summer album of the week 08/08/09
santana: santana (released august 1969)
The congas. Not even the otherworldly scream of Carlos Santana’s guitar solos permeate this still-stunning 1969 debut album - an almost unceasingly electric blast of Latin psychedelia - as deeply as its wicked percussion drive. You hear it first as Santana opens with Waiting, a gumbo-like mix of guitar, organ and drums. Congas soon drive the entire album, from the dark-hearted hit Evil Ways (a tune so menacing Santana dropped it from the band’s concert repertoire for decades) to the chant-like drive of Babatunde Olatunji’s Jingo to the almost processional beat of Soul Sacrifice, the tune that broke the band at Woodstock 40 years ago this month. Topping it all was the after hours piano blues of Treat, where Santana showed it could also swing with jazzy vigor. A sublime late summer, late night listen.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.