Santana: Santana - 1969
This is the debut studio album by the now-legendary Latin “fusion” rock band Santana released in 1969.
Over half of the album's length is composed of instrumental music, recorded by what was originally intended to be a purely free-form jam band. At the suggestion of manager Bill Graham, the band took to writing more conventional songs for more impact, but managed to retain the essence of improvisation in the music. This remained throughout their career. After the band played a storming set at that summer’s Woodstock festival, the album was eagerly awaited.
It is packed with great Latin-flavoured, rhythmic instrumentals, such as the intoxicating Jingo (which doesn’t have many vocals, but does have a few), Savor, the excellent, pulsating Soul Sacrifice, Waiting, which perfectly introduced the band’s organ-percussion-guitar sound, and the almost jazz-funky Treat. The stunning Latin percussion element of the band welded perfectly with Carlos Santana’s unique and now iconic lead guitar.
Evil Ways was a single, and was the first example of their branching out into writing songs as well as instrumentals. A good one it was too. Rhythmic, infectious and invigorating. Despite having vocals, there were also lengthy instrumentals parts too.
Shades Of Time is a very late 60s rock song, without quite so much Latin influence as others on the album, but with a stunning Carlos Santana guitar break, however. It segues perfectly into the Latin rock instrumental Savor and subsequently into the electrifying Jingo. Thrilling stuff for a debut album. Persuasion is more of a conventional rock song. Almost bluesy in places. You Just Don't Care is a great slab of heavy rock. Putting a historical context on things, in 1969, this band really were quite unique. In many ways they remained so.
Upon release, it did not get a good critical reception, which was somewhat unfair, particularly considering the band were very young at the time. It is viewed more positively in retrospect though. All things considered, it is an astonishingly mature debut album. The three bonus live tracks, from Woodstock, serve as examples of just what a great live band they were.
The album is also included as the lead-in studio album on The Woodstock Experience, a wonderful compilation that includes the group’s now legendary full set from the festival. They play all of this album except for Shades Of Time and Treat, but make up for that with the previously unreleased Fried Neckbones. The sound is truly awesome, especially considering its outdoor and often chaotic location. It is powerful, bassy and “warts ‘n’ all", perfectly capturing the spaced-out, free and easy vibe of the festival.
