Customer Reviews

Havana Moon

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

 

 

Unable to give this 3 1/2 stars, I lean towards 4. Those who rate this CD low miss the point. They're either unable to seperate Carlos' from his harder edged guitar laced rock music of old, or are "Supernatural" saturated comtemporaries who expect some current flash in the pan "star" to be present on any Santana music of value. Or, they simply didn't notice the title of this CD. I mean to say the song, "Vereda Tropical," is the worst song on the CD because it sounds like a marriacci night club band...um.. eh hem... THE CD IS NAMED "HAVANA MOON!!!" If anything this song is the most definitive- the perfect backdrop to the picturesque Havana Moon setting atop the water at night that graces the cover of the CD. Not to belabor the point, but this is a cover of a classic, old mexican ballad of a broken hearted man singing of his sorrow that only Santana could do as magnificently as he does on this CD. I guess remakes have to be of songs (or even movies come to think of it) that are not even old enough to be redone yet, or of songs so fresh on the minds of contemporary listeners that they even garner a listen. I chuckle at some of the more recent reviews of this album that seem to reak of desperation for the type of "Supernatural" commercialism that only comtemporaries or philistines would expect, indeed, demand of Santana music. Carlos does seem a little indecisive in that choosing, with the first half of the CD leaning in that direction, but coming off somewhat uninspired. "Lightnin" and "One With You," stick out more than the others in a positive light, though "Watch Your Step,' seems to be the type of song Carlos would put out to cater to those who want Santana songs with radio play appeal, with not so defining results (Actualy, the breadth of the music on this CD did put several of these songs on the radio, just not one particular type of station.) But that's where the latter half of this CD picks up the slack. Starting with "Ecquador," Carlos gives us tunes that tilt towards the theme that the title of the CD implies. True, Willie Nelson's accompaniment on "They All Went To Mexico," adds a little country flavor. But the blend of his voice and Carlos guitar gives Santana one of the CD's best songs, if not in his reportoirre. It's a magical blend with a can't sit still tempo that would have even the most reticent up and dancing were it played at a Jimmy Buffett concert, to offer merely an idea of the song's flavor. In between, "Tales of Kilimanjaro, Havana Moon," and "Daughter of the Night" string together one of the best runs of Santana music on any of his CDs, all offering an angle of Santana flavor that his eclectic taste buds have served over the years. If you want "Black Magic Woman" type Santana, buy "Abraxas," or a greatest hits collection. If you want a duet with Michelle Branche, you know where to go. But if you have any musical depth, insight, vision and appreciation for more than just commercial appeal, you might find this CD to be an undiscovered jewel, albeit not without some shortcomings. A number of well entrenched artists have assumed some license in their musical choices. Does one judge Brian Setzer's swing music based on his rockabilly background? Van Morrison's Irish flavored music based on hits like "Brown Eyed Girl? Well, guess what... Carlos is Mexican! Imagine, including a song like "Vereda Tropical" on one of his CDs. The nerve!

The middle section of Carlos Santana's career saw the creation of numerous forgettable albums. Havana Moon is the gem in the midst of this detritus. It is a totally unique amalgamation of a wide variety of American musical styles. Where else can you hear Booker T., Willie Nelson, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmie Vaughn, Greg Brown, Chuck Berry, and Carlos Santana all on the same album? NOWHERE, MY FRIEND! And the best part is that all of the cuts are done well. This album presages Santana's current penchant for guest stars, but Havana Moon is done in a much more laid-back, mellow style than his current efforts. Get this, relax, remember, and wonder.

The title Havana Moon was a tad bit misleading to say the least. I guess I was expecting traditional Cuban latin classic songs covered a la Santana style. Instead, the first two tracks are more of a throwback to the almost 50's noirish style of rock and roll blues. There's even a faint undertone of Cajun as well. Was Santana trying to cover different eras or genres? I'm glad the Fabulous Thunderbirds as well as Jimmie Vaughan were included to pull off this feat with finesse.Yet, they seem out of place at times. The only fault I can see with this collection is that maybe the tracks were not engineered or placed in the proper order. Tracks like Ecuador, Tale of Kilimanjaro, and the last tracks are defintiely the sounds of Carlos Santana (trademark sound) ! They All Went to Mexico (vocals by Willie Nelson) has a Texas Tornadoes feel to it-very sharp, very nice ! However die-hard Carlos Santana fans will feel somewhat disappointed in the other styles included here. The mood of the album is very experimental and raw at times. Yet, it can be quite an entertaining departure for Santana and fans!

The thing about this work was that it seemed to come out of nowhere.Carlos returned to his roots and seems very content and energized in his playing with his blues oriented cohorts.It was a nice surprise indeed.

This is not by any means the most loved of Santana's many albums and that is exactly why it matters. It is not even available here on amazon.co.uk but luckily I, like several other reviewers, have a trusty vinyl copy to fall back on. After fifteen or so years of "traditional" Santana (and I have most, if not all, of those on vinyl too) it marked the point when he branched out in to collaborations. Maybe this didn't work out or was not commercially successful at first (your choice) but by 'Supernatural' in 1999 the boot was on the other foot. I believe a new Santana album, including a diversity of co-conspirators, is due early in 2006.

I like Havana Moon, for all its indubitable discontinuities of style, but to give it more than three stars would leave me with problems rating many of his other albums. If for no other reason you should listen to this just once to see where it fits in and, who knows, you might just like it!

Gosh, I bought this when it came out as a vinyl LP--which should tell you how long I've been a Santana fan. I've always thought this was a terrific set of music. Granted, it took me awhile to get used to Lightnin' but all of the other tracks are just first rate. I had Ecuador playing in my head when I visited that country--and Willie Nelson's They All Went To Mexico is just such a fun song that I've never grown tired of listening to it. The final track, Vereda Tropical, is simply beautiful, as is the story behind it. All in all, this is one of my very favorite CDs and think it deserves higher than three stars!

"Havana Moon" has its share of Santana's nightworld feel, check out the cover, but a patchwork collection of songs. Straight, not mixed in, R&B is combined with latin and jazz, and, in fact, western and country & western. Not much of a concept album. The band indeed explores roots, witness the Chuck Berry title cut and Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love." Its rendition of the former is more favorable. The two opening R&B numbers, "Watch Your Step" and "Lightin'," are OK but fairly pedestrian.

The best songs are the jazzy, dark "Mudbone" and "Tales of Kilimanjaro." They are somewhat similar in character, tho not at all in sound. Free-flowing jazzy solos occasionally display the sweet latin melodic trademark of Carlos, but "Mudbone" has a U.S. western feel and is somewhat more driving while "Tales" is more meandering. The soft, romantic "One with You" is another good song, and it flows into a more lively, fine guitar solo.

"Daughter of the Night" and the short "Ecuador" are less interesting, and the album has a very disappointing inclusion in the penultimate track, the country & western "They All Went to Mexico" sung by Willie Nelson. It is beyond me how Santana saw this mediocre number fit in, except for his homeland. And it is the best example of the album's lack of cohesion. However, "Havana Moon" is still one of Santana's best post-70s studio albums (which are typically not of good quality), containing more of the music a greater mass of people can identify with.

Actually a solo outing with some songs by his band. This is the album that first introduced me to "The Fabulous Thunderbirds" which later led me to a yet undiscovered Stevie Ray Vaughn. Back to the review... The title track (a Chuck Berry cover) has an addicting groove, as does Mudbone (listen for the Jimmie Vaughn guitar solo on this one). Other guests on the album include Willie Nelson, Booker T. Jones, and Carlos' father Jose' Santana. Great liner notes too.

Carlos travels the musical sideroads on this disc, visiting blues, Tex-Mex, and early Rock,n,Roll. He is wonderfully joined on this trip by Jimmie Vaughan era Fabulous Thunderbirds and by Willie Nelson. The colaborations,much to my surprise, are the strength of the album. It doesn't get much better than hearing Carlos and Jimmie playing off of each other. Willie sounds wonderful on the wistful song, They all Went to Mexico. The Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry covers work well within the context of disc. Ultimately, Havana Moon gives us all what we are really listening for...That wonderful Santana tone. This is fun music.

1978 to 1988 marks a decade of Santana's "album oriented rock" stage, highly influenced by Bill Graham who had convinced Carlos that he must return to the ethnic rock fan base he had commanded. Carlos and band (in various incarnations) had released three stunning debut rock albums, then three equally stunning (but commercially only selling to the jazz public) fusion jazz albums, and finally, under Graham's management, and three commercially successful ethnic rock albums (AMIGOS, FESTIVAL, MOONFLOWER) through 1977. During that period Carlos also contributed some "solo" efforts with the legendary Buddy Miles, John McLaughlin, and Alice Coltrane, all of which are superb albums. Now fully in the second half of a decade being known as "Devadip" Carlos Santana, under the tutelage of guru Sri Chimnoy, Carlos and his wife Deborah would begin to grow weary of Chinmoy's unreasonable impositions (including his refusal to allow them to start a family), and Carlos was beginning to trust more and more in his manager, Bill Graham. By 1982 Carlos and Deborah will have dissolved their 10-year relationship with The Self Realization Fellowship and "Devadip" would be gone forever. 1978 to 1988, as a decade of music will have its ups and downs and the next decade after that will lead to the astounding rebirth of Santana with SUPERNATURAL. For these next series of albums, the "rule of three" (trilogies of album styles) will cease to be noted on Santana's music (even though it will rise up again with SUPERNATURAL, SHAMAN, and ALL THAT I AM).

Under this umbrella I will review the following albums in full and make note here of the "disposables", albums that should only be purchased if you are a complete collector of Santana music. INNER SECRETS (1978), MARATHON (1979), ZEBOP! (1981), SHANGO (1982), HAVANA MOON (1983, a "solo" Carlos Santana project), BLUES FOR SALVADOR (1987, another "solo" project), all worthy albums, some more than others, can be fulfilling to the Santana fan. ZEBOP! stands head and shoulders above the rest in total value and is sometimes compared favorably to ABRAXAS in content and style. In between some of these, ONENESS - SILVER DREAMS GOLDEN REALITY (1979 "solo" Carlos Santana project influenced by Chimnoy), SWING OF DELIGHT (1980, a Carlos project with jazz greats Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Harvey Mason, and Tony Williams, and also heavily influenced by the guru), are both good but non-essential albums except for the completist collector. BEYOND APPEARANCES (1985), and FREEDOM (1987) are Santana band albums which are "poor" by Santana standards. 1988's VIVA SANTANA! is a three disc compilation album of remixed Santana's best from the 60's, 70's, and early 80's, previously unreleased material, and live performances. The set includes the rare 1967 studio single "Ballin'" which many fans adore. It reflects the band's early influence from Jimi Hendrix and is a terrific track to download from Amazon if you do not wish to buy the set. I recommend the set to the person who has a number of Santana albums from this period and does not wish to invest more. I would certainly NOT recommend FREEDOM or BEYOND APPEARANCES to anyone as the two albums are fairly maudlin for Santana productions and were it not for Bill Graham stepping in again, and for the success of BLUES FOR SALVADOR, Santana might have fizzled out completely. Luckily, 1990 would be a turn-around year for Carlos and band, and 1999 would be the cherry on top of a Grammy Award winning career!

HAVANA MOON

In 1983 Carlos Santana switched gears and worked a "solo" project that ultimately resulted in one of his finest albums ever. Carlos credits his friend and producer/engineer (SHANGO, 1982) Bill Szymczyk (producer/engineer for the Eagles and Joe Walsh) with initially coming up with the idea for the album HAVANA MOON. Carlos paired up with the legendary Booker T Jones (Booker T & The MG's) to record all of the songs, and enlisted Jimmy Vaughan, Kim Wilson and the rest of The Fabulous Thunderbirds as musicians for the majority of these songs. Adding to this incredible array of singers and musicians, Carlos retained his drummer (Graham Lear) and 3-man Latin percussive unit (Armando Peraza, Raúl Rékow, and Orestes Vilató), and he added vocalist Greg Walker for a couple songs, The Tower Of Power Horns, and finally a collaboration with the one and only Willie Nelson! The finished product is an album of superior note in the Santana catalogue.

Amazingly enough, Carlos mixes up some rocking blues, jazz, and top-form "Santana" music before polishing off the set with an astounding Willie Nelson vocal and a remastered recording of Carlos' father, Jose, performing the classic Spanish serenade, "Vereda Tropical". Top billing on this album needs to go to Booker T's work alongside of Carlos trading off the guitar with his keyboards effortlessly turning each song into a work of art, and his wonderful vocals (who knew Booker T could sing so well?) on the beautiful "One With You" and the title track! T-Birds' Kim Wilson grabs the spotlight for other lead vocals and for a truly haunting bayou harmonica! Let's go look...

"Watch Your Step" is a late-50's styled rock-n-roller that kicks off the album with terrific Carlos and Booker T leads, phenomenal Tower Of Power horns, and rocking blues vocals from Greg Walker (at this time the standing Santana vocalist). It clearly indicates up front what to expect from this album, a nod to the roots of Santana's rock!

"Lightnin'" is the first send up from Carlos, Booker T, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, a tribute to Lightin' Hopkins' blues with just a touch of 50's rock and roll. Listen for those melodies that insinuate "don't be cruel". Hopkins died the year preceding this album release.

"Who Do You Love" features Jimmy Vaughan (Stevie Ray's brother and leader of The Fabulous Thunderbirds) on hot Bo Diddley guitar licks and Kim Wilson (TFT's lead vocalist and harmonica player) scorches juice harp and vocals.

"Mudbone" is a haunting African savannah instrumental in the tradition of Singing Winds Crying Beasts and other similar tracks from Carlos and company. The Fabulous Thunderbirds leave no room for improvement as they seem to have found the piece that ties the swamp to the Serengeti grasslands. Carlos calls this one a nod to John Lee Hooker.

"One With You" is a smooth jazz composition featuring Booker T on lead vocals. Carlos and Jimmy interplay guitar leads around a soft samba. One of Santana's most beautiful and lyrical songs.

"Ecuador" is a short South American spiritual chant by Carlos and the Santana band.

"Tales Of Kilimanjaro" is the second offering of this mesmerizing track from ZEBOP! This one is slightly more raw and according to Carlos' notes, is the 1st version recorded and the one he personally likes the best. I like them both at a draw, however, the interplay between Carlos and Alan Pasqua (piano) is even more amazing here!

"Havana Moon" was the song Bill Szymczyk kept whispering in Carlos' ear until it finally went to tape. With Booker T on lead vocals, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and the Santana percussive line on medium jam speed, and the whole crew chanting backgrounds, this mediocre Chuck Berry single finally gets the treatment it deserves. This is one cover of the father of rock and roll that outshines its master's conception.

"Daughter Of The Night" is a track which would have fared well on and would have benefitted the weak side of SHANGO a year earlier. Cut from the same cloth as SHANGO and recorded by the same core band with Booker T added, it is a solid Santana track that could have been released as a single to the mainstream rock audience.

"They All Went To Mexico" has the proper distinction of being Carlos' only contribution to country-western music. Recorded in the days when Willie Nelson teamed up with many superstars across many genre, this one ends up being more of a Willie song than Carlos, even though Booker T and the core Santana band are all the musicians. The melding of the two ends up being something on the level of Poncho & Lefty meet Carlos Santana as he fills in the gaps with his signature sound. Unique and enjoyable, it is well worth the fun.

"Vereda Tropical": Carlos closes the album with a Mexican serenade he used to hear as a child. His father Jose, in his own band, would sing it to his mother literally from the streets up to a balcony. I do not know how much of this song is "remastered" versus reconstructed, but all the musicians appear to be authentic Mexican players and Jose Santana is the recorded vocalist. A string arrangement is thrown atop this sentimental song and the result is beautiful.

From "The Spiritual Sayings Of Kahlil Gibran", Carlos quotes: "the reality of music is in that vibration that remains in the ear after the singer finishes his song and the player no longer plucks the strings." I think this truly applies to HAVANA MOON, one of Santana's most pure and cohesive albums.