I would come to know and love some 40 years later via ProgArchives: Caravanserai. I think of all the live performances I've ever heard put to tape, the energy and sound of Santana's are the ones that would make me want to see him in concert. Like a Pat Metheny Group concert, the percussion "wars" alone would make it, for me, worthwhile, not to mention the attraction of the stellar play of the leader's melodious guitar.

At this stage of my life I was already beginning to discriminate against songs that gained radio popularity despite the fact that some songs that I deemed "great" did happen to achieve fame and fortune, but Santana's "hits" actually turned me away from seeking his albums out for a long time. It was Moonflower that helped me understand that sometimes an album's "best" songs (i.e. the ones I liked most) were not always the ones chosen for radio play as "hits." Also, disco was in full swing, as can be told through some of these rhythm styles. Thus songs like "I'll Be Waiting" and "She's Not There" were not my favorites. The playful ones, like "Jugando", and "Zulu", "Bahia", "Dance Sister Dance", and "Soul Sacrifice/Head, Hands & Feet" attracted my admiration, but it was really the seductive melodies of "Europa" and "Flor d'luna" and "Transcendance" that made me want to sit up and take notice. Then there is the finale, the great, great jam of "Savor/Toussaint l'overture"--one cookin', happy-to-be-alive song that I always loved to blast on my stereo.

Disc 1 always had a bit of a "Smooth jazz or Adult Contemporary feel to me--especially the choral-style vocals (though, now, in retrospect, I can see how they tied into the influence of my childhood love for my parents musics of Herb Alpert, Brazil '66, Burt Bacharach, and The Fifth Dimension. Tom Coster's work (and sound) is wonderful. Carlos' guitar sound is recorded a little oddly--almost muted--and mixed further back than I would have liked. Anyway, a rare live album that I actually enjoyed and that has remained in my high esteem ever since it came out.