SANTANA

Well, there's something sentimental about this album because it was one of the first vinyls that I heard when I was a child. I was amazed by the cover art, that kind of lion made by faces and human bodies and over all tha mixture of rock and latin rhytms... wow! I don't remember how many times I played the album but it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my childhood...

Now looking backwards: Carlos Santana become one of the most important musicians of Latin America. His inffluence on latin bands -prog, fusion, pop, etc- is undeniable and the first step was this amazing homonimous album full of "flower power" inffluences and latin rhythms that makes every song something totally new and full of energy. I don't know if Santana was the first who did something like this but I'm sure he was the first who carried this musical mixture to world ears and make latin inffluences acceptable to rock.

The album still sounds raw and wild and is plenty of great moments, specially when timables and congas takes the leading role. If you add the singular talent of Carlos Santana playing guitar, the result is awsome. Most of the songs of this album became legendary rock hits not just enjoyable for most audiences perhaps for every real classic rock fans: Evil Ways, Shades of Time, Jingo, Persuasion and one of the Woddstock hyms, Soul Sacrifice.

Even when percussion, Santana's guitar solos and drums takes the leading role in every song there's a great job on bass, vocals and keyboards. More than an album this one it's maybe a piece of rock history so I give to Santana 5* even when it's not a prog album...