Matt LuceyA Bit About Santana
Carlos Santana is ranked among the best guitarists in the world. Having started his music career in the 60s, Santana was a huge inspiration to many. Being hugely inspired by rock and blues in the 60s, Santana learned to put his own spin on the genre. Listening to the likes of BB King and John Lee Hooker, Santana fused this blue and rock genre with his own brand of Afro-Cuban music with Latin influences. He would go on to found the band named after himself, Santana. With hits like “Black Magic Woman” gaining him worldwide acclaim, Santana enjoyed a long career in the music industry, in which he is still active.
Santana’s Music Career
As I mentioned, Santana is best known for his own unique fusion music style. Mixing the Latin rhythmic sounds he grew up listening to, with the new Rock and Blues sound, Santana found his signature. Abraxas, which was released in 1970 is considered by many to be his, and the band’s musical peak. This album was a showcase of the bands sound, with a focus on the percussion and guitar. The rhythmic drumming was a mainstay in his work, with the sharp cutting guitar coming through brightly.
Santana’s style of guitar playing is quite unique and recognisable. With a bright, expressive sound, it feels almost as though he is talking through the guitar. While Santana’s voice was never the main focus, he sang well, complimenting the smooth sound from the band. This album was also the release of his most famous song, “Black Magic woman”. The previous year, Santana had performed live at Woodstock. This was a huge achievement and the band had, by then, skyrocketed in popularity.
Santana’s Recent Releases
In the last few years, the band released a number of remasters and live performance albums. This year, Santana released his first original album since 2021. Santana, unlike a lot of bands, never truly stopped making music. He has consistently released new works since his first release in 1969. The release of this album, Sentient, was set to be a huge release, containing collabs on almost every track. With samples from Miles Davis, an unreleased collab with Michael Jackson and more, this had promised to be a stellar album. With Santana turning 77 recently, this is likely to be one of his last releases.
Sentient
Unfortunately, for me in any case, the album did not live up to expectations. Even at first glance, the artwork on the album looks like a child’s first attempt at photoshop. It’s tacky and a bit embarrassing for such a promising album. On first listen, the album felt quite disjointed, lacking the cohesion that can be found in other works of Santana. While there are one or two redeeming songs, the majority of this album feels poorly thought out. The collaborations don’t seem to mesh well with Santana music style.
“Please Don’t Take Your Love”
This, to me, was one of the best tracks on the album. With classic blues licks, the guitar matches the singing of Smokey Robinson. This is one of the few tracks on the album where the energy of the collaborator matches Santana’s playing. While it is my favourite on the album, there is nothing here that would make it stand out on any other album. The guitarwork is slow and steady, as opposed to the high energy playing you might expect from Santana. If the whole album was of this quality, I would have quite enjoyed the listen.
“Get On”
“Get on”, the fifth track on the album, was shamefully bad. While it follows Santana’s general template of guitar and rhythmic percussion, nothing else seems to match. The female vocals don’t match the rest of the song, sticking out like a mistaken sample. This song also feels like its aimlessly rambling for minutes at a time, without any clear core. The samples of Miles Davis might be the most tragic aspect of this piece. There are several samples of Davis’ trumpet which don’t seem to fit at all. Its a shame that this one was so poor, after my initial excitement in seeing Miles Davis name.
“Rastafario”
‘Rastafario” was the only other song on the album with Miles Davis as a collaborator. This one was slightly redeeming though. With a reggae beat and the usual Santana percussion, this worked well with Davis’s sampling. While nothing incredibly special, this song is probably one of the few on the album that’s worth a listen. Even if you just want to see how Santana passably made a reggae style song with Miles Davis playing trumpet.
Final thoughts
Unfortunately, the two or three listenable songs on this album are not enough to redeem it as an album. Overall, this one feels like it was thrown together. Making the samples and mixing fit with the music style weren’t given enough thought. None of the songs felt like they followed on from the last, giving the listener musical whiplash. In this case, you might be well served by judging the book by the cover, as the album art sums up the albums quality. An icon surrounded by rushed editing and pointless visuals. Santana’s guitarwork was still good, but most other aspects felt weak and aimless. Unfortunately, very few of the collaborations had a chance to really work well against Santana’s style. I wouldn’t say this album is worth a listen, but there may be one or two songs worth listening to.
