One thing I love about this album is that the percussion never feels like a decoration or forced. It drives the songs. Many rock bands added congas or timbales for color. Santana built the entire foundation of the music around them. That’s probably why those tracks still sound so powerful today. Carlos gets the notice, but Abraxas is really a statement in what a great band can do when every member is playing at their peak. I usually reserve saying that mostly for the Allman Brothers, Little Feat, and The Dead. I was just going to cover one song…but no…the album had me transfixed with its rhythms.
When Santana recorded Abraxas in 1970, they were no longer just another San Francisco band. Their performance at the Woodstock Festival the year before had turned them into stars almost overnight. Their debut album had already produced hits like Evil Ways, but on Abraxas, everything came together. The band was firing on all cylinders. Carlos Santana’s guitar was just scorching, and Gregg Rolie handled the vocals and keyboards, and the rhythm section was incredible. Rolie was always one of my favorite members, and I’m glad I got to see him live.
Santana was a music machine built around rhythm. Michael Shrieve’s drumming worked alongside the congas, timbales, and percussion of José “Chepito” Areas and Michael Carabello. The result was a sound that felt alive. Songs like Oye Como Va and Black Magic Woman seemed to move in several directions at once, yet never lost the groove. You can hear rock, jazz, blues, and Cuban influences all blending together. No one sounded like Santana in 1970, and nobody really has since.
Carlos Santana’s guitar playing deserves all the praise it gets, but what made this album special was that he wasn’t carrying the band alone. There wasn’t a weak link anywhere. That is one reason Abraxas still sounds great more than fifty years later. If you want to be transfixed, like I was, just put on the album with headphones and enjoy the rhythms that Santana brought.
The album produced classics like Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va, and the beautiful instrumental Samba Pa Ti. I would also add Mother’s Daughter, its a song with an infectious groove written by Gregg Rolie. It became Santana’s first number-one album and remains one of the finest examples of Latin rock ever recorded. For me, Abraxas captures a band at the perfect moment. They had the hunger of a young group, the confidence that came from Woodstock, and enough talent to fill two bands. When I listen to Abraxas, I don’t just hear Carlos Santana, I hear a band at its peak.
The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, and #7 in the UK in 1970.
