September 23, 1970 - Abraxas

Only 5 days after my last release, Santana are finally releasing their second album "Abraxas" on September 23, 1970. Similar to their debut album, "Abraxas" has 2 covers and several instrumental jams. "Santana" was a great album, but there was room for improvement. Let's see how their sophomore effort shapes up!

Side 1 begins with the instrumental "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts". It has a slow piano opening by Gregg Rolie and some chimes. Carlos joins on guitar and around a minute and a half in the tempo speeds up. There's some cool congas from percussionists José Areas and Michael Carabello (can't really tell who's playing what) and some great trippy keyboards by Rolie carry the rest of the song. The next song "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" is two different covers made into one awesome song. "Black Magic Woman" is a Fleetwood Mac cover and "Gypsy Queen" is originally by Gábor Szabó. From the get-go the congas add the Santana flavour to the song and it's carried by some excellent guitar by Santana. David Brown plays some great bass as well while Rolie plays organ and sings about a woman who's got a spell on him. His voice is done perfectly to fit the song and I think it sounds wonderful. Carlos goes off for a pretty good solo and then some fast congas and percussion signal the beginning of the "Gypsy Queen" part. This part is much faster and features more great guitar by Carlos and a lot of different drumming that sounds awesome. Track 3 is another cover called "Oye Como Va", originally by Tito Puente. It starts with an organ riff and some catchy congas to set the stage for Santana's guitar. The lyrics are all in Spanish, but the song has a nice dancing beat with some great drumming by Michael Shrieve, Areas and Carabello and of course a solid guitar solo by Santana. Rolie then goes off for a wicked organ solo, like wow that is good! There's one more verse before we get another guitar solo to close out this cool song. Side 1 ends with another instrumental titled "Incident At Neshabur" which was co-written by Santana and his friend Alberto Gianquinto. Gianquinto plays piano on the song while Rolie sticks to organ. It starts with some quick drumming by Shrieve and some cool piano. It's led by a cool main guitar riff by Santana, but we are soon treated to another wonderful organ solo by Rolie. Santana takes a crack at a solo as well, then we hear the main riff once more before it gets quiet. This part has some cool guitar and the piano gets really jazzy! Another cool song and this album is off to a great start. 

Side 2 starts with "Se Acabó" which is kicked off by the trio of drummers. Organ and guitar join in and Santana plays a pretty good guitar solo. Areas, who wrote the song, goes off for a cool conga solo and during the last minute we hear only the name of the song for lyrics. Rolie plays some great organ as well, and he also wrote the next song on the album "Mother's Daughter". The guitar and organ take the lead but there is some cool bass by Brown in the background. Rolie's code sounds pretty good and Santana gets in some nice licks between the verses. The last minute-plus is an awesome instrumental part with great contributions from everyone. Track 7 is an instrumental called "Samba Pa Ti", a slow song with lots of great flourishes by Santana. Organ and bass join in eventually but it's Santana's guitar that is the driving force throughout, including a really sweet solo at the end. The next track is another Rolie song titled "Hope You're Feeling Better". He opens it with a little wicked organ riff before the whole band joins in for the first verse. The singing bits are alright but not amazing, but again Santana provides a couple great guitar solos to keep things interesting. The album ends with a short track named "El Nicoya" which has some more Spanish singing on top of congas and acoustic guitar. Areas and Carabello pack a lot of great percussion into a minute-and-a-half song and it's a fitting way to end a Santana album.

That concludes "Abraxas" and I thought it was another great album by the six-piece. I think they built off "Santana" and have managed to make an even better record. Great guitar, great organ and a lot of rhythm section sure seems a recipe for success and hopefully Santana continue this trajectory and release an even better album next year!