CoronaVinyl Day 59 (Sextet): Abraxas by Santana

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is sextet.  I had always thought "sextet" was a term for engaging in carnal activities on the Vietnamese New Year, but that turns out to be "Tết sex," not sextet.  Live and learn!  A sextet is actually a musical group comprised of six members.

Santana's first three albums -- 1969's self-titled album, 1970's Abraxas, and 1971's self-titled album (often called III) -- are fantastic.  For the first two albums, the band was a sextet, comprised of Carlos Santana on guitar, Gregg Rolie on keyboards and lead vocals, David Brown on bass, Michael Shrieve on drums, José "Chepito" Areas on percussion, congas, and timbales, and Michael Carabello also on percussion and congas.

Abraxas was the first Santana album I ever bought on CD (or any other format, for that matter).  At some point in college, I stole the Abraxas record on vinyl from one of my parents, although I think I gave it back once I bought my own copy -- though the cover of my copy is a hell of a lot more beaten up and faded.

This album is a fusion of Latin rock, jazz, blues rock, hard rock, and psychedelic rock.  The album has a great flow.  There are instrumentals, Spanish language songs, and straight rockers, and it all works well together.  The album was Santana's first of four #1 albums on the Billboard album charts throughout the band's long career.  It has gone platinum five times in the U.S. -- their best-selling studio album until the 1999 mega album Supernatural (which is certified diamond in the U.S. and has sold about 30 million copies worldwide).  Abraxas featured two Top 15 hits in the U.S. -- "Black Magic Woman" (#4) and "Oye Como Va" (#13).

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen"
It was a toss-up between "Black Magic Woman" (a Fleetwood Mac cover) and "Oye Como Va" (a Tito Puente cover), but I went with the former because it's the first Santana song I ever remember hearing.  On top of that, the band took Fleetwood Mac's bluesy song, added the "Gypsy Queen" intro and then rocked it up for the last two minutes, where Carlos Santana wails on the guitar, on top of pounding congas and percussion, for an all-out jam to end the song.  I'd also like to point out that there is a 1991 Skinemax-ish film named Black Magic Woman starring Mark Hamill.  Check it out.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Hope You're Feeling Better"
"Mother's Daughter" is an awesome song on Side 2, but "Hope You're Feeling Better" is my favorite song on the album and might be my favorite Santana song overall.  Gregg Rolie's crunchy organ intro and the delicious drum fill that follows set the tone for this hard rocker.  Rolie (who wrote the song) belts out distorted vocals, and then the instrumental bridge and guitar solo provide a great segue before the final verse before the band rocks out until the end.  And as with any Santana song, never overlook those percussionists.  Of course, Neil Schon would join the band for the next album, and then he and Rolie would form Journey in 1973.