Santana - Santana (1969)

Dan: 

Like many albums of the late 1960s, my memories are associated with places where I first heard them. Erie, Pennsylvania is where I place Santana's debut album. It received plenty of FM radio play, especially the single "Evil Ways." It offered an original type of fusion between rock and Latin music and signaled the beginning of one of the great bands in the history of rock music.

I have to confess that I ignored a lot of the songs on Santana except for "Evil Ways," which I really liked. When Caravanserai, Borboletta, and Welcome came out a few years later, I gave them all my attention. But I recently revisited the first album, gaining a deeper appreciation for it. For starters, I took a long look at the album cover art, which I always thought was just a portrait of a roaring lion. Look closely for yourself and you should see much more. How's that for a metaphor for discovering unheard aspects of a recording?

Musically, the key to my renewed respect for Santana is embracing Latin percussion and the vocal traditions of popular Latin music. For example, I discovered the beauty of congas and timbales, as played by both Mike Carrabello and José Chepito Areas. Appreciation comes more easily after you admit that your expertise is limited to what you already know, and you're willing to open your ears to hear things you've missed.

Of course, no assessment of Santana should exclude the monster guitarist and leader/namesake of the band, Carlos Santana. There are more long solos on the later albums, but even his fills and melody statements on Santana are attention-grabbers. 

A bit of advice to those who only know Santana through its 1999 hit "Smooth" from Supernatural. Please go back to the earlier years. They're much better on all counts than the overproduced best seller. 

Steve:

I actually didn't get this album into my collection until just a few years ago, and I've only ever heard it a handful of times. I have, however, heard Caravanserai, Welcome, Oneness, and others of that ilk many times, and prefer those. We'll get to reviews of those soon. With that kind of listening background, it's easy for me to underestimate and difficult for me to understand how groundbreaking this Santana debut must have been in 1969, even if its ambitions seem tame relative to those later achievements. While it's far from the first instance of a Latino focus in American pop music, it may represent the first strong Latino influence on progressive rock. Not only that, but this new flavor was successfully fused with a lead guitar style that was all Carlos's own, and the two were a surprising but natural fit.  

Apart from "Evil Ways", the other song I know well from Santana is "Soul Sacrifice", which was featured in the Woodstock movie. The Woodstock Festival actually preceded the release of Santana's debut album, so I can only imagine how blown away the attendees were at the time. The Columbia/Legacy CD reissue of Santana, in addition to having a nice booklet and clear sound, has three live performances from the Woodstock performance, including all 11 minutes of "Soul Sacrifice" - a great addition to the CD.