Customer Reviews

Essential Santana

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This new 2 cd set from Santana is a good value. It is probably aimed at fans only aware of Carlos Santana's last two guest filled albums. It is a pretty handy set though. The material is from his tenure at Columbia records from 1969-1989. The set illustrates Santana's varied influences from latin, blues, rock, and jazz. The first disc contains material from the first and best incarnation of his band which featured Gregg Rolie on keyboards and vocals, Michael Shrieve on drums, Neal Schon on second guitar and the standard for Santana, a fiery latin percussion section. The material for this classic period includes a cover of Willie Bobo's (a big early influence) "Evil Ways", "Soul Sacrifice" and a medley of Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman" and Gabor Szabo's "Gypsy Queen". The Latin "Oye Como Va" and "No One To Depend On" based on another Willie Bobo song are notable. The live version of Miles Davis' jazz/fusion classic "In A Silent Way" is worth the price of the set alone. Material from Santana's team up with jazz/fusion guitarist John McLaughlin is also included. However, a number of essential cuts like "Persuasion", a cover of jazz saxophonist Gene Ammon's "Jungle Strut", and early instrumentals "Incident At Neshabur" and the great "Song Of The Wind" are omitted.

The second disk begins his transition to more single oriented material. It is beneficial in that it summarizes the better material from some of his weaker albums. The second disk includes covers the the Zombies' "She's Not There", Buddy Holly's "Well Alright" via Blind Faith, and Russ Ballard's "Winning". A rare live version of the Latin workout "Dance Sister Dance" and rockers like "Open Invitation" and "All I Ever Wanted" also make the cut. However, cuts like "Europa", "Aqua Marine" and "Blues For Salvador" show why Carlos Santana's Mike Bloomfield influenced guitar playing is highly admired. Not only can he play fast and flashy when necessary but he also has good sense of when to play slower and invoke real feeling in his playing. Last but not least is a duet with blues icon John Lee Hooker on "The Healer". The second disk is only 74 minutes long so another song or two could have been added to the set.

The set provides a good introduction to those curious about Santana's earlier work. The second disk summarizes some his singles from his spottier late seventies and eighties albums. While his first three albums are essential this set successfully shows the varied styles and influences of the latin/rock pioneer Carlos Santana.

This is another in Sony Legacy's Essential Series. Usually these are 33 tracks on 2 CDs. This was billed as "Chosen by Carlos himself." Curiously, the song selection, edits, and mixes are the same as a 2 CD Sony import The Ultimate Collection (SONYTV47CD). The only advantage is that Aqua Marine, She's Not There, and Soul Sacrifice (single edits on the import) are restored to full length on this.

All I Ever Wanted is a single edit, as well as Nowhere to Run and Hold On that appeared two years ago on the import. Since the second disc clocks in at exactly 74 minutes (where the first disc clocks in at 78.50) one wonders why edits were used in the first place.

On the subject of edits, No One to Depend On has its 9 second spoken intro cut off. The import had the song intact. Also Havana Moon goes unrepresented on this Essential collection, yet Beyond Appearances, one of Santana's worst albums, IS represented.

The collection also gives improper weight to the albums. Abraxas is weighted the same as Marathon and Inner Secrets (clearly two inferior albums) and Caravanserai (which Carlos describes in the notes on the 1995 box set as the equal to Abraxas) is given the same weight as Beyond Appearances (only one song).

Where is Song of the Wind, Se a Cabo, and Persuasion.

So, another multidisc collection which solves some problems of the imports but creates new ones. Still, it does have In A Silent Way, one plus.

Of all the 2 CD collections out there, the nod goes to Ultimate (SONYTV47CD). If you don't mind some of the single edits, it represents more albums, and has a more thorough selection.

As is the case quite often this year with classic pop artists, two-disc sets offer an attractive middle-ground alternative from a one-disc anthology or a bulky boxed-set overview of an artist's career. Some artists find it difficult to fill one CD with quality material, while others seem shortchanged by such a brief overview. Santana's single-disc best-of from several years ago managed to present most of the obvious choices, and is the recommended option if the potential buyer really only wants a handful of the classic cuts. However, if you want to dig a little deeper into Santana's career without loading up on a lot of the original albums, then ESSENTIAL is the best option...you get the hits plus enough quality extra cuts to get a fuller context of the first several decades of Santana's career.

The one-disc set was weighted towards the hits, some of which veered away from Santana's musical identity without much in return (e.g., such classic rock covers as WELL ALL RIGHT). While such tracks are also heard here, two CDs provide a much more artistically satisfying selection of Santana`s many ambitious recordings (including a live version of IN A SILENT WAY/IT'S ABOUT THAT TIME) and other jazz-tinged instrumental performances that stretch Carlos' vision into fresh, timeless areas. I rated this CD four-stars because of the mid-career tracks on disc two that fall into the generic, "album-oriented-rock" (AOR) sound of that era. If you like this style, the inclusion of these cuts will suit you just fine, but for the rest of us they seem dated and lacking Carlos' stylistic fingerprints. One thing I would have liked is personnel listings in the liner notes (at least the vocalists). This is a minor gripe, though...more than compensated by the outstanding sound quality (the best remastering yet on these tracks).

The folks at Sony have been releasing a boatload of these "Essential" compilations, and for the most part, they're all quite good. The latest one is The Essential Santana." In this instance, they took four decades of music, and condensed it to just over 150 minutes of music. Most, but not all, of the hits are here, along with a few album tracks to satisfy the diehards.

My biggest complaint with this collection is that they don't always use the full length versions of the songs. The good thing is that they touch on most of the legendary guitarist's catalog. Naturally, any longtime fan will find faults with this type of release. For example, there's only one track from the criminally underrated Zebop album ("Winning") and they used the studio version of "Europa" instead of the live version on Moonflower.

On a positive note, there's nothing from Supernatural. It's great that Santana finally achieved the success that he deserved after all these years. But it's too bad that it had to come with the help of people like Rob Thomas and Dave Matthews. The Essential Santana is sure to be a hit around the upcoming holiday season for those who are discovering Carlos' back catalog, but longtime fans looking for a Santana compilation will be better off with The Best of Santana, or the recently remastered reissues.

At his prime, Santana was brilliant. This compilation definetly gives us Carlos' best. But it also gives us some of his worst. Look over my list of pros and cons...
Pros:
1. More great songs than you can shake a stick at: Jingo, Evil Ways, Soul Sacrifice, Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen, Oye Como Va, Everybody's Everything, Toussiant L'Overture, La Fuente Del Ritmoa, In a Silent Way, She's Not There, Eurpoa, Well Alright and the Healer included but there's lots more.
2. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better guitarist than Carlos Santana.
3. His classic late 60's-early 70's period is rightfully given the most attention.
4. Available at most record stores for a low price.
Cons:
1. Too much filler on the second disc. Dance Sister Dance, Open Invitation, Aquamarine, You Know That I Love You, All I Ever Wanted, Hold On, Say It Again...etc, etc, etc.
2. Caravanaseri, a true gem of an LP, is represented by only one cut (La Fuente Del Ritamo). Somebody had better play the record companies Look Up (to See What's Coming Down) or Every Step of the Way.
3. Nothing past 1989 was included. Which is too bad, because I really do like the song Smoothe.
Even though the one-disc Best-of is about as good, the one-disc best-of doesn't include She's Not There, In a Silent Way, La Fuente Del Ritamo or Well All Right

I have to say that Santana is great whatever they play, however the greatest album for me was Moonflower,listen to Europa, Samba Pati,Ill be waiting, what band apart from Santana could ever imagine reaching such musical pleasures for the listeners.....no-one!! I dont think that Santana will beat this one, as for me it has the most emotional music one can listen to, there are a couple of tracks that im not so keen on, dont misunderstand me, they are good,but the rest are brilliant, but you just cannot buy any album with every track 100% hot, but Santana reaches 99.9%
Keep going Carlos your fans are with you till the end of your music........there wont be an end though!!!

The Essential Santana, like most releases in the Essential series is missing one key track. That track is "Hope You're Feeling Better" from Abraxas. Other than that the track listing is stellar, except it would've been nice to have the studio version of "Dance Sister Dance".

Mexico native Carlos Santana gives his fans his best recording just like any other artist on any essential/ultimate compilation. Carlos' career began in or around 1969 or '70,one of his first Top 20 hits being EVIL WAYS. Other memorable tunes include WINNING from his 1981 album ZEBOP!. When I first heard the tune,I thought it was Journey frontman Steve Perry singing(Journey are Carlos' Columbia Records labelmates). I found out one of Carlos' bandmates is a vocal clone of Perry. I also heard the Perry clone on HOLD ON from 1982's SHANGO. Another great tune is STORMY,a cover of the Classic IV's 1968 hit. The other songs are great.

for the a price of about $20 this is the best compilation of santana that money can buy. True, a few songs have been left out but on the whole it is a solid cd with santanas greatest works.

Carlos Santana has always been the best guitarest and he shows that in this CD.
There's a few great songs on this album like "YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU" that song is a instant classic.
"SHE'S NOT THERE" that song is a mix between 80's disco and modern day rock.
"OPEN INVATION" This song has a heavy beat and creative lyrics from the album "INNER SECRETS" which is a gereat Santana album."THE HEALER" John lee hookerw/Santana that song's been grown' on me,
It's like C-man + J-man= BOMB!
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