Santana

Ah, 1970. You could start an album with wind chimes and impressionistic piano and people would listen -- and love it. Thank Abraxas for some of Santana's greatest songs ("Black Magic Woman," "Oye Como Va"), but lesser-knowns like "Incident At Neshabur" and "El Nicoya" are just as interesting. This was the final flowering of San Francisco's vibrant 1960s rock scene.

Carlos Santana is one of the three new guitarists who border on B. B. King's cleanliness. His
only two contemporaries are Eric Clapton and Michael Bloomfield, but Santana is playing
Latin music and there are no other Latin bands using lead guitars. The paradoxical thing
about Santana has been their acceptance by a teenybop audience that digs Grand Funk
and Ten Years After when they should be enjoyed by people who are into Chic... More >

On the debut most of the originals were credited to "Santana Band"; this time individual members claim individual compositions. Can this mean somebody thought about these melodies (and lyrics!) before they sprung from the collective unconscious? In any case, they've improved. And in any case, the best ones are by Peter Green, Gabor Szabo, and Tito Puente, none of whom is known to be a member of the Santana Band. (Grade - C+)