BLUES FOR SALVADOR

In mid 1989, I recorded in a videocassette from a T.V. videos programme the promotional video of the song called "Bella". The videoclip, done in black and white, shows a very sensual young woman dancing to the song, alone and with his boyfriend, in the sand and in a room too. Carlos Santana appears briefly playing the guitar, also in the beach, and he and keyboard player Chester Thompson also appear playing the song in the studio. It is one of the best promotional videos I have seen, very well done. Of course, I also liked the song a lot, and all this led me to buy the "Blues for Salvador" album in the next year.

I don`t undestand why this album was released as a solo album from Carlos Santana, because it really is a mixture of apparently solo tracks with some alternate versions of songs previously released in some albums by the band called Santana. Anyway, it is a very good album, IMO.

The album starts with "Bailando / Aquatic Park". The first part of this song is an instrumental piece full of percussion instruments plus Carlos`lead guitar. The second part has a singer, whose voice sounds more like from a Black singer. The song as a whole is very good.

The next song is the beautiful "Bella". Keyboard player Chester Thompson (not to be confused with Genesis`tour drummer also called Chester Thompson) plays very good keyboard atmospheres, while Carlos plays a vey good guitar solo, playing melodies, with his guitar sounding very influenced by Jazz guitar styles. In fact, in the cover notes, Carlos explains that in this piece of music, dedicated to his daughter Stella, "is also an expression of my respect and admiration for these musicians:Wes Montgomery, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, T. Bone Walker and John McLaughlin". The song is similar in parts to "Europa" and others by Santana, but the keyboards and the percussion instruments created very good musical atmospheres to support Carlos`very good guitar playing.

"I`m Gone" is a very `80s piece of pop music in style, with electronic drums and very good keyboards.

I think that the next song called "Trane" was dedicated to John Coltrane. It has Tony Williams playing energetic drums. Again, it also has very good playing by Carlos and Chester.

"Deeper, Dig Deeper", a song also included in Santana`s "Freedom" album, also appears in this album in an alternate version. It is an instrumental piece of music with programmed drum machine, keyboards and Carlos playing a guitar solo.

"Mingus" is a brief instrumental pice of music, dedicated to Charlie Mingus, played with keyboards and guitar.

"Now That You Know" is an instrumental piece of music recorded live during Santana`s 1985 tour. It is really a Rock song improvised on stage, with Indian atmospheres created by the keyboards. It really shines how good is the band playing in concert.

"Hannibal", in a different version from the one which appeared in Santana`s "Zebop" album, is a very good song, with some Brazilian music influences and a bit of Jazz-Rock jammimg at the end o fthe song. Carlos played acoustic and electric guitars. The song also has some lyrics maybe sung in Portuguese (I`m not sure of the language).

The album closes with a very good Blues instrumental song, called "Blues for Salvador", played by Chester and Carlos. If I remember well, this song won a Grammy for the best instrumental performance on an album.

In conclusion, this is a very good album. The songs were mostly composed by Carlos and Chester, and again, I can`t understand why this album wasn`t released as part of the Santana band`s discography instead of being released as a solo album.