Santana - Milagro

Santana signed to Polydor in 1991 after 22 years with Columbia Records. On this label debut album, the band has been altered by official addition of frequent sideman Raul Rekow and Karl Perazzols, replacement of longtime percussionist Armando Peraza. But this septet is still led by Carlos Santana and keyboardist Chester Thompson, with Alex Ligertwood singing. The record has a somewhat elegiac tone, beginning with a stage introduction by the late promoter Bill Graham, who was Santana's mentor and unofficial manager, being dedicated to Graham and Miles Davis, who also had died since the last album, and featuring an excerpt from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., solos taken from Davis and John Coltrane, and music written by Bob Marley, Coltrane, and Gil Evans. Despite the presence of all these heroic ghosts, however, Milagro is only an average Santana release, familiar-sounding but undistinguished, and it failed to arrest the band's commercial slide, becoming the first new Santana studio album not to crack the Top 100. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Name Credits Alex Ligertwood Vocals Bad River Singers Vocals Benny Rietveld Bass Billy Graham ?, Introduction Billy Johnson Drums Bob Ludwig Mastering Bruce Jones Engineer, Mixing Carlos Santana Percussion, Vocals, Guitar, Arranger, Vocals (Background), Producer Chester Thompson Arranger, String Arrangements, Producer, Keyboards, Vocals (Background), Horn Arrangements Dave Hardy Assistant David Crockett Drums, Percussion Edwin Adair Guitar James McCullum Keyboards Jim Gaines Engineer John Coltrane Sax (Tenor) John Gabrielli Guitar John Murray Keyboards John Philip Shenale String Programming, ? Jorge Santana Guitar (Acoustic) Karl Perazzo Bongos, Vocals (Background), Guido, Vocals, Timbales, Quinto Linda Tillery Vocals Lygeia Ferragallo Vocals Manny Lacarrubba Engineer Melecio Magdaluyo Saxophone Miles Davis Trumpet Raul Rekow Percussion, Vocals (Background), Vocals, Conga Rebeca Mauleón Piano Robbie Kwock Trumpet Tony Lindsay Vocals (Background), Vocals Walfredo Reyes Percussion, Drums Wayne Wallace Trombone, Horn Arrangements William Oritz Trumpet