Santana – Abraxas (SACD, Mobile Fidelity)

ABRAXAS the second album by the original (and arguably most powerful) Santana line-up proved the band s commercial breakthrough. The album s contains two of the group s biggest hits Black Magic Woman a slinky smooth-edged interpretation of the song written by Fleetwood Mac s Peter Green and their take on Tito Puente s Oye Como Va which injects Carlos Santana s stinging guitar leads into a surging salsa groove. The band s unique genre-blurring approach makes these singles and everything else hereunlike anything that had been heard before. The opener Singing Winds Crying Beasts showcases Carlos Santana s passionate soulful six-string mastery over a drifting psychedelic backdrop. The album ranges in feel encompassing furiously propulsive jams ( Se A Cabo ) low-key Brazilian grooves ( Samba Para Ti ) and jazzy instrumentals ( Incident at Neshabur ). All the elements that made Santana s debut dazzlingroiling polyrhythmic percussion dense pancultural influences virtuoso guitar workare heresharpened and painted with the rich heady sound of late- 60s San Francisco (Santana was just as exploratory and innovative as their hometown cohorts the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane). ABRAXAS remains a seminal Latin-rock release and one of the undisputed classics of the era.