Santana IV

[l p]

Saxondale:

"Whenever I hear Santana I just can't help grinding my hips."

"Well, when you finally succumb to the replacement op, make sure you send the bill to Carlos Santana. And don't let him fob you off with any plastic and cement shit! The guy's coined it in over the years from his latin rock. Sting him for a durable porcelain ball and socket that actually encourages natural bone growth over the prosthesis."

 

[felser]

7 hours ago, BFrank said:

I just finished listening to it. It's frustratingly inconsistent. Some interesting stuff and a lot of meandering "jamming".

It's being streamed on NPR until the April 15 release date here: First Listen: Santana, 'Santana IV'

But the meandering jamming was always a lot of the point!  Largely serious about that.

[felser]

3 hours ago, BFrank said:

It seems more unfocused than in the past. Part of it might be the presence of Neal Schon, but I haven't heard any albums by the "regular" Santana band for a long time, either.

Schon Sounded great on III and  Caravanserai.  But he and Carlos are very different guitarists/musicians than they were in 1971-2 (Schon was only 17-18 then), and "the starmaking machinery behind the popular song" takes its toll for sure.  I look forward to giving this a listen.  I tried the  link above to the album and couldn't get sufficient volume for some reason - I'll have to try again another time.

[clifford_thornton]

I like this one:

(Favre/Schweizer/Kowald)