Customer Reviews

Milagro

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the CD I've heard the least about. After checking out some of the reviews here at Amazon, I decided to give it a try. This really is a great collection of tunes. As a fan of Santana's earlier works ;
Abraxas
III
Caravanserai
Live With Buddy Miles
Lotus
Welcome
Moonflower
Zebop (an early 80's release).

I wondered if this particular collection would remind me of Santana's past endeavors.

I can write unequivocally,and offer the following recommendation...Indeed, Santana plays with fire again on Milagro. All of the most musically distinctive qualities one attributes to earlier Santana can be found on Milagro. I'll even go so far as to declare this as possibly his best work since the early to mid seventies. Yes, Milagro surpasses Zebop in my opinion. Buy it.You will not be disappointed.

I'll keep this short, as most of the others here have stated their case pretty eloquently. This is a GORGEOUS sounding album, with the nuances of each instrument very well presented, and yet, like the Red Sea parting for Moses, when Carlos makes another entrance, they all part way. There are a couple weak moments here ("Life is for Living" and "Free All The People"), but how do you make statements like this without sounding trite?
Focus on the truly spectacular music ("Somewhere in Heaven", "Right On") and the incredible interplay with Carlos and Chester Thompson (keyboards). There's a great spectrum of music here, from the soul and rock of those numbers, to the jazz of "Red Prophet" to the intense Latin music workout "Aqua...".
Take note that the only negative review to this album was by someone who didn't even hear it, only heard the samples provided. Sort of like saying "The Godfather" was a lame movie cuz you saw the trailer.

Early 1970's rock music followed a United States/British axis. Then came Carlos Santana. His first album "Santana" brought Latin influence to rock music. Santana's second album "Santana Abraxas" brought Caribbean (Latin/African) influence to rock music. These albums were high impact rock milestones. Conservative "Time" magazine commented 'Santana has taken flight like a Poseidon missile exploding out of a sea of mediocrity ... a rare poetic delicacy.' Carlos Santana opened the doors -- others followed.

The 1992 recording "Milagro" is a showcase for Carlos Santana's guitar virtuosity. Two of the twelve selections on this recording are *showpieces*: 'Somewhere In Heaven' combines guitar, keyboard and vocal solos in a combination with both strength and heart; while 'Gypsy/Grajonca' begins with a quiet flamenco guitar passage before building to a powerful composition featuring strong guitar and rhythm solos. Another four selections are outstanding examples of Carlos Santana's guitar mastery: 'Milagro' (with great rhythm solos); 'Saja/Right On/Your Touch' (with strong rhythm and vocals); 'Make Somebody Happy' (with strong vocals); and 'Free All The People (South Africa)' (with strong rhythm and vocal solos). Finally, 'Life Is For Living' features outstanding rhythm virtuosity combined with guitar and vocal solos, while 'Agua Que Va Caer' features excellent guitar and rhythm solos.

Today's rock music fans often don't appreciate instrumental complexity -- they expect complex robotic assemblies. In "Milagro" Carlos Santana combines complexity and precision craftsmanship with Latin warmth -- his *soul* is behind his music. This recording reflects a master musician's twenty-plus years of polishing his craft -- a long road from "my house is dark and my pots are cold". I recommend 'Milagro' most highly.

This is a comeback album for Santana.

In the late sixties and early seventies, Santana was a major force in rock music. He was a big innovator, bringing Latin and African sounds to rock. Later he mixed in the San Francisco psychodelic sound and then went on to jazz fusion. Throughout this time, his music was rich, lush and pushed the boundaries. There was a lot of energy and emotion in everything he played.

In the mid-seventies and all through the eighties, Santana swtiched to a stripped down, pop sound. Most of his hits were covers of old pop tunes. He had a series of unremarkable lead singers. There was no imagination to the music. It was just a matter of taking pop, adding a few congo drums and a short Santana guitar solo. However, his live shows remained exciting.

This album marks the rebound of Santana. He returns to the rich, overlapping sound that made him famous. The first three tracks are long, powerful numbers. The cover of Marvin Gaye's Right On is especially inspired. Also outstanding is Free All the People. There are some weak tracks, like Life Is For Living and Make Someone Happy. But, the CD is almost 70 minutes long and there is enough good music to rate 5 stars.

After this, Santana released the amazing live album Sacred Fire, where he took all his old hits and made them fresh and exciting again. Then came the Supernatural, the top selling ablum of 1999 and 2000.

Begining with the moving introduction by the late Bill Graham, this album is almost 72 minutes of emotional music and lyrics. Carlos' guitar is as good as it's ever been.

I had this on cassette since it came out. I loved it so much I had to buy it on cd! Each song is crafted with a mix of jazz, rock and the signature sound of Carlos! There are plenty of guitar solos and words from people who have inspired him at the intro of many song. THIS IS A MUST for Santana fans or somebody who just appreciates good music!

This is the album that brought Santana out of their 80's pop phase of cruddy albums. This album is a great listen alll the way through, I recommend it to fans of the earlier Santana albums if they would like to hear a mix of old and new.

I bought this CD back in 1992 on the day it was released, and I wasnt disapppointed. The songs here are great. I think the stand out tunes are Aqua Que Va Caer, and Free All The People. Other songs as Somewhere in Heaven and Make Somebody Happy are also choice cuts. Any fan of Santana will enjoy this CD, and it will help to bring in more new fans. Buy it now

In terms of sales, the 1980's and `90's were not "good" to Carlos Santana and band, even though ZEBOP! ('81), HAVANA MOON ('83), and BLUES FOR SALVADOR ('87) were all top notch efforts and three works of the 90's (SPIRITS DANCING IN THE FLESH, MILAGRO, & BROTHERS) are equal to and better than the much honored SUPERNATURAL (`99 and definitely demand and deserve as much attention as his better selling mid to late 70's albums. Generally speaking, the commercial record buying public of the 80's and 90's were somewhat discouraging to Santana and in 1990 Carlos waved off efforts to "sell" albums in favor of just making his music as he saw fit, spiritual works for himself, his family and band, and his true fans and devotees.

SPIRITS DANCING IN THE FLESH ('90) and MILAGRO ('92) are two seriously underrated (and I mean way under rated!) albums by an artist keen on infusing the spiritual nature into the music he gives us. If you listened (Listen!) you will find these albums as deeply rewarding as the three core Santana rock albums (which debuted SANTANA to the world) or the three fantastic fusion albums, all of which are great works of art in their own right! MOONFLOWER stood out as the last "great" Santana album (I have even said that myself) before he embarked upon a series of AOR works and the two (also underrated) solo projects HAVANA MOON and BLUES FOR SALVADOR, both very good efforts and the latter earning him his first ever Grammy Award.

I have chosen to review both albums here with a link to each other because of the similarity in nature of the material and the fact is undeniable that even though both albums were released under two different labels, they both form a unified front of some of Carlos' best material which is so overlooked by critics and the public. SPIRITS in '90 was the last album for Columbia after 22 years under contract with them. Immediately after release of the album, Carlos signed with Polydor who offered him a chance to evolve spiritually without restrictions or pressure. MILAGRO, released under Polydor in '92 was in fact a charity album where proceeds from the sales went directly to Amnesty International, and both albums are inherently linked in this as they both deal in part with the South African freedom movement.

Carlos has a knack for finding keyboard players who wrap their music around his frets and chords into an interlocking unit and they usually co-write wonderful songs with him. Chester Thompson, who made his debut with Carlos on BLUES FOR SALVADOR is one more of those and his work on SPIRITS and MILAGRO is simply amazingly wonderful.

MILAGRO is dedicated to Bill Graham and Miles Davis (who died the year prior), so it is no surprise that the album opens with a live spoken introduction to Santana by Bill Graham and ends with a trumpet sample lifted from Miles Davis, a superb touch if you ask me. MILAGRO on the whole feels even more inspired than SPIRITS DANCING IN THE FLESH though neither album is a slacker in any way. MILAGRO just has the one thing which additionally propels it farther: impetus. One song moves to the other feeling like the conceptual nature of ABRAXAS, SANTANA III, CARAVANSERAI, WELCOME, and BORBOLETTA. From the moment you hear Bill Grahams introduction and the first notes of "Milagro", you are taken on a journey through Santana's spiritual realm until you are left back on your doorstep with a final "A Dios" from the band. Now here is what you will encounter on your journey.

"Milagro" (means "miracle") is another of those perfect Santana tunes that kick off so many of their albums, Carlos' guitar is razor sharp and the many-voiced vocal chant "we can make it work" and "we heal the people with music" make it startlingly clear that this music on this album is going to be a mystical salve for humanity. One forgets that despite Santana's dance with Sri Chimnoy and The Self Realization Fellowship from '72 to '81, at his core, Carlos is a mystical Latin American Catholic and unlike the philosophical counterparts in North America and the ultra conservative Christian fundamentalists, Carlos believes in healing power and has never given in to the word "cannot". Regardless of your religious leanings, Carlos believes, and that is what counts, he believes, that his guitar sings with the voices of angels, and those angelic voices are certainly triumphant on this album which is pointedly directed at political liberation. Don't forget that Carlos Santana forged his sound in the upheaval of the 60's and the counter-culture movements which began there. Switching labels definitely re-invigorated Carlos even though the 90's purchasing public did not take note of this one. Nail the blame where it belongs on the recording executives heads who fail to promote the works of ultra-talented aging veteran musicians unless they team up with a salvo of youth-oriented acts (see SUPERNATURAL for that act).

After the title track gets us pumped up, "Somewhere In Heaven" opens up with the famous "promised land" speech by Rev Martin Luther King Jr. Carlos and Chester then begin a beautiful interchange that leads into the sweet spiritual ballad. Ultimately, of course, Carlos takes off on those guitar solos that travel to the upper atmosphere and again you can feel that this album has been highly reinvigorating to the man and his music. Carlos' guitar work has not sounded this good since MOONFLOWER.

"Saja" is a beautiful acoustic and electric guitar duet, the acoustic coming from Carlos' younger brother Jorge, which segues precisely into one of the best covers Santana has ever performed: Marvin Gaye's classic "Right On". This track, "Saja/Right On" is one of my personal favorites of Carlos entire discography. The vocals are spot on perfect, Chester Thompson brings Gaye's piano accompaniment to vivid life, and Carlos' guitar work soars to Heaven.

Keys, percussion, and guitar fingering open up "Your Touch" with a poetic intro delivered from Carlos before the main beat takes hold and doesn't let us go, sweeping us into an R&B rocker that again rivals Santana's best works. By now you are visualizing with your ears how incredibly talented Santana is (and are) at fusing rock with jazz, blues, salsa, new age, pop, and even reggae, into a sound which is both unrivaled and un-duplicated anywhere else. Keep your ears open for the brief homage to the debut SANTANA album sounds, followed by percussive trails accented by uber-jazz bass guitar noodlings.

"Life Is For Living" fuses world music, reggae, and rock into a tribute to Mandela and South Africa, and, "Red Prophet" is an Arabesque jazz suite harkening back to Carlos' gigs with John McLaughlin painted with splashes of Miles Davis. "Red Prophet" is again something entirely new, proving that Carlos Santana does not just re-hash old material. The piano leads are remarkable as Chester improvises some wild progressions.

"Agua Que Va Caer" is Santana percussion unit driven, highly Cubano, and by the time Carlos slides into the action you should have your Mambo on! The coda for the song is a sample from the Native American tribal Bad River Singers of the Great Lakes.

"Make Somebody Happy" and "Free All The People" showcase Santana band as a whole entity unified in perfect pop harmony with world music fusing all of the elements into singular performances worthy of recognition. "Gypsy Grajanca" revisits Carlos and Chester's instrumental interplay once again (in addition to angels, Carlos has a seeming fascination with the Gypsy in his titles), and once the song tempo change hits, it's another highlight of the Santana works of art! Back to back with this instrumental is the gorgeous "We Don't Have To Wait", an R&B influenced instrumental that takes us to rock and roll edges. None of the so-called power guitarists of instrumental rock can now, nor ever have, held a candle to the work of Carlos Santana. And dig that organ solo by Chester in the second half of "We Don't Have To Wait", he nails the stuff that Gregg Rolie dug into on Soul Sacrifice with hardly any effort at all.

"A Dios" bids us a farewell from the bandmates, all of them, as Carlos snares his guitar around our collective necks and makes sure that we notice the sampling overlay of John Coltrane's fusion sax, and as they depart, Miles Davis carries us out with a haunting horn beckoning us from beyond.

Don't let MILAGRO slip by you. It is a terrific album worthy of your ears. And please go check out SPIRITS DANCING IN THE FLESH here, I have a review of it which partners with this review.

Spirits Dancing in the Flesh

SANTANA BROTHERS is also another fantastic album from the 90's which any fan of Santana should have in their collection. At this writing it is currently unavailable from Amazon but can be obtained inexpensively as "new" from third party sellers:
Santana Brothers

So I'm driving down the lake the other day, Santana Milagro blasting through the speakers and life is good. Then the CD starts skipping. Oh my god!! I'll look into getting another copy just in case it's more than a smudge. Well, Amazon and everybody else is showing this CD unavailable. Unbelievable! All the other reviews tell the story of this great album. Maybe it was the record company's fault or at the end of a record deal with Polygram that caused this album to be overlooked. Maybe Polygram is the reason it hasn't been reissued by Friday Records like several of his other albums. Whatever the case, I consider this his greatest album. It has all the things we like about Santana. It almost tells a story, almost a concept album. Listening to a few short samples of this album will tell you nothing. If you like Santana - GET IT! It looks like used copies are available but I'm hoping that Friday Records reissues it.