Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps best of Santana's '80s studio work, June 2, 2002
Arguably Santana's strongest work within his mediocre '80s studio output, Blues for Salvador is a listenable CD with some high moments. The soft jazz/rock "Bella," a love song to Carlos' daughter, deserves a place of honor on any list of pretty Santana tunes. With Chester Thompson's keyboards joining Carlos' guitar to create exquisite music with an atmospheric, relaxing texture, "Bella" has its own sound rather than the rehashed high-pitched guitar twangs of the triad of "Samba Pa Ti," "Europa," and "Moonflower." In the title cut, Carlos' guitar expresses a sort of yearning, passionate but not intense, and sometimes even smug, with a modified blues feel. It is also very atmospheric, because of the perfect overlaying of Thompson's keyboards with Carlos' guitar work. However, while the other tracks are decent, they contain nothing earth shattering. "Hannibal" has some good guitar soloing but is just a moderately improved remake of the Zebop version, and "Deeper, Dig Deeper" is an instrumental of the verseline version of Freedom. Among the other songs are a concert jam and two outtakes from the "Love Never Fails" sessions. The material from those sessions never became a solo Santana album as planned, instead appearing here as well as on Freedom and Viva Santana. Thus, Blues for Salvador largely amounts to a patchwork CD. Vocals are ephemeral; the music is the thing, and there is some good stuff, but not enough to justify a fourth star.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Of Santana's Forgotten Treasures of the 80's, November 23, 2003
Admittedly there are at least three tracks on Blues For Salvador that have a really outdated 80's pop rock commercial feel for the time. But the rest of the set is purely heaven sent and timeless !
There is an experimental quality with Blues For Salvador that was not really felt or expressed with Santana's other pop sounding projects or efforts from the 80's. At times there is a slight underlying new age or ambient feel to some of the instrumentals such as Mingus. The Latin, rock, jazz fusion sound is still there and umistakeably Santana's trademark sound.
Like I said, forget about the few pop-like tracks, while a bit catchy (I'm Gone, 'Trane, Deeper Big Deeper) and concentrate on the majority of excellent material that is here !I was going to give this recording only 4 stars but because Bella is one of the most beautiful instrumentals Santana has ever written I have to bump it to 5...
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Different sounding but unmistakably SANTANA, January 28, 2001
This album is a wonderful exit from the poppy radio stuff of the mid 80's. A few of the tracks are heavily drum-tracked, yet there are also some real drums in there, like on Bella. Bailando/Aquatic park is an essential listen..there is some beautiful playing on that one. Bella, i think, is the absolute best mood music on the face of the earth. I don't know how many times I have lay back on my bed with incense and cranked up Bella and waited for the climax of the song. Blues for Salvador is incredible...but if you really want to appreciate that song...get "Viva Santana" on video. The studio doesn't do it credit. All in all, this album is super listenable, and i will consistently just whisper "wow" to myself upon listening to it.. Highly recommended!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by Santana 
