This is the hottest summer I've experienced in my 9 years in The Netherlands, and by far the longest one, too. It used to be we got 2-3 weeks per year of sun and temperatures around 25°C, but now it seems like we've been having true summer weather for the third month in a row. Could that "global warming" they've been talking about in the news be true? Donald Trump doesn't think so, and he's the chosen leader of the most powerful country in the world, so he should know. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I enjoy the sun when I can and keep counting the days until I start my vacations. Two more weeks and I'll be lying on a Greek island beach, gazing at the sea and listening to something appropriately summer-y. Something like this CD for example.
This is one of dozens of Santana compilations around. I have a few myself, of which this certainly is the weirdest. As is evident by the title, this is an attempt to gather together Santana's most obviously "latin" dance tracks. As such it is at once a sussess and a failure. It succeeds in shining a spotlight on (often unfairly) neglected deep album tracks, especially instrumentals, but fails to include some of their best songs in this style (e.g. "Jingo", "Oye Como Va") rendering it a flawed representation of even this one particular facet of this band - or artist? seeing as Carlos Santana is obviously the band's only constant member and undisputed leader, I'd say these are interchangeable. His guitar playing is brilliant throughout, and that's even more evident in the (many) instrumental tracks included here like the fantastic opener "Samba De Sausalito" from the live Lotus album ('74) and the "Toussaint L'Overture" from 3 ('71) the third and last album by the original line-up, which can also be heard on the afro-cuban "Para Los Rumberos" from the same disc. The latter is at the second half of the CD together with most of the "dance" tracks: "Angel Negro", "Maria Caracoles", "Bailando/Aquatic Park", and the 3 numbers from '81's Zebop ("Hannibal", "Primera Invasion" and the pop soul "E Papa Re") - which kind of highlights the absurdity of this comp: 3 songs chosen from one of Santana's less important LPs - and not even the best or most well-known tracks off the album. "Carnaval" is probably the best of the sambas here, but unfortunately it's presented in its live version (from '77's Moonflower). On that album it just segued smoothly into another song, but here it's abruptly cut short after 2 minutes. "Brotherhood" is another live track (from '85 but released as part of the '88 Viva Santana! compilation) advertising Carlos Santana's hippy-dippy utopian philosophies which nevertheless make him so endearing. Another philosophically inclined tune is the closing ballad "Free As The Morning Sun", from a '79 "spiritual" solo album released under the name Devadip Carlos Santana. It's one of the relatively subdued songs in this compilation, which is otherwise very percussion-heavy and dominated by fast latin rhythms. Another atmospheric tune is "Song Of The Wind" from Caravanserai ('72), a beautiful instrumental. The level of the soloists overall is, despite the personnel changes, consistently high for a rock band and on a par with the best jazz rock players around. The keyboards are especially good while the guitar, of course, is pure magic! A curious feature of this comp us that the silence between the tracks has been removed, supposedly to give it a better flow. It works well when one dance track follows another like in a medley or a DJ set, but not every song change is smooth. On the whole, despite some puzzling choices, this cd still contains some great music and manages to chronologically cover all of Santana's career to that point (with the exception of their first two albums). It's recommended if you want to dig deeper into the band's latin jazz and dance roots. Absolutely not recommended as a starting point, as it fails to include any bona fide classics. Oh, and the cover art is shit.
***** for Toussaint L'Overture
**** for Samba De Sausalito (Live), Carnaval, Song Of The Wind, Angel Negro, Free As The Morning Sun
*** for Touchdown Raiders, La Fuente Del Ritmo, Brotherhood, E Papa Re, Wham!, Flora De Canela, Para Los Rumberos, Maria Caracoles, Bailando/Aquatic Park
** for Nueva York, Primera Invasion, Hannibal
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