BLUES FOR SALVADOR

While Carlos Santana's last solo album to date may be misleading because of its title, this is yet another superb fusion album that screams to be heard. This might be Carlos being the closest (in some respects anyway) to ECM jazz-rock ever.

With three (four actually) different line-ups, that album lacks cohesion, though and almost develops a schizophrenic nature. The highlights of the album are the opening track, the Trane homage are clearly from the A line-up (see the booklet), while the B line-up is unfortunately very actualised for the era especially drum-wise. Most of the album glides on relatively effortlessly (but not that smoothly for the above-mentioned reasons), but never manage to reach the spirit of Oneness or Swing Of Delight.

Not bad per se, but nothing worth rushing to the store for either, and not really essential. Still worthy of a three star rating, though.