ABRAXAS, the second album by the original (and arguably most powerful) Santana line-up, proved the band's commercial breakthrough. The album's contains two of the group's biggest hits, "Black Magic Woman," a slinky, smooth-edged interpretation of the song written by Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green, and their take on Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," which injects Carlos Santana's stinging guitar leads into a surging salsa groove. The band's unique, genre-blurring approach makes these singles--and everything else here--unlike anything that had been heard before.The opener, "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts," showcases Carlos Santana's passionate, soulful six-string mastery over a drifting, psychedelic backdrop. The album ranges in feel, encompassing furiously propulsive jams ("Se A Cabo"), low-key Brazilian grooves ("Samba Para Ti"), and jazzy instrumentals ("Incident at Neshabur"). All the elements that made Santana's debut dazzling--roiling, polyrhythmic percussion, dense, pancultural influences, virtuoso guitar work--are here--sharpened and painted with the rich, heady sound of late-'60s San Francisco (Santana was just as exploratory and innovative as their hometown cohorts the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane). ABRAXAS remains a seminal Latin-rock release, and one of the undisputed classics of the era.
