Santana - Santana 3 Aniv Reis (24 tracks) +Album Reviews

Santana's best album just got better.

Mario Bonilla | 03/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To be frank, this album is a sheer masterpiece. Santana was at their best when they recorded this album in 1971. Not only did they now boast two Timbaleros, Chepito Areas and Coke Escovedo, but they also brought in a fifteen year-old guitar phenomenon, Neal Schon.

Disc one is the album itself, with extra unreleased bonus recordings. Disc two is where the real money is at. Finally, there is a complete concert of the ORIGINAL Santana band with Neal Schon and Coke Escovedo. This concert is recorded live, with Santana as the very last act on the very last night of The Fillmore West in San Francisco, or as Bill Graham puts it, "What better way than to close it with the sounds of the streets, Santana!" The music is AWESOME! They play most of the album here, along with a GREAT version of Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen, Incident at Neshabur, Miles Davis' In a Silent Way, Savor, and Gumbo, a song that trembles with pure energy, as their closer.

I couldn't believe it when I saw this album. A live CD with the REAL Santana.

For God's sake, buy this album. You won't be able to sit still while listening to it."

Don't Let This One Pass You By

D. Allen | McKinney Texas | 03/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review is only for the second disc in this set because it casts a huge shadow over the first. It's that good. It proves the notion that record company executives are idiots; How could they have let this sit in the vaults for 35 years? It's recorded on the last night of the Fillmore West's existance, and Santana was the closing act that night. The band was on fire and the recording and mixing is as good as any live performance you'll find - even being as old as it is - it's a jewel! It's basically a live version of the third album (which is the first disc in the set), but it blows it out of the water. I'll go so far as to say that this ranks up there with the greatest live albums of all time.

I've never been a big Santana fan, and this is the first Santana CD in my large collection, but this CD changes that. I'm looking forward to getting the first two albums now. Where have I been all these years?"

The Best Yet...Santana III

Donato O. Cacciapaglia | Floyd, VA United States | 03/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Santana III was fantastic when released 1971; this is even better. This Santana Band live was something to behold in concert...all fire with no coal...not like the copy-protective kind of late. This release is a minefield...with the live material a knockout. Please release the quad version of Borboletta before I die.

Five stars...Thanks Carlos...Viva Santana."

White Hot Live

T. Kuzmanovic | Milwaukee, WI United States | 03/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Carlos Santana has always been a soulful guitarist, and disk two of this two disk collection confirms it. The live licks by both Carlos and Neal Schon, the young guitar prodigy who went on to fame and fortune with Journey, sound crisp and clear, yet they are not formulaic. It's free flowing yet structured. Santana's guitar sound can't be necessarily defined, but you know it when you hear it. The same holds true for the precussion section of the band. This section is what makes the live disk go. Vocalist and keyboard player Gregg Rollie is in peak playing form. It's a shame that this version of the band didn't stick together, for whatever reason. As one other reviewer noted, it is simply inexplicable that this live disk sat in some tape can somewhere for so long. Disk one, the original release plus extras, still sounds fresh. The extras on disk one are excellent, particularly Folsom Street. This new Legacy edition is worth the price."

An essential classic

William M. Feagin | Upstate New York, USA | 04/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The third Santana album was the last of the original Woodstock-era group, and that trilogy (Santana, Abraxas and Santana III) were three very solid albums. I bought the vinyl LP while still in college back in 1988--the university bookstore actually sold music, and that was where I found this gem the first time round. It has the hits, of course--"No One to Depend On" (which sounds like a rewrite of "Evil Ways," but improved upon), "Everybody's Everything" (which makes you want to get up and dance a samba, very Brazilian flavour) and the breezy "Everything's Coming Our Way"--but there are some fine album tracks (the instrumental "Toussaint L'Overture" would feature prominently in the band's live set for years afterward), of which my personal favourite is the Puerto Rican-sounding "Guajira." The lead vocal was a one-off by Rico Reyes (not then a member of the band), with a joyous Latin cry just before a feverish piano break and some really serpentine lead work from Carlos himself--and a great cha-cha rhythm. Echoes of this song can be heard in "Smooth," the multi-Grammy-winning track for Carlos in Y2K which is, nevertheless, a pale shadow of the fiery "Guajira."

The live performance on the second disc--the closing night of the Fillmore West on 4 July 1971--has not until now been released in its entirety, although two cuts were included on the 1972 Columbia memento mori Fillmore: The Last Days. Many thanks to Sony for finally dusting this one off and remastering it for public consumption! Absolutely essential.

My only complaint about this and the Legacy Edition of the first Santana album is that neither one was remastered into hybrid SACD format. This is a minor complaint, in fact, but if Sony plans a similar redoing of Abraxas (which I would buy without hesitation), such a format remaster would be most welcome."

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