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Before the arrival of Carlos Santana's eponymous band, the San Francisco rock scene drew the inspiration for its jam-oriented music mainly from blues, rock, and Eastern modalities. Santana added Latin music to the mix, forever changing the course of rock & roll history. On their groundbreaking debut album, the group mix Latin percussion with driving rock grooves. Santana's unique guitar style, alternately biting and liquid, vies with the multiple percussionists for the sonic focus.
Unlike later efforts, Santana's first album features an abundance of loose, collective compositions based on a couple of simple riffs ("Jingo," "Soul Sacrifice"). This approach allows for Santana and his bandmates to flex their improvisational muscles to fine effect…

Pieced together from outtakes and much-labored-over songs, Sticky Fingers manages to have a loose, ramshackle ambience that belies both its origins and the dark undercurrents of the songs. It's a weary, drug-laden album – well over half the songs explicitly mention drug use, while the others merely allude to it – that never fades away, but it barely keeps afloat…

1100 Bel Air Place was designed as Julio Iglesias' breakthrough to the American audience, finding the Latin superstar recording with producer Richard Perry – the architect behind blockbusters by Barbra Streisand, Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson – and duetting with such established American superstars as Diana Ross, Stan Getz, the Beach Boys and Willie Nelson…

The three volumes that Wynton Marsalis subtitled Soul Gestures in Southern Blue (of which this CD is the first) are overall rather disappointing. This initial CD is the strongest of the three due to the inclusion of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and (on two of the five numbers) drummer Elvin Jones, but overall Marsalis (who was in the final section of his Miles Davis period), although playing quite well, seemed to have hit a dead end. His five compositions lack any memorable melodies and his own virtuosic solos do not have any distinctive qualities; pianist Marcus Roberts occasionally emerges as the top soloist. However, once he had gotten his three-part tribute to the blues out of the way, Marsalis would once again make some giant leaps forward.

Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "the Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop rock, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists…

The 1981 Columbia compilation album The Best Of Dave Mason was a ten-track disc that included the four Mason singles which had hit the upper half of the charts in 1977 and '78–"So High (Rock Me Baby And Roll Me Away)," "We Just Disagree," "Let It Go, Let It Flow," and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"–plus some of Mason's better known album cuts from his Columbia albums and live versions of his older hits "Only You Know And I Know" and "Feelin' Alright?"…

Dave Brubeck's defining masterpiece, Time Out is one of the most rhythmically innovative albums in jazz history, the first to consciously explore time signatures outside of the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. It was a risky move – Brubeck's record company wasn't keen on releasing such an arty project, and many critics initially roasted him for tampering with jazz's rhythmic foundation…

Released in 1982, MOMENTS is an outstanding example of Julio Iglesias's considerable charm. With their sweeping, synth-laden arrangements, these songs, particularly "Nathalie" and "Esa Mujer," provide the perfect format for Iglesias's expressive croon, which effortlessly conjures up romantic scenarios…