Ultimate Santana - Santana Album Review

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Album Review

With the music scene awash with reunions and compilations, here comes another - with a difference.

In an attempt to keep his music fresh, Grammy winner Carlos Augusto Alves Santana has done several collaborations over the years. His biggest success in recent years was the magnificent album Supernatural and single Smooth in the summer of 1999. Now he keeps going with a helping hand from pop stars J-Lo, Tina Turner and Chad Kroeger. Having already sold in excess of 90 million albums to date, this adds to his worldwide appeal, drawing in a new generation of new fans.

There are four new songs ( see tracklisting *). Chad Kroeger, lead singer with rock band Nickelback adds is penchant husky voice which juxtaposes superbly with Carlos Santana's delicate touch.In sharp contrast, Michelle Branch's dulect tones bring a defining beauty and charm to The Game Of Love, which won a Grammy in 2004, so it's not exactly new as such, but new to the Santana collection. Tina Turner's version is equally stylish. J-Lo's collaboration on This Boy's Fire is totally lack-lustre, and doesn't save the song, which is average by Carlos' high standards. Elsewhere, the usual fodder turns up. Smooth, from Supernatural, which effectively resurrected his career in the late 90's, remains one of his best songs in a generation. Predictably the biggies - Black Magic Woman (a cover of Peter Green's masterpiece) built of the origianl bluesy Fleetwood Mac classic. One of Santana's greatest moments was an instrumental (used on a recent TV ad) is the incomparable Samba Pa Ti. It features Carlos' best guitar solo ever, from the gradual buld-up on to the rippling crescendo, again showing a nod to Green. In the mid-70s they had a top 20 hit with a mesmerising cover of The Zombies 1964 classic She's Not There. Another classic was Oye Como Va, originally done by Latin jazz legend Tito Puente in 1963, it was covered on their first hit album Abraxas in 1970. One of the collection's best moments is a much more Latino roots based Corazon Espinado, co -written by Fher Olvera of Latin rock group Mana, again found on Supernatural.

Santana were never considered a singles band, so they invariably lift album tracks. There's good mix here to keep everybody happy.

Elly Roberts