Abraxas [Bonus Tracks]

1	Singing Winds, Crying Beasts 4:51
2	Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen 5:19
3	Oye Como Va 4:19
4	Incident at Neshabur 5:00
5	Se a Cabo 2:52
6	Mother's Daughter 4:28
7	Samba Pa Ti 4:47
8	Hope You're Feeling Better 4:17
9	El Nicoya 1:39
10	Se a Cabo Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track 3:47
11	Toussaint l'Overture Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track 4:52
12	Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track 4:57

Barnes & Noble

While Santana's first album was successful by any measure, the seminal follow-up, Abraxas, took the band to stunning new heights both musically and commercially. It pushed the group's blend of Afro-Cuban music, jazz, and rock even further than before and forever changed the way that artists and audiences alike thought about cross-pollination. The album opens with the atmospheric, jazzy instrumental "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts" before segueing seamlessly into what would become a signature Santana piece, the medley of Peter Green's blues-rock tune "Black Magic Woman" and Latin jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo's "Gypsy Woman." A straight-up Latin thrust is maintained on Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," which would become yet another FM radio staple. "Incident at Neshabur" is a definitive amalgam of syncopated Latin percussion, rock riffage, and proto-fusion jamming. Keyboardist/vocalist Greg Rolie's two compositions ("Mother's Daughter," "Hope You're Feeling Better") are catchy rockers that represent the more commercial side of Santana. Unsurprisingly, the tunes penned by percussionist Chepito Areas are both the most polyrhythmic and the most heavily Latin-flavored. One would be hard-pressed to find a more successful melding of jazz, rock, and Latin music than Abraxas. The remastered edition adds three priceless 1970 live cuts. Jim Allen

All Music Guide

The San Francisco Bay Area rock scene of the late '60s was one that encouraged radical experimentation and discouraged the type of mindless conformity that's often plagued corporate rock. When one considers just how different Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and the Grateful Dead sounded, it becomes obvious just how much it was encouraged. In the mid-'90s, an album as eclectic as Abraxas would be considered a marketing exec's worst nightmare. But at the dawn of the 1970s, this unorthodox mix of rock, jazz, salsa, and blues proved quite successful. Whether adding rock elements to salsa king Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," embracing instrumental jazz-rock on "Incident at Neshabur" and "Samba Pa Ti," or tackling moody blues-rock on Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman," the band keeps things unpredictable yet cohesive. Many of the Santana albums that came out in the '70s are worth acquiring, but for novices, Abraxas is an excellent place to start. [Columbia/Legacy's 1998 reissue of Abraxas featured three previously unreleased tracks -- "Se a Cabo," "Toussaint l'Overture," "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" -- which were all recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall on April 18, 1970.] Alex Henderson