Customer Reviews

Santana 3 (Aniv) (Reis)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To be frank, this album is a sheer masterpiece. Santana was at their best when they recorded this album in 1971. Not only did they now boast two Timbaleros, Chepito Areas and Coke Escovedo, but they also brought in a fifteen year-old guitar phenomenon, Neal Schon.
Disc one is the album itself, with extra unreleased bonus recordings. Disc two is where the real money is at. Finally, there is a complete concert of the ORIGINAL Santana band with Neal Schon and Coke Escovedo. This concert is recorded live, with Santana as the very last act on the very last night of The Fillmore West in San Francisco, or as Bill Graham puts it, "What better way than to close it with the sounds of the streets, Santana!" The music is AWESOME! They play most of the album here, along with a GREAT version of Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen, Incident at Neshabur, Miles Davis' In a Silent Way, Savor, and Gumbo, a song that trembles with pure energy, as their closer.
I couldn't believe it when I saw this album. A live CD with the REAL Santana.
For God's sake, buy this album. You won't be able to sit still while listening to it.

This review is only for the second disc in this set because it casts a huge shadow over the first. It's that good. It proves the notion that record company executives are idiots; How could they have let this sit in the vaults for 35 years? It's recorded on the last night of the Fillmore West's existance, and Santana was the closing act that night. The band was on fire and the recording and mixing is as good as any live performance you'll find - even being as old as it is - it's a jewel! It's basically a live version of the third album (which is the first disc in the set), but it blows it out of the water. I'll go so far as to say that this ranks up there with the greatest live albums of all time.

I've never been a big Santana fan, and this is the first Santana CD in my large collection, but this CD changes that. I'm looking forward to getting the first two albums now. Where have I been all these years?

Santana III was fantastic when released 1971; this is even better. This Santana Band live was something to behold in concert...all fire with no coal...not like the copy-protective kind of late. This release is a minefield...with the live material a knockout. Please release the quad version of Borboletta before I die.

Five stars...Thanks Carlos...Viva Santana.

Carlos Santana has always been a soulful guitarist, and disk two of this two disk collection confirms it. The live licks by both Carlos and Neal Schon, the young guitar prodigy who went on to fame and fortune with Journey, sound crisp and clear, yet they are not formulaic. It's free flowing yet structured. Santana's guitar sound can't be necessarily defined, but you know it when you hear it. The same holds true for the precussion section of the band. This section is what makes the live disk go. Vocalist and keyboard player Gregg Rollie is in peak playing form. It's a shame that this version of the band didn't stick together, for whatever reason. As one other reviewer noted, it is simply inexplicable that this live disk sat in some tape can somewhere for so long. Disk one, the original release plus extras, still sounds fresh. The extras on disk one are excellent, particularly Folsom Street. This new Legacy edition is worth the price.

The third Santana album was the last of the original Woodstock-era group, and that trilogy (Santana, Abraxas and Santana III) were three very solid albums. I bought the vinyl LP while still in college back in 1988--the university bookstore actually sold music, and that was where I found this gem the first time round. It has the hits, of course--"No One to Depend On" (which sounds like a rewrite of "Evil Ways," but improved upon), "Everybody's Everything" (which makes you want to get up and dance a samba, very Brazilian flavour) and the breezy "Everything's Coming Our Way"--but there are some fine album tracks (the instrumental "Toussaint L'Overture" would feature prominently in the band's live set for years afterward), of which my personal favourite is the Puerto Rican-sounding "Guajira." The lead vocal was a one-off by Rico Reyes (not then a member of the band), with a joyous Latin cry just before a feverish piano break and some really serpentine lead work from Carlos himself--and a great cha-cha rhythm. Echoes of this song can be heard in "Smooth," the multi-Grammy-winning track for Carlos in Y2K which is, nevertheless, a pale shadow of the fiery "Guajira."

The live performance on the second disc--the closing night of the Fillmore West on 4 July 1971--has not until now been released in its entirety, although two cuts were included on the 1972 Columbia memento mori Fillmore: The Last Days. Many thanks to Sony for finally dusting this one off and remastering it for public consumption! Absolutely essential.

My only complaint about this and the Legacy Edition of the first Santana album is that neither one was remastered into hybrid SACD format. This is a minor complaint, in fact, but if Sony plans a similar redoing of Abraxas (which I would buy without hesitation), such a format remaster would be most welcome.

New and improved should be a sticker attached to this disc. The best just got better might work too. I love legacy editions and was thrilled to see another legacy edition of Santana's classic numero tres. The songs are timelessly suspended in rock-nostalgia-heaven. The previously unreleased songs like "No One To Depend On,"" Toussaint L'overture," Taboo" ,""Sabor" and "Para Los Rumberos" from the performance at the Fillmore are classic blues-jam songs that capture the spirit of the times and why Santana caught on and is still around thirty-five years plus down the line. The other previously unreleased tracks are outstanding gems too. The "Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen " version from the Fillmore is ,to use an old phrase, outtasight man! The magic in this edition is the remastering of the original disc and the super time capsule performance from the Fillmore. The Joe Zawinul composition, made famous by Miles Davis "In a Silent Way" is a song that retains all the glory of the original song but opens up for a great improvised rendition by Carlitos. It is jazz-rock at it's finest with a Latin-tinge of earthyness. I'm in total agreement with some other reviewers who say that the live disc is worth the price of the disc alone. Don't miss this one this go around, thirty-five years later; music like this doesn't come around very often. This belongs in every classic rock collection.

Santana 3 (as it was named) along with Abraxas, Santana 1 & Caravanserai are probably Carlos' best & most intense work. No doubt. The first band were at their peak from 1969-1971. They were put to the sword by their promoters & were under a lot of pressure to deliver. It's a real puzzle as to how he din't get a grammy for any of these albums. Unfortunately by 1971, the Santana band was falling apart due to differences between band members. Despite this turmoil, Santana 3 is an amazing album. Opening with classical composer Leonard Bernstein's inspired piece Batuka to songs like No One to Depend on, Taboo (Neal Schon excels) & probably my favourite track Jungle Strut (an original composition by Saxman Gene Ammons. The legacy two-disc also includes previously unheard takes of Gumbo, Folsom Street, Banbaye & single version of No one to depend on. The best part of this edition is the second disc recorded live on 4th July 1971 @ Fillmore West. The music created that night was magical & the
entire first band made one of its last appearances as a cohesive unit before they disintegrated. As pointed by other fans, the sound quality varies as Gregg Rolie's voice & Schon's guitar playing often wander & sound inaudible but that is not to take way the overall effect that the second disc gives. This is Columbia's 3rd edition of this disc forcing people to buy this due to the unreleased tracks & the live Fillmore set. Poor, wrongly listed & radio quality (bootlegs) of Fillmore finally give way to a proper release from Columbia which should have been done in the earlier edition itself........Wonder how many more marketing gimmicks Columbia have up their sleeve ?

I used to think that Abraxas was their best, but after buying this one again ( of course I bought the album when it came out in 1971 )in this new release I am convinced that Santana - that is to say the original group, not the great crowd of imposters that came and went over the ensuing years - saved their best for last in Santana Three. Too bad this peak performance was The End! In this two-disc set you have the original studio work never sounding better, and as a bonus there is the second disc live recording which sounds GREAT! This was one hell of a band, playing in an intimate setting in the Fillmore West ( and, oh God, what I wouldn't do to be able to hop into my time machine and travel back to that time and place...). The quality of this live recording is extraordinary - easily as good as, say, The Fillmore Concerts of the great Allman Brothers. I wonder why they didn't put this out thirty years ago? I am really impressed by how good the stereo mix is here; you can clearly hear the two different guitars of Carlos and Neil; Greg Rolie's rich Hammond Organ sounds fill the entire soundscape. And the percussion! Whew! Those were the days, my friends. And these guys were THE musicians.

Beautiful music that will keep you groovin'.
Nice package but the real treat is the overall sound on both these discs wich is very natural and close to the analog warmth of the original release,PLUS the live disc, wich you will find yourself listening to as often as the studio version.

I'm still working my way through this absolutely stunning package. First, the sound is top notch. The choices on the extra live cuts are spectacular. I'll add more later but just know that if you like classic Santana then this is one for you!!