Santana Carasan

Arriving at the twilight of the 1960s, Santana were psychedelic pioneers who ushered Latin rock into the mainstream with their first three albums: Santana, Abraxas, and Santana III. Thanks to their appearance at Woodstock, their eponymous album was a smash hit right out of the gate, with its single "Evil Ways" making it into the Billboard Top Ten in 1969.

This three-CD set is simply a Legacy repackage of Santana's first three albums – Santana, Abraxas, and Santana III in a rather ugly and generic slipcase. Bonus tracks from the album's previous CD reissues have been maintained here, fleshing out the originals. Fans already have this, but those who have suddenly become curious would benefit from putting these three discs in the collection.

This 34-track collection captures all sides of the man, from his dazzling early recordings ( Black Magic Woman; Oye Como Va; Soul Sacrifice from Woodstock) through collaborations with John Lee Hooker and Vernon Reid (unreleased!), to his interpretations of such hallowed jazz fare as In a Silent Way and Naima . He's a guitar legend; here's why.

After three highly acclaimed albums that saw them successfully fuse rock with jazz and Latin music, the band Santana underwent a few changes. Bassist David Brown and percussionist Michael Carabello both left, and during the recording of the fourth album their roles were taken over by various musicians. Meanwhile keyboardist & vocalist Gregg Rolie was starting to fall out with Carlos Santana himself. The end result was a very different album from the first three, not really representing the sound of a unified band. Instead it came across more as a loose jam session between a large cast of musicians, with the band's jazz leanings well to the front, and only three vocal songs among seven instrumentals. It made for a great record, but lacking anything that could be considered for a single release it was unsurprisingly not a commercial success.

Arriving at the twilight of the 1960s, Santana were psychedelic pioneers who ushered Latin rock into the mainstream with their first three albums: Santana, Abraxas, and Santana III. Thanks to their appearance at Woodstock, their eponymous album was a smash hit right out of the gate, with its single "Evil Ways" making it into the Billboard Top Ten in 1969.

"50th anniversary edition of 1500 copies on translucent yellow coloured vinyl. 180 gram audiophile vinyl"

Santana is the primary exponent of Latin-tinged rock, particularly due to its combination of Latin percussion (congas, timbales, etc.) with bandleader Carlos Santana's distinctive, high-pitched lead guitar playing. The group was the last major act to emerge from the psychedelic San Francisco music scene of the 1960s and it enjoyed massive success at the end of the decade and into the early '70s. The musical direction then changed to a more contemplative and jazzy style as the band's early personnel gradually departed, leaving the name in the hands of Carlos Santana, who guided the group to consistent commercial success over the next quarter-century. By the mid-'90s, Santana seemed spent as a commercial force on records, though the group continued to attract audiences for its concerts worldwide. But the band made a surprising and monumental comeback in 1999 with Supernatural, an album featuring many guest stars that became Santana's best-selling release and won a raft of Grammy Awards.

The 26th album by the guitar virtuoso and classic Latin rock band "Blessings and Miracles" will be released on October 15th. Many famous musicians will appear on the album as guests. Among them are Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Steve Winwood, Rick Rubin, Chris Stapleton, Diane Warren, Corey Glover (Living Color). The legendary jazz pianist Chick Corea, who died at the age of 79 in February, also took part in the recording of the album.

Latin rock legend’s late ’70s solo albums remastered. Liner notes feature new interviews with Jorge Santana and Richard Bean. Features the hit “Love The Way.” Latin rock pioneer Jorge Santana’s musical journey began right after high school when he joined the popular San Francisco nine-piece, horn-driven band, the Malibus. The Malibus added the 17-year-old guitarist and morphed into Malo by 1971. Their self-titled debut album was issued in 1972, yielding the Top Twenty hit, “Sauvecito.” Malo continued to evolve over the course of their four albums for Warner Bros. with a changing cast of members passing through their ranks including keyboardist Richard Kermode formerly of Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues Band, singer/founders Arcelio Garcia and Richard Bean, and three members of the band, Naked Lunch, among others. After Malo’s fourth Warner Bros. album Ascención was released, Santana performed with the Fania All-Stars at Madison Square Garden, then appeared on their 1974 album, Latin-Soul-Rock, and after that took a break. In 1978, the first Jorge Santana solo album emerged as a self-titled affair with most of the songs co-written with Malo-alum, Richard Bean who also handled lead vocal duties.