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September 30th, 2010 
Music & Movie Gal Santana (1st Album)
Japanese limited edition pressing includes 3 bonus tracks packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. By the time Santana arrived on the San Francisco scene in 1968, the Grateful Dead’s freeform antics were already legendary. But Santana was a jam band of ano
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(out of 51 reviews)
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Review by G B for Santana (1st Album)
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This is the first of three albums by the classic Santana lineup: Carlos Santana on guitar, Gregg Rolie on keyboards and vocals, Dave Brown on bass, Mike Shrieve on drums, and Jose Areas and Mike Carabello on percussion. The band shows a great improvement over the 1968 recordings at the Fillmore — Carlos’s playing is much more confident and inventive, the addition of Mike Shrieve loosens up the drumming, and Areas and Carabello bring out the Afro-Latin aspects of the music. At the same time, the band’s sound is still strongly rooted in the blues (especially on “You Just Don’t Care”) and wouldn’t fully achieve its potential until 1970′s Abraxas. Nevertheless, many of the performances are absolute classics — especially the fiery organ-guitar duel on “Waiting” and the explosive “Soul Sacrifice”. Those familiar with Santana’s radio hits will of course recognize “Evil Ways” and their chugging version of Olatunji’s “Jingo”, while the laid-back Latin groove of “Treat” provides a nice respite. And the bonus tracks, from the band’s Woodstock performance, make this album even more essential: you get to hear exactly why the live performance of “Soul Sacrifice” blew away so many acid-drenched listeners at the festival. It’s still speaker-frying 32 years later. If you like the stinging guitar and swirling organ of early Santana, their debut is a must-buy.
Review by W. Noshie for Santana (1st Album)
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The Santana Debut.
A brilliant combination of Rock, Latin and African influence.
I have owned this album first on vinyl and later on CD. Over 35 years now and songs like Evil way and Soul Sacrifice sound as fresh as new.
3 Santana albums are a necessity for any collector
Santana
Abraxas
Santana III
These are the basic and best of many other great titles Carlos Santana released in all these years.
Well recommended.
Review by Martin Lemos for Santana (1st Album)
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Before SUPERNATURAL and SHAMEN, SANTANA released their debut album back in 1969. Even back then, this band was mixing rock, blues, and Afro-Latin music together into something magical. This album starts off with the instrumental WAITING which is a kicking tune and then jumps into the classic EVIL WAYS. SHADES OF TIME is another good song that you need to listen to. SAVOR and JINGO are two great jam tunes that show off how much talent this band has. The songs just wail with emotion and feeling. I also highly recommend that you listen to PERSUASION, TREAT and dont forget to listen to SOUL SACRIFICE. This album also has 3 live bonus tracks that were recorded at Woodstock. Listen to the songs and see why SANTANA is a band that deserves all that it can get
Review by G. E. Williams for Santana (1st Album)
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This was another favorite of mine from my childhood, my older brother had it, and I used to listen to it over and over, as he tried to teach me how to play Black Magic Woman on the six string acoustic.
The thing about this album is it is so different from anything else, not only in the fusion of Latin-jazz-funk into the rock, but mostly for the introduction to the “voice” of Santana’s guitar. There are a few vocalist, who you can easily identify within a bar of any song, but there are also a few musicians, and most notably, Carlos Santana, whom you can easily identify with a bar of instrumental. Amazing collection of artist, with an amazing collection of songs and Carlos Santana makes this one of the very best albums of the late ’60s.
So here’s the deal, for those of you that remember, if you don’t currently have a copy of this great album, well, you know you should! And.. for those of you too young to have heard this entire album, you really owe it to yourself to see what it is all about. You won’t regret it.
Review by HardyBoys.us for Santana (1st Album)
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More than 35 years after its initial release, Santana’s first album still remains fresh and relevant.
Latin rhythms, rock and blues all merge together to form Santana’s unique sound.
This “30th Anniversary Edition” has been digitally remastered and sounds great.
The icing on the cake is the three bonus tracks from Santana’s electrifying Woodstock performance, a performance that shot the band into national prominence and deservedly so.
The original Santana band lineup was to go on to make 2 more excellent albums (Abraxas and III) before parting ways but neither of them, nor the albums that followed with other musicians, capture the raw energy of the group the way this first album did.