Santana - 3rd and 4th Vinyl

Following on the heels of Santana's 1970 breakthrough, ABRAXAS, 1971's SANTANA III is teeming with the eclectic mix of rock, blues, jazz, R&B, and Latin rhythms for which the band is known. Though somewhat more jam-oriented than its predecessor, SANTANA III is no less of an achievement. Full of percolating webs of percussion, jazzy keys parts, infectious call-and-response vocals, and the searing twin guitar attacks of Carlos Santana and Neal Schon (who later went on to form Journey), the album is an absorbing sonic experience from back to front.
Given Carlos Santana's late-career partnerships with everyone from Rob Thomas to the Black Eyed Peas, it's sometimes hard to remember that his band was a product of San Francisco's late-'60s psychedelic rock scene. While the band's music represents the wide-open aesthetic of that milieu, it also dates much better than other music of the time, in large part because of its groove-oriented accessibility and the formidable skills of the musicians. SANTANA III holds up particularly well, and sounds not a whit out of place in the mashed-up, multi-culti 2000s. The 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition features remastered sound and a bonus disc of Santana performing live at San Francisco's Fillmore auditorium in 1971.

• Genre: Pop
• Format: Vinyl